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Auctioneer Bidding… Is it Legal?
Auction House Bidding & Selling
Auctioneer/Seller Withdraws an Item with Bids. Is It Legal?
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Auction Law 
I purchased a horse at auction. The horse I won is one that was very well finished in the ring and ridden by the actual seller. According to my friend who was there with me, two men came into the auction and stood at the corner where sellers typically stand, and they started bidding. The price stalled at a low, and only because the horse was stated to be 14 and well trained, and the price was low, I bid on it. This was not one of the horses I had visited in the barn prior to bidding. The bidding went back and forth until the price was up too high. I said no to the auctioneer pushing me to go for another increase. But I was cajoled by the auctioneers, and then said yes twice. It finally went up to my final amount. I said no several times. I told them that I didn’t have more $ for this horse. They stopped the whole auction and waved off the 2 bidders (I now believe they were shills) and all in the auction waited for me to say yes. I finally gave in yet again. At that time, they did not offer the horse for the next bid to the two bidders. They said, “SOLD!” I was surprised. My friend and I went to look at the horse in the barn. We learned from a friend of the seller that he had a scar in his eye with clouding behind it due to having a twig puncture his eye. It was stated that he could still see out of it. The auction rules stated that “Except as otherwise announced by the auctioneer at the time of the sale, the consignor of each animal represents warrant to the buyer and (X auction company name) the following:
1) has to do with registered horses.
2) The horse was sound of eye, and wind.
3) Animal is not a “cribber, wind sucker, have heaves, or a weaver.
4) The animal has not been nerved.
5) has to do with gelding sex.
6) has to do with mares
7) The animal is not deaf.
If any of these condtions is announce, the consignor is held harmless for the condition WITHOUT WARRANTY AND WITH ALL FAULTS. Every horse is sold under this rule: therefore, no horse can be rejected by the buyer when struck off by the auctioneer, except in the event of one of the above conditions is not announced by the seller in the sale ring.”
I spoke to the seller about the eye, and he said the horse is 100% sound.
The add in the catalog did not state 100% sound. Nor did the auctioneer announce the horse was selling 100% sound. Yet the seller stated that after the sale.
I tried to get him to take back the horse, but was turned down.
So, regretfully, I had to load him in my trailer and take him to my farm 4 hours away. When I unloaded him, he trotted happily all around our smaller fenced in pasture. 3 hours later, he was lame in the rear left leg. After a vet x rayed it, the horse had a broken splint bone, a small bone that could be surgically removed. They could not tell by the xray if it was an old injury. I am thinking that the horse was nerved so that he could perform for the sale. It was also found by two separate vets that he is probably 20 years old! So, now I found I had a horse with a compromised eye, a broken leg bone, and it is 20 year old!
I stopped payment on the check for the horse.
Do I have legal standing?
Thank you,
Blair B.
Do you have legal standing?
Possibly, but you need to discuss this with an attorney… hopefully one that is well versed in horses, as well as auction law.