SALE

8 definitions found across Law Mind sources

SALEAuthored
The Law Mind • 1548 words
Definition
A sale is a contract by which one party (the seller or vendor) transfers ownership of property to another party (the buyer or vendee) in exchange for a price paid or promised in money. The essential character of a sale is the passage of title from seller to buyer upon agreed terms. Where no price is paid or promised, the transaction is a gift, not a sale; where ownership does not pass, it may be a lease, bailment, or license instead. Several distinct contexts carry their own doctrinal weight: 1. Sale of goods. The transfer of personal property — tangible movable things — for a money consideration. This is the primary subject of commercial sales law and the context most heavily treated in both historical and modern sources. 2. Sale of real property. The conveyance of an interest in land in exchange for consideration. While the underlying concept mirrors the sale of goods, the formal requirements differ substantially: writing, delivery of a deed, and recording are ordinarily required. The term "conveyance" often substitutes for "sale" in real property practice. 3. Judicial or forced sale. A sale compelled by legal process — such as a sheriff's sale, tax sale, or foreclosure sale — rather than by the voluntary act of the owner. Title passes not by the owner's contract but by operation of law or court order. 4. Conditional sale. A sale in which title is retained by the seller as security until the purchase price is fully paid. Largely superseded in modern commercial law by the Article 9 secured transaction framework, but the term persists in historical sources and some statutory contexts. ---
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): The exchange of a commodity for money or other valuable consideration; an act of selling. Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): The act of selling; the transfer of property, or a contract to transfer the ownership of property, from one person to another for a valuable consideration, or agreed price. The common and legal definitions track closely for ordinary transactions. The gap opens in three places: (1) the law insists that a price in money (or money's worth) is required — a barter or exchange is technically distinct from a sale at common law; (2) the law distinguishes carefully between a contract to sell (executory) and a completed sale (executed), a distinction irrelevant in everyday speech; and (3) a "sale" in judicial or tax contexts may involve no voluntary act by the owner at all, which would be unrecognizable under any common usage of the word. ---
Common Confusion
Sale vs. contract to sell. A contract to sell is an agreement to transfer title at a future time or upon a condition. A sale is the completed transfer. The distinction determines when risk of loss passes and whether a buyer can demand specific performance. Historical sources frequently conflate the two because older common law treated the executory contract as itself passing equitable title, while modern commercial statutes draw a cleaner line. Sale vs. barter or exchange. A sale requires a money price. Where goods are traded for goods without any money element, the transaction is a barter. Where only part of the consideration is money, courts have historically split on classification. This distinction matters less under modern uniform commercial law but remains live in tax, customs, and older case law. Sale vs. bailment. A sale passes title; a bailment passes possession only, with an obligation to return the identical property. The distinction is critical in determining who bears the risk of loss and who has rights against third-party wrongdoers. ---
Core Elements
For a valid sale to be legally operative, the following elements must generally be present: 1. Parties capable of contracting. Both buyer and seller must have legal capacity. 2. Subject matter. There must be identified or identifiable property — existing or (in some circumstances) future property — capable of being sold. 3. Mutual assent. Agreement on the subject matter and the price, expressed or implied. 4. A price in money or money's worth. Consideration must take the form of a money price, not merely reciprocal goods, to constitute a sale strictly defined. 5. Passage of title. Ownership must transfer from seller to buyer, either immediately or at an agreed future point, distinguishing a sale from a lease, license, or bailment. ---
Recognized Forms
/SUBTYPES Absolute sale. A completed, unconditional transfer of title with no reservation by the seller. Conditional sale. A transfer in which the seller retains title until a condition — typically full payment — is met. Forced or judicial sale. A sale conducted under legal compulsion: sheriff's sale, execution sale, tax sale, or foreclosure sale. The owner's consent is not required. Tax sale. A forced sale of property by a government authority for nonpayment of taxes. Governed by statute and subject to statutory redemption rights. Installment sale. A sale in which the purchase price is paid in two or more payments over time. Carries distinct tax treatment under federal law. Wash sale. A sale of a security at a loss followed by a substantially identical repurchase within a defined window. Disallowed as a loss for tax purposes under federal statute. Short sale (real property). A sale of mortgaged property for less than the outstanding debt, with lender consent. A modern usage with no historical analog. ---
