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Old
Injuries: Must
the Seller Disclose?
Q:
I recently bought a horse and later found out
that right before I did, he had just recovered from a
soft tissue tear, and had 10 months off. I wanted a
horse with no previous injuries and the old owners
didn't tell me about it. It didn't come up on the vet
check since we just did a basic pre-purchase and x-rays
but no sonogram. Even though he made a complete recovery
and should not re-injure it, I would have liked to know.
Did the seller have to disclose to us that the horse had
been previously injured, if we asked or not? And
if he re-injures it soon, can I try to take the horse
back, would I have any options?
A:
In general, horses are sold "as is"
unless the seller defrauded the buyer by (a)
deliberately misrepresenting the horse (i.e., "he's
sound" when the horse is dead lame) or (b) not
answering your questions fully or truthfully (you ask
whether the horse has ever been injured, and they say
"no" and you find out that the horse has been
laid up for the past 10 months). Here, unless you
asked the seller directly about previous injuries and
the seller didn't respond truthfully, you probably don't
have a very good case against the seller. The
seller's behavior certainly wasn't forthcoming, but it
probably wasn't legally actionable.
For more information on a horse seller’s legal
duties, see Your
Legal Duties as a Seller on the Equine
Legal Solutions website.
When
buying your next horse, you may want to take advantage
of our free downloadable
buyer's checklist.
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