Definition
A Latin phrase meaning "by turning away." In civil law, per aversionem describes a sale conducted in bulk or in gross — that is, a transaction in which goods are sold as a whole lot, without individual weighing, counting, or measuring, at a single lump-sum price. The phrase applies equally to the sale of land described as containing a certain acreage "more or less," where the quantity is estimated rather than precisely determined.
The concept captures two related situations:
1. Bulk sale of goods: Goods are transferred as an undifferentiated mass — a pile, a parcel, a lot — for one price, rather than priced per unit, per pound, or per measure. The buyer accepts the whole without item-by-item inspection or discrimination.
2. Land sold in gross: A parcel of real property is conveyed with an approximate acreage stated by estimation, not by precise survey. The acreage figure is descriptive rather than a warranty of exact quantity.
The name derives from the image of the buyer "turning his face away" — acting without close individual examination of what he is receiving. He accepts the aggregate as presented.
Common Confusion
Per aversionem should not be confused with modern bulk sale statutes (now largely repealed from the Uniform Commercial Code), which addressed fraudulent transfers of business inventory to creditors rather than the pricing and measurement mechanics of a sale. The civil law term concerns how a sale is structured and measured; bulk sale statutes concerned notice to creditors. The concepts share "bulk" language but operate in entirely different legal registers.
Researchers should also distinguish per aversionem sales from sales by sample, where a representative specimen governs the quality standard. In a per aversionem sale, the buyer takes the whole lot as-is; in a sale by sample, specific quality representations attach.
Why It Matters in Research
Per aversionem surfaces primarily in two research contexts: historical contract law and equity jurisprudence concerning mistake in sales transactions.
In contracts and sales research, the term matters because the distinction between a per aversionem sale and a sale by weight or measure determined what remedies were available when the actual quantity fell short of expectation. In a per aversionem transaction, a shortfall in acreage or quantity was generally not grounds for price adjustment or rescission — the buyer assumed the risk of estimation. This stands in direct contrast to a sale by specific measure, where a material deficiency could support an action. Researchers examining early American equity cases on land sales and mistake in quantity will encounter this term as the threshold question.
The citation in Story's Equity Jurisprudence (§ 144a) in Burrill's entry signals the term's relevance to equity jurisdiction. Courts of equity historically distinguished whether a land conveyance was per aversionem before deciding whether to grant relief for a discrepancy between stated and actual acreage. If the sale was in gross, courts were reluctant to intervene.
Navigational note: The term is predominantly Latin-law and civil-law heritage, and appears more frequently in treatise literature and equity opinions than in common law pleading records. Researchers working in Louisiana sources, or in states whose early jurisprudence drew on French or Spanish civil law, will encounter it more often than those working in the core common law jurisdictions. Do not expect it to appear as a standard heading in 19th-century common law digests — look instead in equity reporters and sales treatises.
The "per" prefix may mislead corpus search queries into retrieving per se, per curiam, or per stirpes results. When searching historical databases, phrase-search the full Latin term and expect variant spellings (per aversionem, per aversione).
Historical Dictionary Support
All three dictionary sources — Black's (1st and 2nd editions) and Burrill — are in close agreement, tracking Pothier's Contract of Sale (nn. 256, 309) as the primary authority. The verbal image of the buyer "turning his face away" appears in each, suggesting the sources share a common lineage through Pothier rather than developing independently.
Burrill adds the Story's Equity Jurisprudence reference (§ 144a), which Black's omits. This is a meaningful addition for equity researchers: Story's treatment of mistake in contracts is a foundational American equity text, and Burrill's cross-reference signals that per aversionem was not merely a civil law curiosity but was actually engaged by American courts deciding equitable relief in land sale disputes.
What the historical dictionaries do not address: the interaction between per aversionem principles and later codified sales law, including the Uniform Sales Act and ultimately Article 2 of the UCC. The civil law doctrine did not translate wholesale into American commercial law, and researchers should treat the dictionary definitions as civil law heritage rather than as statements of modern doctrine.
Jurisdictional Note
The doctrine has its strongest continuing relevance in Louisiana, which retains a civil law foundation and where per aversionem appears in both historical and modern property and sales jurisprudence. In common law jurisdictions, the concept has been substantially absorbed into general rules about mistake, misrepresentation, and quantity warranties in sales law, without the Latin label surviving into modern case law.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
No Law Mind Encyclopedia entry directly covers per aversionem or civil law bulk sales doctrine. The matched entries (Negligence Per Se, Takings Clause Per Se Rules, Defamation Per Se) concern unrelated uses of "per se" and are not relevant here.