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''Nemo dat quod non habet'', literally meaning "no one can give what they do not have", is a legal rule, sometimes called the ''nemo dat'' rule, that states that the purchase of a possession from someone who has no ownership right to it also denies the purchaser any
ownership Ownership is the state or fact of legal possession and control over property, which may be any asset, tangible or intangible. Ownership can involve multiple rights, collectively referred to as title, which may be separated and held by different ...
title. It is equivalent to the civil (continental) ''Nemo plus iuris ad alium transferre potest quam ipse habet'' rule, which means "one cannot transfer to another more rights than they have". The rule usually stays valid even if the purchaser does not know that the seller has no right to claim ownership of the object of the transaction (a ''bona fide'' purchaser); however, in many cases, more than one innocent party is involved, making judgment difficult for courts and leading to numerous exceptions to the general rule that aim to give a degree of protection to ''bona fide'' purchasers and original owners. The possession of the good of title will be with the original owner.


United States

In
American law The law of the United States comprises many levels of codified and uncodified forms of law, of which the most important is the nation's Constitution, which prescribes the foundation of the federal government of the United States, as well as ...
, a ''bona fide'' purchaser who unknowingly purchases and subsequently sells stolen goods will, at
common law In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omniprese ...
, be held liable in
trover Trover () is a form of lawsuit in common-law countries for recovery of damages for wrongful taking of personal property. Trover belongs to a series of remedies for such wrongful taking, its distinctive feature being recovery only for the value ...
for the full market value of those goods as of the date of conversion. Since the true owner retains legal title, the seller is liable even in a chain of successive ''bona fide'' purchasers (i.e., the true owner can successfully sue the fifth ''bona fide'' purchaser in trover). However, the problem of successive ''bona fide'' purchasers can be remedied: If the jurisdiction recognises an
implied warranty In common law jurisdictions, an implied warranty is a contract law term for certain assurances that are presumed to be made in the sale of products or real property, due to the circumstances of the sale. These assurances are characterized as warr ...
that the seller has title to the property (such as under Article 2 of the
Uniform Commercial Code The Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), first published in 1952, is one of a number of Uniform Acts that have been established as law with the goal of harmonizing the laws of sales and other commercial transactions across the United States through U ...
(UCC)), then the ''bona fide'' purchaser can sue the seller for breach of that implied warranty. Courts of equity traditionally also recognise various other exceptions, likely giving rise to the idea embodied in the modern UCC. This rule is exemplified in circumstances like the
Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and #Collaboration, its collaborators systematically murdered some Holoc ...
reconciliation movement, where property, such as works of art, stolen or confiscated by the
Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
was returned to the families of the original owners. Anyone who purchased the art or thought they had ownership was denied any rights over the litigious
property Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, r ...
due to the ''nemo dat'' rule. As mentioned earlier, the ''nemo dat'' rule has numerous exceptions.
Legal tender Legal tender is a form of money that courts of law are required to recognize as satisfactory payment for any monetary debt. Each jurisdiction determines what is legal tender, but essentially it is anything which when offered ("tendered") in p ...
, for example, does not adhere to the rule in certain circumstances. For example, if a rogue buys goods from a ''bona fide'' merchant, then that merchant will not have to return the bills to the true owner because holding the rule to be otherwise would disrupt the economy and prevent the free flow of goods. The same may be true of other "negotiable" instruments like
cheque A cheque, or check (American English; see spelling differences) is a document that orders a bank (or credit union) to pay a specific amount of money from a person's account to the person in whose name the cheque has been issued. The per ...
s. If Alice, a thief, steals a cheque from Bob and sells it to innocent Charlie, then Charlie is entitled to deal with the cheque, and Bob cannot claim it back from Charlie (though the name appearing on the cheque may affect the validity of such a transfer). Another matter is the transfer of other legal rights normally granted by ownership. In 2011, a US District judge ruled that a woman who had purchased a stolen laptop could sue a device tracking company for invasion of privacy stemming from recording software installed on the laptop to facilitate its recovery after being stolen. This ruling demonstrated that ''bona fide'' purchasers are entitled to some rights by virtue of possession alone, or that ''nemo dat'' is superseded by the ''bona fide'' purchaser's
right to privacy The right to privacy is an element of various legal traditions that intends to restrain governmental and private actions that threaten the privacy of individuals. Over 150 national constitutions mention the right to privacy. On 10 December 194 ...
.


Recording statutes

When dealing with real property, most American jurisdictions have codified recording statutes that will enable subsequent purchasers to divest title from the party with common law title if they qualify for protection under the recording statute. Three varieties of recording statutes exist: 1) race statutes, 2) notice statutes, and 3) race-notice statutes. A race statute will divest common law title from a person with superior title if the subsequent purchaser recorded their deed prior to the person with superior title. A notice statute will divest common law title from a person with superior title if the subsequent purchaser had no notice (either actual or constructive – otherwise known as ''bona fide'') of the true owner's title. A race-notice statute requires a subsequent purchaser to be ''bona fide'' and record first.


