Putnam's Handy Law Book for the Layman Part 1

Putnam's Handy Law Book for the Layman.

by Albert Sidney Bolles.

FOREWORD

What useful purpose can this book serve? Most of the laws under which we live are kept, not from knowing them, but because the good sense of individuals leads them along legal ways. Yet in many cases their good sense fails to discover the right way. Thus, the receiver of a check on a bank must present it within a reasonable time after receiving it, and if he keeps it longer the risk of loss, should the bank fail, is his own. What is this reasonable time? One man says three days, another a week, another a month. So one's common sense fails to establish a definite reasonable time. It is needful to have the time fixed, and the law therefore has established a reasonable time. There are many cases like this in which one's common sense fails to furnish a correct, yet needful guide.

This little book contains many of the legal principles that are in most frequent use, as readers will learn who carefully read it. Again, if they do not always find an answer to their questions, it is believed that in many cases they will find enough law of a general nature from which they can safely solve their questions. They are therefore besought to do something more than merely consult this book for the purpose of finding ready and complete answers to their questions, to read it and become familiar with its contents.

Besides the law presented here the reader should learn to be cautious, and not trust too much his own judgment when no rule can be found for his guidance. Many a person has written his own will, as he has a right to do, and after giving a legacy to a relative or friend has nullified the gift by having the legatee, through the testator's ignorance, sign as a witness. The writer knew a railway president who had the temerity to draw the writing containing an important contract between his railroad and another, and who, by unintentionally putting a comma in the wrong place, made his road instead of the other responsible for large losses. If this book shall make the reader cautious concerning the legality of his undertakings, it will be worth to him many times its price.

A.S.B.

Putnam's Handy Law Book for the Layman

=Explanation of Terms.=--At the outset the explanation of a few terms, often used, may be helpful to the reader. Among these are the terms statute and common law. Statute law or statutes mean the laws enacted by the state legislature and by the federal congress. Common law means the decisions made by the state and federal courts. These decisions may relate to the interpretation and application of statutes, or to the application of former decisions or precedents, or to the qualification and application of them, or to the making and application of new rules or principles where none exist that are needed to decide the case in hand.

It is a rule of the most general application that legal decisions are precedents which are to be followed in other cases of the same character. The decisions of the highest court in each state must be followed by the lower courts, but no courts in any state are obliged to follow the decisions of the courts in any other state. The courts in every state must also follow the decisions of the federal courts in all matters of a national character. Thus if a federal court decides the meaning or interpretation of a federal statute, a state court must follow the interpretation in a case requiring the application of that statute.

Again, common law decisions are not binding on the courts that make them like statutes or legislative commands. A decision may be modified or set aside when it is regarded as no longer applicable to the present condition of things. It may also be set aside or changed by legislative action. The common law is therefore always slowly changing like the ocean and is never at rest.

The common law forms much the largest part of the great body of law under which we live. This book is a collection chiefly of common law principles; a few statutes are interwoven here and there to complete the subjects presented.

The distinction also between civil and criminal law requires explanation. Nearly all criminal law is founded on statutes, in other words the statutes, state and federal, define nearly all legal crimes known to society. It is therefore true that the field of crime is not fixed, is in truth always changing. Thus formerly if a man bought goods on credit of another on the statement that he was worth fifty thousand dollars and the seller afterward learned that he was not worth fifty cents, the seller could sue the buyer to recover the value of the goods and for any additional loss, but could do no more. Many, perhaps all the states, now declare by statute that such an act is a crime, and the offender can be prosecuted by the state and fined or imprisoned or both. And the wrongdoer may still be sued in a civil action for the loss to the seller as before.

All crimes are prosecuted by the officers of the state chosen or appointed for that purpose. Again, as in the case mentioned, the wrongful act has a double aspect. An individual who has been wronged may proceed against the wrongdoer to recover his loss; the state also has been wronged and may also proceed against him. A good ill.u.s.tration is a bank defaulter. The bank may proceed through a court of law to recover the money lost by him, or from those who have promised to make the bank good should he wrongfully take anything; the state may also proceed against him as a criminal for breaking a statute that forbids him from doing such a thing. Furthermore, should the bank, as often happens, agree to accept a sum from the defaulter and not trouble him further, the agreement would be no bar to an action by the state against him.

