Mercantile Agent Case Study

In S. 2, it defined a mercantile agent as an “agent having in the customary course of business such as agent authority either to sell goods, or to consign goods for the purpose of sale, or to buy goods, or to raise money on the security of goods.” On the other hand, mercantile agent is an agent who is consigned with the possession of good or documents. The person has right to sell the goods or entrust them for sale. For example, broker, auctioneer and so on.
Meanwhile, for the innocent purchaser to get a good title in a good purchased from a mercantile agent, the following conditions need to fulfill:
a) At the time of disposition, the mercantile agent must be in possession of the goods or documents of title to goods.
b) The possession must be with the consent of the owner even if it is not for the purpose for sale. For instance, for display or to get offers or to merely put in a showroom.
c) The disposition must be made when acting in the ordinary course of business of a mercantile agent.
d) The buyer must

In other word, it is to say within business hours at a place of business and in other respects in the ordinary way which a mercantile agent would act. In the case of Oppenheimer v Attenborough & Sons, there is a diamond broker, Schwabacher, he consigned the diamond to diamond merchant, Oppenheimer and he could show them to potential purchasers. Schwabacher pledged them with Attenborough & Sons as security for an advance to himself. Meanwhile, Attenborough & Sons did not know of a custom in the diamond trade that a broker had no right to pledge diamonds, so they took the diamonds in good faith. The court held this as valid for the disposition had been made by a mercantile agent acting in the ordinary course of business, although he had no right to pledge by the custom of trade. As a result, Schwabacher gained a good title to the