ment o f his
debt, he muft
return what
he has received,
and
the debt
Hands liquidated;
and fo like-
wife, i f he
compound thfe
debt;
or if the
pawner (with
his concurrence)
tranfquence
extinguilhed, and it is incumbent on him to reftore what he
had received to the perfon from whom he received it, whether the
pawner or any other; for the feizin of the pawnee is equivalent to a
receipt of payment in cafe of the lofs of the pledge; and in the prefent
inftance, upon the pledge being deftroyed, the pawnee is accounted
to have received payment from the time he was firft feized of i t ; and
as he is not entitled, after that, to a fecond difcharge, and the payment
he had received as above then becomes fuch in qffe£t, it muft therefore
be refunded.— In fhort, the difcharge of the pawnee’s claim,
whilft he remains feized of the pawn, does not take place, but continues
fufpendeduntil he deliver it to the pawner; and fuch being the
cafe, the pawner is not therefore, during that time, held to be acquitted
of the debt;— and upon the pledge being afterwards deftroyed
in the hands of the pawnee, his poffeffion of it under fuch a circum-
ftance is, in effedt, a receipt o f payment, and the other payment received
whilft he was in poffeffion of the pledge is annulled and done
away, for otherwife a repetition of difcharge would be induced;— for
which reafon he muft refund the money he received in payment,— and
alfo for this reafon, that if he were not to refund it the intent of the
pawner would be defeated.
If a pawnee purchafe fome fpecific article from the pawner in lieu
Of his debt, or compound the debt with him for fome fpecific: article;
and the pawn be afterwards loft in his poffeffion, he is ftill refponfible,
and may therefore be compelled to reftore the article which he had
either received in purchafe or compofition; for the feizin of that article,
in either cafe, is equivalent to an acceptance o f payment; and
confequently, i f he do not refund it, a double receipt of payrrient is
induced, as mentioned in the preceding example.
I f a pawner transfer the debt which he owes the pawnee upon
another perfon, (fuch as Zeyd, for inftance,) who agrees to pay the
fame, and the pawnee, having aftented to fuch transfer, acquit the
pawner
pawner of the debt, and the pledge be afterwards deftroyed in the
pawnee’s hands, the transfer is thereby rendered ineffedlual, and the
claim of the pawnee is annihilated; for although, in confequence of
the transfer, the transferrer [the pawner] be acquitted of any further
concern in the matter, yet this acquittance is the fame as an aftual
payment, inafmuch as the fum, the payment of which he had tranf-
ferred upon the other perfon, is ultimately difburfed by him, he
having fo transferred it in confequence of his having a claim upon the
transferee for a like fum, whence the payment is made from him in
efFeft-,— or, if that perfon was not indebted to him, ftill the pawner
muft afterwards repay whatever fum he may have dilburfed in confequence
of the transfer, as in that cafe he acted in the capacity of an
agent on his behalf.
If a perfon pawn any thing into the hands of another, and both
parties afterwards concur in faying that no debt had ever fubfifted between
them, and the pledge be then deftroyed in the hands of the
pawnee, it is anfwered by the debt; in other words, the debt hi Security
of which the thing had been pawned is extinguilhed ;— for there
is ftill a probability of the debt being eftabliffied by the parties at fome
future period concurring and agreeing that it did exift; whence it is
poffible that the debt may be claimed,— a circumftance which cannot
happen in a cafe of acquittal of debt.
fer the debt
upon another
perfon.
I f the pledge
be loft after
the parties
agreeing that
no debt had
exijied, it
Hands as a
difcharge o f
thé fuppofed
debt.
H E D A Y A .