The terms law and equity are frequently used in the law books and require explanation. Formerly there was no such term as equity in the common law. It came to be used as a supplement to the law to indicate ways of doing things unknown to the law, which ought to be done. Thus if a man threatened to fill up your well because it stood, as he claimed, on his land, you had no preventive remedy at law. You could use some force to prevent him, you could not kill him, or put out his eyes, or treat him roughly. The law only gave you the right to proceed against him to recover money damages for the legal injury. A court of equity has a preventive remedy. If one threatens to fill up your well you can pet.i.tion or pray the court to order that he shall refrain until there has been a legal hearing to determine whether he has any right to do so and the court will order him to desist until it has heard the case, and will enforce its order with a fine or penalty should he disobey.

The term equity contains a larger element of justice than law; and the courts often say that an act is just or equitable, meaning that an act which is just or equitable may not always be a legal act. Equity therefore is a broader term, and is in constant use in legal proceedings.

Another word frequently used in this book is action. When a person has wronged another, for example, has not paid a promissory note that is due, and the wronged party wishes to collect it through the courts, he brings an action, so called, against the wrongdoer for that purpose.

Sometimes the word suit is used. Suit, or case in court, is a common expression.

Finally something should be said about courts of law. Every state has three kinds or cla.s.ses of courts. First a court in which suits are brought and tried relating to small matters, the recovery of money, for example, for one or two hundred dollars or less, also for small petty criminal offenses. Next is a higher court in which suits for all larger matters are begun and tried, as well as appeals from the lower court. Lastly is a third court of review, usually called the supreme court, composed in most of the states of five, or more often, seven judges, who review the decisions of the court below whenever application is made founded on erroneous matters, the wrongful admission of, or refusal to admit, evidence and the like, and their decisions form the great body of the common law.

The federal government also has three courts corresponding somewhat to the courts established by the states. First is a court existing in every state called the district court, while some states, like New York, are divided into several districts. An appeal lies from its decision to the court of appeals consisting of three judges. There are nine of these courts, one for each circuit into which the United States is divided. Lastly appeals may be taken from their decisions and also from the decisions of the supreme courts of the states to the supreme court of the United States consisting of nine judges. An appeal does not lie in every case decided by a state court or by the federal courts of appeal; only such cases as the highest court shall decide after application, made in proper form, may be appealed and heard by that tribunal.

We have already explained the term equity. Formerly there were courts to try and decide equity cases. England still maintains such courts and a few exist in the United States; New Jersey and Delaware are two of these states. The chief official of the court is called a chancellor, the others vice chancellors. Instead of an action, as in a court of law, the preliminary proceeding is called a pet.i.tion or bill, and while in substance it is similar to an action or complaint, used in a court of law, the form is quite different. The modern tendency of the law, considered in the most general way, is to fuse law and equity, and to endow law judges with equity powers. For further explanation see _Legal Remedies and Equitable Remedies_.

=Adopted Child.=--Children are sometimes adopted. By doing so the natural parents lose all personal rights and are relieved from all legal duties. The adopted parents acquire the right to the adopted child's custody and control, to his services and earnings, and they must maintain and educate him. In some states he becomes the heir of the adopted parent like a natural child, with some limitations. Who can inherit an adopted child's property is not clearly settled. He can also inherit from his natural parent and kindred as if he had not been adopted. In Ma.s.sachusetts the courts hold that an adopted child will take like a natural child under a residuary clause in an adopted father's will giving all the property not otherwise devised to his child or children. See _Parent and Child_.

=Agency.=--Much of the business of our day is done by agents or persons who represent others. The most general division is into general and special agents. A general agent is one who has authority to act for his princ.i.p.al or person he represents in all matters, quite as the princ.i.p.al himself could do; or in some of his matters. Thus if a princ.i.p.al had a farm he might have a general agent to act as his farmer; if he owned a mill, another general agent who had charge of it. If he had two mills, he might have a general agent for each, and so on.

A special agent is authorized to do a specific thing, to sell a home, buy a horse, or effect some particular end or purpose. While this distinction is plain enough in many cases, in others the lines run so close together that it is difficult to decide whether one is a general or special agent.

Whenever one acts as a general agent he is supposed to have all the authority that general agents possess who thus act for their princ.i.p.als, unless the person who is dealing with him knows of the restriction on his authority. Suppose one goes to the office of a general insurance agent to get insurance on his home. A policy is taken and afterwards the house burns up. The company declines to pay because the agent made a lower rate than was authorized by his company. The insured however knew nothing about the restriction, and supposed that the agent had the same authority as other insurance agents have concerning rates. The company would be obliged to pay. But if the insured knew that restrictions had been put on the agent and that he was violating them in giving him the lower rate, the company would not be liable.

