Also known as: chattels · movables · Sale of Goods
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
Tangible or movable personal property other than money. Articles of trade or merchandise fall within this category when identified to a sales contract.
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Greta Goldstein sees a storm approaching her neighbor's open shed where her stored equipment sits exposed. She enters the land to move the items to safety before serious damage occurs. The entry is privileged because it prevents harm to her chattels.
Global Dynamics manufactures components in Asia and ships them through U.S. distributors without directing any marketing or sales efforts toward a particular state. A buyer in that state is injured by a defective part. Personal jurisdiction fails because the manufacturer did not purposefully target the forum with its goods.
After Gideon Graves dies, his surviving spouse selects household furniture, appliances, and an automobile from the estate. The value of these items, up to the statutory limit after subtracting security interests, passes to her free of most creditor claims.
Grace Gupta orally agrees to pay a broker a commission if the broker procures a buyer for timber rights on her acreage. Because the contract concerns an interest in land rather than movable goods, the statute of frauds applies and the oral promise is unenforceable.
Galaxy Technologies learns that its buyer has repudiated a contract for custom parts still in production. The seller elects to proceed under the resale provisions that govern goods not yet identified to the contract.
Gustavo Gutierrez keeps a tiger on his property. The animal escapes despite maximum precautions and damages a neighbor's stored inventory. Liability attaches even though the possessor exercised utmost care to prevent the harm.
Goods are all things movable at the time of identification to the contract, including specially manufactured items, unborn young of animals, and growing crops to be severed from realty. Money, investment securities, and things in action are excluded.
Supporting sources
Entry is privileged if reasonably necessary to prevent serious harm to the actor's own chattels, provided the actor does not know the possessor objects to the action.
Supporting sources
Household furniture, automobiles, furnishings, appliances, and personal effects up to a statutory value limit may be claimed in addition to the homestead allowance.
Supporting sources
…fact that the seller characterized the transaction as a license rather than as a contract; we treated it as a contract for the sale of goods and reserved the question whether for other purposes a "license" characterization might be preferable. 86 F.3d at 1450. All debates about characterization to one side, the transaction in…