English law

The original owner can obtain protection against the former owner through the doctrine of estoppel (see also, s 21(1) of the
Sale of Goods Act 1979 The Sale of Goods Act 1979c 54 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which regulated English contract law and UK commercial law in respect of goods that are sold and bought. The Act consolidated the original Sale of Goods Act 1893 ...
"unless the owner of the goods is by his conduct precluded from denying the seller's authority to sell"). Methods of the estoppel can be by words, by conduct, or by negligence. Estoppel by words, or representation by the original owner through words that he is the true owner or has the owner's authority to sell: *''Henderson & Co v Williams''
895 ' __NOTOC__ Year 895 ( DCCCXCV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * The Magyars are expelled from southern Russia, and settle in the Carpathian ...
1 QB 521 *'' Shaw v Commissioner of Metropolitan Police'' 9871 WLR 1332, following ''Henderson'' Estoppel by conduct: *'' Farquharson Bros v C King & Co Ltd'' 902AC 325 *'' Mercantile Bank of India Ltd v Central Bank of India''
938 Year 938 ( CMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Summer – The Hungarian army invades Northern Italy with the permission of King ...
AC 287, upholding ''Farquharson'' *'' Central Newbury Car Auctions Ltd v Unity Finance Ltd'' 9571 QB 371 Mistake about identity: *'' Shogun Finance Ltd v Hudson''
003 003, O03, 0O3, OO3 may refer to: *003, fictional British 00 Agent *003, former emergency telephone number for the Norwegian ambulance service (until 1986) *1990 OO3, the asteroid 6131 Towen * OO3 gauge model railway *''O03 (O2)'' and other related ...
UKHL 62


Exceptions


Sales in open markets

In the eighteenth century at the time of
William Blackstone Sir William Blackstone (10 July 1723 – 14 February 1780) was an English jurist, judge and Tory politician of the eighteenth century. He is most noted for writing the ''Commentaries on the Laws of England''. Born into a middle-class family in ...
, sales in an
open market The term open market is used generally to refer to an economic situation close to free trade. In a more specific, technical sense, the term refers to interbank trade in securities. In economic theory Economists judge the "openness" of markets a ...
were an exception to the ''nemo dat'' principle in English law. However, after the growth in the UK of car boot sales led to opportunities for rogues to "fence" stolen property, the Sale of Goods (Amendment) Act 1994 abolished the " market overt" exception to the ''nemo dat'' rule in 1995.


Leases

In the case of '' Bruton v London Quadrant Housing Trust''
000 Triple zero, Triple Zero, Zero Zero Zero, Triple 0, Triple-0, 000, or 0-0-0 may refer to: * 000 (emergency telephone number), the Australian emergency telephone number * "Triple Zero", a song by AFI from ''Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes'' * T ...
1 AC 406, Lord Hoffman created an exception to the rule in relation to the granting of a
leasehold estate A leasehold estate is an ownership of a temporary right to hold land or property in which a lessee or a tenant holds rights of real property by some form of title from a lessor or landlord. Although a tenant does hold rights to real property, a ...
in land. It is possible, though this is controversial, for a mere licensee to create a tenancy if the hallmarks of a tenancy are present. This means that the holder of a lesser right (i.e. the licensee, which is not an estate in land) can create a larger right, an estate even.


Scots law

As in the United States, banknotes in Scotland are an exception to the rule. This issue arose in the 1749 case of '' Crawfurd v The Royal Bank'', where title to a banknote issued by the
Bank of Scotland The Bank of Scotland plc (Scottish Gaelic: ''Banca na h-Alba'') is a commercial and clearing bank based in Scotland and is part of the Lloyds Banking Group, following the Bank of Scotland's implosion in 2008. The bank was established by the ...
that had gone missing in the post and found in the possession of the Royal Bank of Scotland was disputed.Kenneth Reid (1 May 2013)
"Banknotes and their Vindication in Eighteenth-Century Scotland"
/ref>


See also

*''
Corpus Juris Civilis The ''Corpus Juris'' (or ''Iuris'') ''Civilis'' ("Body of Civil Law") is the modern name for a collection of fundamental works in jurisprudence, issued from 529 to 534 by order of Justinian I, Byzantine Emperor. It is also sometimes referre ...
'' *
English property law English property law refers to the law of acquisition, sharing and protection of valuable assets in England and Wales. While part of the United Kingdom, many elements of Scots property law are different. In England, property law encompasses four ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nemo Dat Quod Non Habet Brocards (law) Legal rules with Latin names Property law