Fruits of his own industry acquired on occasion of his possession of the property of another, he may keep, for the labourer has a right to the fruit of his toil.
Mixed fruits, which are partly due to industry, partly to the natural or artificial fertility of the property, belong partly to the labourer, partly to the owner of the property, according to what the law may prescribe, or according to the estimate of a prudent man.
3. The foregoing rules tell us what has to be done when one discovers that he has possession of the property of another, or when such property has perished while in his possession. But suppose that while he was in good faith the possessor of another's property, he sold it to someone else, and afterwards he finds out that it was not his to sell, what are his obligations in that case?
No general answer can be given ,to this question; it will be necessary to distinguish according to several possible hypotheses.
The sale may have taken place in market overt, and then though the seller could not give a valid title to the property, yet the law does so. The Sale of Goods Act, 1893, sec. 22 makes the following provision: "Where goods are sold in market overt, according to the usage of the market, the buyer acquires a good title to the goods, provided he buys them in good faith and without notice of any defect or want of title on the part of the [seller."
According to Indermaur, " By sale in market overt is meant selling goods in open market as opposed to selling them privately. In the country the market-place or piece of ground set apart by custom for the sale of goods is in general the only open market there; but in London, and in other towns where so warranted by custom, a sale in an open shop of proper goods is equivalent to, and in fact amounts to, sale in market overt." [1]
In spite, however, of sale in market overt, " Where goods have been stolen and the offender is prosecuted to conviction, the property in the goods so stolen revests in the person who was the owner of the goods, or his personal representative, notwithstanding any intermediate dealing with them, whether by sale in market overt or otherwise." [2]
In this case " on conviction of an offence which involves larceny, the court, if the accused has sold the property to an