Why It Matters in Research
The term "sale" is one of the most overloaded words in legal sources, and its meaning shifts depending on era, subject matter, and jurisdiction. Researchers face three recurring traps: First, the executory/executed distinction. In sources predating uniform commercial law, "sale" often means what modern law would call a "contract to sell." Reading older cases, treatises, and even statutes without this filter will produce misreadings of when title passed, who bore the risk of loss, and what remedies were available. Second, the money-price requirement. Rapalje & Lawrence and other classical sources are strict: a barter is not a sale. Modern sources — particularly tax and commercial law sources — are more flexible, treating exchanges as sales for most purposes. Corpus searches using "sale" in tax materials will return results covering transactions that classical doctrine would have classified differently. Third, forced and judicial sales operate on entirely different legal logic from voluntary sales. Redemption rights, marketable title concerns, and lender liability issues that are irrelevant to voluntary sales dominate the judicial and tax sale literature. The Law Mind Real Estate Encyclopedia entry on statutory and equitable redemption periods addresses this framework directly and is essential reading before researching any foreclosure or tax sale question. For installment sale research, note that the federal tax treatment (deferral of gain recognition) is a creature of statute and regulation, not general contract law. The historical common law had no concept of installment sale as a distinct category. The wash sale rules are a pure tax law construct with no contract law or property law analog. Researchers should not expect historical legal dictionaries to address them at all. ---
Historical Dictionary Support
Rapalje & Lawrence define sale as "a contract whereby property is transferred from one person to another for a consideration in money called the price." They emphasize the money-price requirement as essential, distinguishing sale from barter and exchange, and note that both an agreement to sell and an executed transfer may be comprehended within the term depending on context — a candid acknowledgment of the ambiguity that bedevils historical research. Rapalje & Lawrence also distinguish a sale from a bailment and from a gift with precision consistent with mainstream common law treatment: title must pass, consideration must be paid or promised, and the consideration must be money or money's worth. What historical dictionaries miss almost entirely: the modern Article 2 framework for goods, the federal tax consequences of installment and wash sales, and the statutory redemption architecture that now governs forced sales. For any research question touching these areas, historical dictionary definitions establish background doctrine only — they do not speak to the operative rules. ---
Jurisdictional Note
Sales of goods in the United States are primarily governed by Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code, adopted in all states (with Louisiana's civil law variants). Real property sales are governed by state law exclusively, with significant variation in deed requirements, recording systems, and implied warranties. Forced sale redemption periods vary dramatically by state statute and are not inferrable from general doctrine. ---
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Installment Sales — Law Mind Tax Encyclopedia Wash Sale Rules — Law Mind Tax Encyclopedia Statutory and Equitable Rights of Redemption — Pre-Sale and Post-Sale Redemption Periods — Law Mind Real Estate Transactions & Construction Encyclopedia ---
Related Terms
Vendor | Vendee | Buyer | Seller | Conveyance | Title | Passage of Title | Risk of Loss | Contract to Sell | Barter | Exchange | Bailment | Conditional Sale | Foreclosure Sale | Tax Sale | Sheriff's Sale | Installment Sale | Wash Sale | Redemption | Consideration | Personal Property | Real Property | Article 2 (UCC)
SALEmain
Black's Law Dictionary • 1891
A contract between two parties, called, respectively, the "seller" (or vendor) and the "buyer," (or purchaser,) by which the former, in consideration of the payment or promise of payment of a certain price in money, transfers to the latter the title and the possession of an object of property. See Pard. Droit Commer. § 6; 2 Kent, Comm. 363; Poth. Cont. Sale, § 1. Sale is a contract by which, for a pecuniary consideration called a "price," one transfers to another an interest in property. Civil Code Cal. § 1721. | form or in a modified or altered form, or the return of an article which, though not iden- tical, is of the same class, and is equivalent But sale never involves the return of the ar- ticle itself, but only a consideration in money. This contract differs also from "accord and satisfaction;" because in the latter the ob- ject of transferring the property is to com- promise and settle a claim, while the object of a sale is the price given.
