Chatam Sofer on When Money Does Buy Objects (26 Adar)

שו"ת חתם סופר חושן משפט ה:צט 26 Adar 5576 (1816)

Usually, we say that money does not effect a sale in halacha. But where the purchaser took other actions that seem to indicate that he wanted the sale to complete, does that work? In this case, the merchandise was later destroyed in a fire, so the buyer has a reason to claim he didn't want the sale to go through. Do we make the seller (who already lost a lot in the fire) also compensate the buyer?

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