Definition
"And sale" is a term of admiralty procedure referring to the second component of a court-ordered commission directed at arrested property. When a court in an admiralty action in rem orders that property under arrest be both valued and disposed of, it issues a commission of appraisement and sale — commonly shortened in practice to the conjunctive phrase "and sale" to distinguish it from the more limited commission of appraisement only. The phrase signals that the court's order extends beyond mere valuation to actual judicial disposition of the arrested res.
The full phrase "commission of appraisement and sale" names the instrument by which a court-appointed officer is authorized first to value the arrested property and then to sell it on behalf of the court, with proceeds substituting for the res in subsequent proceedings.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers will rarely encounter "and sale" as a standalone headword in modern practice materials. Its significance is almost entirely historical and procedural, arising within the admiralty in rem context. The term appears as shorthand embedded in older admiralty pleadings, court orders, and treatises, where the distinction between a commission of appraisement only and a commission of appraisement and sale had practical consequence: the former left open the possibility of bail and release of the property; the latter moved the court toward finality of disposition.
The key research trap is treating this as a general commercial or real property term. "And sale" outside of admiralty sources typically signals something else entirely — an appended clause in a deed, trust instrument, or statutory power authorizing a trustee or sheriff to sell property (as in "power of sale"). Do not conflate these uses.
When working in historical admiralty records, look for the companion term "commission of appraisement" to understand the procedural posture. If only appraisement is ordered, the value was disputed but the property may have been released on bail. If appraisement and sale both appear, the court moved toward liquidation of the res. This distinction is significant when reconstructing the procedural history of admiralty disputes in 19th-century American and English maritime cases.
The Law Mind corpus connects most naturally to redemption rights and installment sale contexts through the encyclopedia cross-references above, but those connections are thematic rather than direct — the admiralty-specific meaning of "and sale" does not govern those entries.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary provides the sole historical dictionary entry, sourcing the definition to Sweet (presumably John Sweet's legal dictionary or practice notes). The entry is brief and functional: it identifies the admiralty in rem context, the mechanism of arrest, the court order triggering the commission, and the bifurcated possibility — commission of appraisement and sale when full disposition is intended, commission of appraisement only when the property may be released on bail and valuation alone is needed.
Black's entry captures the essential procedural logic cleanly. What it does not provide is any elaboration on how the commission was executed in practice, who served as commissioner, what procedural safeguards governed the sale, or how proceeds were handled in ongoing litigation. Researchers needing that level of detail must look beyond dictionary sources to admiralty practice treatises and court rules of the relevant period and jurisdiction.
No other historical legal dictionaries in the source set address this term, which reflects its narrow, procedure-specific character rather than any gap in coverage. The term was a practitioner's shorthand, not a doctrinal concept requiring extended treatment.
Jurisdictional Note
This term is specific to admiralty courts exercising jurisdiction in rem. In the United States, federal admiralty jurisdiction is exclusive, so the term does not appear in state court practice. English admiralty practice, from which American admiralty procedure substantially derives, used the same commission structure, making English treatise sources directly relevant to historical American research.