Opinion
(October Term, 1789.)
In a gift of personal chattels a symbolical delivery is sufficient.
DETINUE, for a negro boy given to the plaintiff by his uncle Sandifer. The boy being in Virginia at the time of the gift, and no delivery made, except of a dollar instead of the boy.
ruled that delivery of possession in such cases is principally in order to identify the property, and that it might also answer the purposes of notoriety; but when the identity of them could be proven, the gift was good without delivery. Verdict for the plaintiff accordingly. If there had been two boys of the same name, a delivery might have been necessary; but as there was only one, the proof of identity was easy.