One who deals with a special agent must find out what authority he possesses; therefore more care is needful in dealing with a special than with a general agent. His authority must be strictly pursued.

Thus it is said that a person dealing with him "acts at his own peril," is "put upon inquiry," "is chargeable with notice of the extent of his authority," "it is his duty to ascertain," "he is bound to inquire," "and if he does not he must suffer the consequences."

In some cases the law creates an agency. Thus an unpaid vendor of goods sometimes has authority to sell them, so has a pledgee of goods outside the authority conferred by the contract pledging them. A married woman whose husband does not supply her has a limited power to buy necessaries on her husband's credit, which prevails notwithstanding any objection he may make. A minor sometimes has the same power.

A person can act as an agent for another who cannot act for himself.

Minors therefore can thus act. Besides individuals, corporations often act for others.

The authority of an agent may be given in writing, a power of attorney so called, or he may act, and often does, without written authority, especially a general agent. To this rule there is one well understood exception. If an agent is required in executing his authority to sign a deed or other writing, especially a sealed writing, his authority must also be equally great. In executing a deed therefore his authority must be in writing under seal, and when the deed is recorded, the agent's written authority should also be recorded; this is the usual practice. If this is not done, some person who afterward wished to purchase the land might object because the recorded t.i.tle was defective.

A particular usage or custom also affects an agent's powers. If the princ.i.p.al confers on him authority to transact business of a well-defined nature, bounded by well-defined usage and customs, the law presumes the agency was created with reference to them. This protection affects agents and third persons alike, the latter therefore who act in good faith in such dealings are protected against secret limitations of which they had no notice.

An agent has no authority to purchase his princ.i.p.al's property. To do this, in a sense, would be to purchase of himself. The temptation to do this is sometimes very great, too great for him to withstand, and so he resorts to a crooked method for accomplishing his end. He sells the property to another party who afterward sells it back to him. The worst violators of this principle have been railway receivers, who have taken advantage of their position to get control of the property entrusted to them at a sum much less than its real value. Such sales can be set aside by proper legal procedure. By the modern rule they are not void but are voidable, that is, can be set aside if the creditors or other interested parties wish to do so.

Whenever therefore one deals with a general agent and his authority is disputed, unless there be restrictions known to the person dealing with him, the liability of his princ.i.p.al turns on the answer to the general question, what authority do general agents like himself have.

This is simply a question of fact, to be determined like every other question of fact by the court in which the controversy is pending.

Another way of rendering a princ.i.p.al liable for the act of his agent is by ratifying it. Suppose A professed to be the agent of B in building a house for C, and built it so badly that C sued B to recover damages, whose defense was, that A was not his agent. Suppose, however, that B accepted payment for the house, this would be a ratification of A's authority to act for B even if he did not have proper authority in the beginning. Suppose A had authority to sell goods for B but not to collect payment, and someone should pay him and he ran off with the money, could his princ.i.p.al still collect the money of the buyer of the goods? This is a hard case, and has happened many times. The buyer usually is required to pay the second time. But if B, notwithstanding his direction to his agent not to collect payment, should receive it such conduct would operate as a ratification.

Whether the authorized act arises from a contract or from a wrong or tort, whoever with knowledge of all the facts adopts it as his own, or knowingly appropriates the benefits, which another has a.s.sumed to do in his behalf, will be deemed to have a.s.sumed responsibility for the act. Of course, such action does not render an act valid that was invalid before; its character in this respect is not changed by anything the ratifier may do.

Can a forgery be ratified? The right of the state to pursue the forger cannot be defeated by its ratification, but so far as the act may be regarded merely as the act of an unauthorized agent, it may be ratified like any other. Mechem says that if at the time of signing, the person doing so purported to act as agent, the act might be ratified.

Again, a princ.i.p.al cannot accept part of an agent's act and reject the remainder. The acceptance or rejection must be complete.

