SELECTMEN. The name of certain officers in several of the United States, who are invested by the statutes¹ of the several states with various powers.

SELLER, contracts. One who disposes of a thing in consideration of money; a

vendor².

2. This term is more usually applied³ in the sale of chattels⁴, that of vendor in the sale of estates.

3. The duties of the seller are, 1. To deal with fairness. 2. To deliver the thing sold at the time and place appointed, and to take care of it until deli-very; but when everything the seller has to do with the goods is complete, the property and the risk of accident to the goods, rests in the buyer, even before delivery, or payment. Noy's Max. ch. 24; 7 East, 571; 2 Bl. Com. 448. 3. To warrant the title of personal property when he sells it as his own, when it is in his possession. 2 Kent, Com. 374; 1 Lord Raym. 593; 1 Salk. 210.

4. The rights of the seller are, 1. To be paid the price agreed upon. 2. To be indemnified for any expenses he may have incurred⁵ to preserve the thing sold for the buyer, after the title to it has passed to the latter. 3. To stop the thing in transitu when the buyer has failed and the price has not been paid . See Stoppage, in transitu. Vide Purchaser, and the authorities there cited; Bouv. Inst. Index, h. t.

SEMBLE. A French word which signifies, it seems. It is commonly used before the statement of a point of law which has not been directly settled; but about which the court have expressed an opinion, and intimated what it is.

SEMI-PROOF, civ. law. Presumptions⁶ of fact are so called. This degree of proof is thus deaned: "Non est ignorandum, probationem semiplenam eam esse, per quam rei gestae fides aliqua fit judici; non tamen tanta ut jure debeat in pronuncianda sententia eam sequi." Mascardus, De Prob. vol. 1, Quaest. 11, n. 1, 4.

SEMINAUFRAGIUM. A term used by Italian lawyers, which literally⁷ signifies half-shipwreck⁸, and by which they understand the jetsam, or casting merchan-dise into the sea to prevent shipwreck. Locre, Esp. du Code de Com. art. 409. It also signifies the state of a vessel⁹ which has been so much injured by tem-pest or accident, that to repair the damages, after being brought into port, and prepare her for sea, would cost more than her worth. 4 Law Rep. 120.