SALEmain
Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) • 1910
St. 617; Benedict v. U. 8., 176 U. 8. 357, 20 Sup. Ct. 458, 44 L. Ed. 503; People v. Myers (Sup.) 11 N. Y. Supp. 217. A ‘contract between two parties, called, respectively, the “seller” (or vendor) and the “buyer,” (or purchaser,) by which the former, in consideration of the payment or promise of payment of a certain price in money, transfers to the latter the title and the possession of an object of property. See Pard. Droit Commer. § 6; 2 Kent, Comm. 863; Poth. Cont. Sale, § 1. Sale is a contract by which, for a pecunlary consideration called a “price,” one transfers to another an interest in property. Civil Code Cal. § 1721. The contract of sale is an agreement by which one gives a thing for a price in current money, and the other gives the price in order to have the thing itself. Three circumstances concur to the perfection of the contract, to-wit, the thing sold, the price, and the consent. Civil Code La. art. 2439. A transmutation of property from one man to another in consideration of some price or recompense in value. 2 Bl. Comm. 4 “Sale” is a word of precise legal import, both at law and in equity. It means, at all times, a contract between parties to give and to pass rights of property for money, which the buyer pays or promises to pay to the seller for the thing ie i and sold. See Butler v. Thomson 92 U. S. 414, 23 L. Bd. 684; Ward v. State, 43 Ark. 353; Whilltaceon Vv. Berry, 8 How. 544 L. Ed. 1170: White v. Treat (C. C.) 100 red 291; Iowa v. McFarland, 110 U. S. 471, 4 Sup. Ct. 210, 28 Ll. Ed. 198; Goodwin v. Kerr State v. Wentworth, 35 N. 443; Packard, 5 Gray (Mass.) 103; Ciumene Davis, 7 Pa. 264; Tompkins v. Hunter, 149 N. X. 117, 43 N. E. 532. Synonyms. The contract of “sale”’ is distinguished from “barter’’ (which applies only to goods) and “exchange,” (which is used of both land and goods,) in that both the latter terms denote a commutation of property for property; i. e., the price or con- ' ‘sideration is always paid in money if the transaction is a sale, but, if it is a barter or exchange, it is paid in specific property susceptible of valuation. “Sale” differs from “gift” in that the latter transaction involves no return or recompense for the thing transferred. But an onerous gift sometimes approaches the nature of a sale, at least where the charge it imposes is a payment of money. “Sale” is also to be discriminated from “bailment ;” and the difference is to be found in the fact that the contract of bailment always contemplates the return to the bailor of the specific article delivered, either in its original form or in a modified or altered form, or the return of an article which, though not identical, is of the same class, and is equivalent. But sale never involves the return of the article itself,. but only a consideration in money. This contract differs also from “accord and satisfaction; because in the latter the object of transferring the prop- erty is to compromise and settle a claim, while the object of a sale is the price given. —Absolute and conditional sales. An absolute sale is one where the property in chattels passes to the buyer upon the completion of the es ae between AN parties. Truax v. Parvis, 7 Houst. (Del.) 330, 382 Atl. 227. A conditional sale is one in which the transfer of title is made to depend on the performance of a condition; or a purchase for a price paid or to be paid to become absolute on a particular event, or a purchase accompanied by an agreement to resell upon particular terms. Poindexter v. McCannon, 16 N. C. 373, 18 Am. Dec. 591; came v. McCormick Const. Co., 72 Fed. 366, 18 C. C A. 595; Churchill y. Demeritt, 71 N. H. 110, 51 Atl. 254; Van Allen v. Francis, 133 Cal. 474, 66 Pac. 389. Conditional sales are distinguishable from mortgages. They are to be taken strictly as independent dealings between strangers. A mortgage is a security for a debt, while a conditional sale is a purchase for a price paid, or to. be paid, to become absolute on a particular event; or a purchase accompanied by an ig al u resell upon particular terms. Turner vy. Kerr, 44 Mo. 429; Crane v. Bonnel 2N. J. ran O64: Weathersly v. Weathersly, 40 Miss. 90 Am. Dec. 344: Hopper v. Smyser, 90 Md. 363, 45 Atl. 206.—Bill of sale. See BILL.—Executed and executory sales. An executed sale is one which is final and complete in all its particulars and details, nothing remaining to be done by either party to effect an absolute transfer of the subject-matter of the sale. An executory sale is an incompleted sale; one which has been definitely agreed on as to terms and conditions, but which has not yet been carried into full effect in respect to some of its terms or details, as where it remains to determine the price, quantity, or identity of the thing sold, or to pay installments of purchasemoney, or to effect a delivery. See McFadden v. Henderson, 128 Ala. 221, 29 South. 640; Fogel v. Brubaker, 122 Pa. 7, 15 Atl. 692 : Smith v. Barron County Sup’rs, 44 Wis. 691.—~ Forced sale. A-sale made without the consent or concurrence of the owner of the property, but by virtue of judicial process, such as a writ of execution or an order under a decree of foreclosure.—Fraudulent sale. One made for the purpose of defrauding the creditors of the owner of the property, by covering up or removing from their reach and converting into cash property which would be subject to the satisfac-: tion of their claims.