Question

Q-2 Can an item be sold by a person who is not the real owner of a property? Ahmed found a cow near his fields. He tried to enquire about the owner of the cow but did not succeed, so he started to take care of the cow. After a few days Ahmed found that cow had a disease which if not treated, will cause the cow to die. He called the vet and started medication that costed him around 10,000 rupees. After 1 month the real owner of the cow from nearby village appeared and told Ahmed that it was his cow. Ahmed told him to pay for the medication and then he may take his cow, but the owner refused to pay the expenses. Ahmed sold the cow to Bilal. Argue the conduct of Ahmed with regards to finder of goods

Answer 1

According to section 168 of contract act finder if lost goods have no right to sue the owner of the goods for compensation for the trouble and expenses that have been incurred by him voluntarily, only case were finder of lost goods can sue is when the owner has declared any rewards

Also section 169 specifies that if the finder of goods is unable to find the true owner after due diligence or if the owner refuses to pay the lawful charges to the finder then he may sell the goods if:

1. The thing is perishable or is such of nature that it will lose the greater part of its value.
2. When lawful charges of the finder amount to two-thirds of the value of goods.

In the given question lost item doesn't belong to the items mentioned in section 169 so he has no right to sell it, he may have retained it till he payed the compensation

So Ahmed as finder of lost goods has no right to sell the cow