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DELIVERY Definition & Legal Meaning

Definition & Citations:

In conveyancing. The Filial and absolute transfer of a deed, properly executed, to the grantee, or to some person for his use, in such manner that it cannot be recalled by the grantor. Black v.Shreve, 13 N. J. Eq. 401; Kirk v. Turner, 10 N. C. 14.In the law of sales. The tradition or transfer of the possession of personal property from one person to another.In medical jurisprudence. The act of a woman giving birth to her offspring. Blake v.Junkins, 35 Me. 433.Absolute and conditional delivery. An absolute delivery of a deed, as distinguished from conditional delivery or delivery in escrow, is one which is complete upon the actual transfer of the instrument from the possession of the grantor. Dyer v. Skadan, 128 Mich. 348, f-7 X. W. 277. 92 Am. St.Rep. 401. A conditional delivery of a deed is one which passes the tile possession of the grantor, but is not to be completed by possession of the grantee, or a third person as his agent, until the happening of a specified event. Dyer v. Skadan. 128 Mich. 348, 87 N. W. 277, 92 Am. St. Rep. 401 ; Schmidt v. Deegan, 09 Wis. 300, 34 N. W. 83. Actual and constructive. In the law of sales, actual delivery consists in the giving real possession of the thing sold to the vendee or his servants or special agents who are identified with him in law and represent him.Constructive delivery is a general term,comprehending all those acts which, although not truly conferring a real possession of the thing sold on the vendee, have been held, by construction of law, equivalent to acts of real delivery. In this sense constructive delivery includes symbolic delivery and all those Irradiation facts which have been admitted into the law as sufficient to vest the absolute property in the vendee and bar the rights of lien and stoppage in transitu,such as marking and setting apart the goods as belonging to the vendee, charging him with warehouse rent, etc. Bolin v. Huffnagle, 1 Itawle (l’a.) 19. A constructive delivery of personalty takes place when the goods are set apart and notice given to the person to whom they are to be delivered (The Titania, 131 Fed. 229, 65 C. C. A. 215), or when, without actual transfer of the goods or their symbol, the conduct of the parties is such as to be inconsistent with any other supposition than that there has been a change in the nature of the holding. Swafford v. Spratt, 93 Mo. App. 631. 67 S. W.701; Holliday v. White, 33 Tex. 459.Symbolical delivery. The constructive delivery of the subject-matter of a sale, where it is cumbersome or inaccessible, by the actual delivery of some article which is.conventionally accepted as the symbol or representative of it, or which renders access to it possible, or which is the evidence of the purchaser’s title to it; as the key of a warehouse, or a bill of lading of goods on shipboard. Winslow v. Fletcher, 53 Conn.390, 4 Atl. 250; Miller v. Lacey, 7 Iloust. (Del.) 8, 30 Atl. 040.

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