—Judicial sale. A judicial sale is one made under the process of a court having competent authority to order it, by an officer duly appointed and commissioned to sell, as distinguished from a sale by an owner in virtue of his right of Property. Williamson - Berry, 8 How. 547, 1 1170; Terry v. one 8 Va. 701; Black v. Caldwell (GC. C.) 8&3 Fed Woodward v. Dillworth, 75 Fed. 415, 21 C. C. A. 417.—Memorandum sale. A name sometimes applied to that form of conditional sale in which the goods are placed in the possession of the purchaser subject to his approval, the title remaining in the seller until they are either accepted or rejected by the vendee.—Private sale. One negotiated and concluded privately between buyer and seller, and not made by advertisement and public outcry or auction. See Barcello v. Hapgood, 118 C. 712, 24 S. E. 124—Public sale. A sale made in pursuance of a notice, by auction or public outery. Robins v. Bellas, 4 Watts (Pa.) 258. —Sale and return. This is a species of contract by which the seller (usually a manufacturer or wholesaler) delivers a quently of goods to the buyer, on the understanding that, if the latter should desire to retain or use or resel] any portion of such goods, he will consider such part as having been sold to him, and will pay their price, and the balance he will return to the seller, or hold them, as bailee, subject to his order.: Sturm v. Boker, 150 U. S. 812, 14 Sup. Ct. 99, 837 L. Ed. 1003; Haskins v. ern, 19 Utah, 89, 56 Pac. 953: Hickman v. Shimp, 109 Pa. 16.—Sale in gross. The term “sale in gross,” when upplied to the thing sold, means a sale by the tract, without regard to quantity, and is in that sense a contract of hazard. Yost v. Mallicote, T7 Va. 616.—Sale-note. A memorandum of the subject and terms of a sale, given by a broker or factor to the seller, who bailed him the goods for that purpose, and to the buyer, who dealt with him. Also called “bought and sold notes.”"—Sale om credit. A sale of property accompanied by delivery of possession, but where payment of the price is deferred to a future day.—Sale on approwal. A species of conditional sale, which is to become absolute only in case the buyer, on trial, approves or is satisfied with the article sold. The approval, however, need not be express; it may be inferred from his keeping the goods beyond a reasonable time. Benj. Sales, § 911.—Sale per aversionem. In the civil law, a sale where the goods are taken in bulk, or not by weight or measure, and for a single price, or where a piece of land is sold for a gross sum, to be paid for the whole premises, and not at a fixed price by the acre or foot. Winston v. Browning. 61 Ala. 83; State v. Buck, 46 La. Ann. 656. 15 South. 531.—Bale with all faults. On what is called a “sale with all faults.” unless the seller fraudulently and inconsistently represents the article sold to be faultless, or contrives to conceal any fault from the purchaser, the latter must take the article for better or worse. Camp. 154; Brown.—Sheriff’s sale. <A sale of property, conducted by a sheriff, or sheriff's deputy, in virtue of his authority as an officer holding process.—Tax-sale. A sale of land for unpaid taxes; a sale of property, by authority of law, for the collection of a tax assesscd upon it, or upon its owner, which remains unpaid. Voluntary sale. One made freely, without constraint, by the owner of the thing sold. 1 Bouv. Inst. no. 974.
SALEmain
Rapalje & Lawrence • 1883
(1144) as their pay in money. In the time of the republic, the name salarium does not appear to have been used; it was Augustus who, in order to place the governors of provinces and other military officers in a greater state of dependence, gave salaries to them, or certain sums of money, to which afterwards various supplies in land were added.-Smith Dict. Antiq. complete as soon as the contract has been entered into; such a transaction is called a "bargain and sale" (q. v.), or an "executed contract of sale" (Benj. Sales 3), although the contract has not been performed. 4. Executory sale. --But in the case of an agreement for the sale of land or of unascertained goods (e. g. ten sheep to be selected from a given flock), the ownership SALARY, (defined). 54 Ala. 47; 10 Ind. 83. does not pass, and, therefore, the sale is not
SALEn.
Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913
See 1st Sallow. [Obs.] Spenser.
SALEn.
Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913
The act of selling; the transfer of property, or a contract to transfer the ownership of property, from one person to another for a valuable consideration, or for a price in money. Opportunity of selling; demand; market. They shall have ready sale for them. Spenser. Public disposal to the highest bidder, or exposure of goods in market; auction. Sir W. Temple. Bill of sale. See under Bill. -- Of sale, On sale, For sale, to be bought or sold; offered to purchasers; in the market. -- To set to sale, to offer for sale; to put up for purchase; to make merchandise of. [Obs.] Milton.
Salename
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
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A town in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, historically in Cheshire (OS grid ref SJ9892). | A town in the Shire of Wellington, Gippsland, Victoria, Australia, named after Robert Sale. | A surname.
salenoun
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
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An exchange of goods or services for currency or credit. | Ellipsis of discount sale (“the sale of goods at reduced prices”). | The act of putting up for auction to the highest bidder.

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