In appointing an agent the princ.i.p.al has in mind the qualifications of the person appointed, he cannot therefore without his princ.i.p.al's consent, designate or subst.i.tute another person for himself. This rule though does not prevent him from employing other persons for a minor service. Indeed, in many cases a general agency requires the employment of many persons to execute the business. How far one may go in thus employing others to execute the details, and how much ought to be done by the general agent himself, depends on the nature of the business. The inquiry would be one of fact, to what extent is a general agent in his particular business expected or a.s.sumed to do the things himself.

One rule to guide an agent is this: when the act to be done is purely mechanical or ministerial, requiring no direction or personal skill, an agent may appoint a subagent. Thus an agent who is appointed to execute a promissory note, or to sign a subscription agreement, or to execute a deed, may appoint another to do these things. Likewise an agent who is authorized to sell real estate with discretionary power to fix the price and other terms, may employ a subagent to look up a purchaser, or to show the land to one who is desirous of purchasing.

When a person is really acting as an agent, but this is not known by the persons with whom he is doing business, he is liable to them as if he were the princ.i.p.al. It often happens for various reasons that agents do not disclose their princ.i.p.als. Suppose a dealer finds out that the agent presumably acting for himself was, in truth, acting for another, could the real princ.i.p.al be held responsible and the agent escape, or could both be held? The answer is, after discovering the real princ.i.p.al, both can be held, or either of them. The failure of an agent to disclose his agency will not make him individually liable if the other party knew that he was dealing with a princ.i.p.al with whom he had had dealings through the agent's predecessor. Notice of the agency to one member of a firm is not sufficient notice to the firm to release the agent from personal responsibility in subsequent transactions with another member who did not know and was not informed of the agency. Again, the liability must be determined by the conditions existing at the time of the contract, his subsequent disclosure will not relieve the agent. Finally, while the agent may be held in such a case, the princ.i.p.al also is liable, except on instruments negotiable and under seal, on the discovery of his relationship as princ.i.p.al.

While secret instructions to an agent that are unknown to persons dealing with him do not bind them, the princ.i.p.al is liable for any acts within the scope of his agent's authority connected with the business conducted by his agent for him. Some very difficult questions arise in applying this rule. A car conductor is instructed to treat pa.s.sengers civilly and to use no harsh means with them, save in extreme cases. How far may a conductor go with a disorderly pa.s.senger?

Very likely he would be justified in putting him off; suppose the conductor was angry and administered hard and needless kicks in the operation? His princ.i.p.al surely would not be liable, though the conductor doubtless would be. Suppose in buying a railway ticket the agent loses his temper and calls you a liar and a thief, you would have an action against him for slander, unless you happened to be one, but you would have no action against his princ.i.p.al for the company did not employ him to slander its patrons; to do this was clearly not in the scope of his employment.

An agent must not act for both parties in any transaction unless this is understood by both of them. Nor can an agent receive any personal profit from a transaction. Whatever profit there may be should be given to the princ.i.p.al. Thus if an agent is authorized to buy a piece of property for his princ.i.p.al and buys it for himself, or hides the transaction under the name of another, the princ.i.p.al, after discovering what his agent has done, can proceed to obtain the property.

An agent must be faithful and exercise reasonable skill and diligence.

Money belonging to the princ.i.p.al should be deposited in the princ.i.p.al's name, or, if in the agent's name, his agency should be added; otherwise if the bank failed the agent would be responsible for the loss. Again, if the agent deposited the money in his own name the true owner could proceed against the bank to recover it.

A princ.i.p.al is liable for the statements and representations of his agent that have been expressly authorized. He is also liable even for false and fraudulent representations made in the course of the agent's employment, especially those resulting in a contract from which the princ.i.p.al reaped a benefit. Even though the statements may not have been expressly authorized, such authority may be implied by law because they are the natural and ordinary incidents of the agent's position. Thus the position of a business manager often calls for a great variety of acts, orders, notices, and the like, and statements made while performing them are regarded as within the line of his duty.

An agency may end at a fixed time, or when the particular object for creating it has been accomplished, or by agreement of the parties. In many cases an agency is created for an indefinite period, and in these either party can terminate it whenever he desires. There are some limitations to this principle. Neither party can wantonly sever the relation at the loss of the other; and if one of them did he would be liable for the damage sustained by the other. Likewise if the agent has an interest of his own in the undertaking the princ.i.p.al cannot terminate it before its completion without the agent's consent. Such a rule is needful for his security. The bankruptcy of a business agent operates as a revocation of his authority, but not when the act to be done is of a personal nature like the execution of a deed.