New South Wales Consolidated Acts

FACTORS (MERCANTILE AGENTS) ACT 1923 - SECT 9

9 Saving for rights of true owner

(1) Nothing in this Act:

(a) shall authorise an agent to exceed or depart from the agent’s authority as between the agent and the agent’s principal or exempt the agent from any liability, civil or criminal, for so doing,

(b) shall prevent the owner of goods from recovering the goods from an agent or the agent’s official assignee or trustee in bankruptcy at any time before the sale or pledge thereof,

(c) shall prevent the owner of goods sold by an agent from recovering from the buyer the price agreed to be paid for the same, or any part of that price, subject to any right of set-off on the part of the buyer against the agent,

(d) shall prevent the owner of goods pledged by an agent from having the right to redeem the goods at any time before the sale thereof, on satisfying the claim for which the goods were pledged, and paying to the agent, if required by the agent, any money in respect of which the agent would by law be entitled to retain the goods or the documents of title thereto, or any of them, by way of lien as against the owner, or from recovering from any person with whom the goods have been pledged any balance of money remaining in the person’s hands as the produce of the sale of the goods after deducting the amount of the lien.

(2) In case of the bankruptcy of any such agent the owner of the goods so redeemed shall, in respect of any sum paid by the owner on account of the agent for redemption, be held to have paid such sum for the use of the agent before bankruptcy, and shall be held pro tanto to have discharged any debt due by the owner to the agent; or in the case there has been no such redemption the owner shall be deemed to be a creditor of the bankrupt for the value of the goods so pledged at the time of the pledge, and shall, if the owner thinks fit, be entitled in either of such cases to prove for or set off the sum so paid or the value of the goods, as the case may be.