Rose and Young

trick or by fraud is irrelevant so long as the consent was given to the agent in his capacity as a mercantile agent. For the consent to be operative it must be such as to clothe the agent with with apparent authority to sell the goods. This would occur in the case of a second hand car only if the owner consented to the dealer having possession not only of the car but also of the registration book and the ignition key. Two cases illustrate the point. In Pearson v. Rose and Young the owner left his car with a dealer with instructions for the latter not to sell it but to see what offers could be obtained for it. The owner did not intend to leave the registration document but showed it to the dealer who arranged a trick whereby the owner was called away on an imaginary emergency thereby forgetting the registration document. The dealer sold the car. The dealer was in possession of the car with consent and in his capacity as a mercantile agent, since the possession was with a view to an eventual sale