TRANSFER TO TITLE

TRANSFER OF TITLE (SECTIONS 27 – 30)
Sale by person not the owner (Section 27): Subject to the provisions of this Act and of any other law for the time being in force, where goods are sold by a person who is not the owner thereof and who does not sell them under the authority or with the consent of the owner, the buyer acquires no better title to the goods than the seller had, unless the owner of the goods is by his conduct precluded from denying the seller’s authority to sell.

Provided that, where a mercantile agent is, with the consent of the owner, in possession of the goods or of a document of title to the goods, any sale made by him, when acting in the ordinary course of business of a mercantile agent, shall be as valid as if he were expressly authorised by the owner of the goods to make the same; provided that the buyer acts in good faith and has not at the time of the contract of sale notice that the seller has no authority to sell. 

Analysis:
In general the seller sells only such goods of which he is the absolute owner. But sometimes a person may sell goods of which he is not the owner, then the question arises as to what is the position of the buyer who has bought the goods by paying price. The general rule regarding the transfer of title is that the seller cannot transfer to the buyer of goods a better title than he himself has. If the seller is not the owner of goods, then the buyer also will not become the owner i.e. the title of the buyer shall be the same as that of the seller. This rule is expressed in the Latin maxim “Nemo dat quod non habet” which means that no one can give what he has not got.

Example 1: If A sells some stolen goods to B, who buys them in good faith, B will get no title to that and the true owner has a right to get back his goods from B.

Example 2: P, the hirer of vehicle under a hire purchase agreement, sells them to Q. Q, though a bona fide purchaser, does not acquire the ownership in the vehicle. At the most he acquires the same right as that of the hirer.

If this rule is enforced rigidly then the innocent buyers may be put to loss in many cases. Therefore, to protect the interests of innocent buyers, a number of exceptions have been provided to this rule.