Texas Attorney General Opinion: V-76 Page: 6 of 10
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Hon. Alfred M. Clyde, page 6
"The Court defined a sale as follows:
'In law, a sale is the agreed transfer of prop-
erty having some other value to another for a
valuable consideration. A sale may be shown by
facts and circumstances, as well as by direct
proof. The valuable consideration above men-
tioned may not be in money, but may be any article
of value.' We think this definition is correct."
In L. H. Woods and Company vs. Half, Weiss Company,
44 Texas, 633, the Court said:
'A sale imports and necessarily carries with
it a chnge of ownership, (Pars. Merc. Law, 46)
". . . Whatever rule be adopted, it may
be sometimes difficult to apply it, but we can-
not doubt that the true principle is this: every
sale transfers the property, and that is not a
sale which does not transfer the property in the
thing sold; but this property cannot pass, and
therefore the thing is not sold unless, first, it
is completed and wholly finished, so as to be
in fact and in reality the thing purporting to
be sold; and in the second place, it must be so
distinguished and discriminated from all other
things that it is certain, or can be made cer-
tain, what is the specific thing the property in
which is changed by the sale. If the transaction
be deficient in either of these points, it is not
a sale, although it may be a valid contract for
a future sale of certain articles when they shall
be completed, or when separated from others."
In Gay vs. Hardeman, 31 Tex. 245, the Court said:
"What constitutes an actual sale of per-
sonal property?' It is an agreement between the
seller and the buyer upon the consideration or
price, either in cash or upon a stipulated credit,
and a delivery of the property. When so delivered,
the sale is consummated and the right of property
becomes absolute in the buyer, and the seller has
no longer any more control over it than the rest
of mankind. But it is pretended that at the time
of the sale a lien was reserved or retained by
the seller0 This was impossible by the common law
in regard to personal property, because an actual
or constructive delivery was necessary to effectu-
ate a sale of personal property. And when thisV-76
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Texas. Attorney-General's Office. Texas Attorney General Opinion: V-76, text, March 7, 1947; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth264895/m1/6/?q=%22~1~1~1%22~1: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.