Case ID: mart-os_2/html/0269-02.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "By the Court.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

JACOB & AL. vs. URSULINE NUNS.
    Fall 1812.
    I. District.
    Party, relying on the generosity of him, for whom he works, may not, when disappoint ed, set up a claim upon his justice.
    The petition stated that the plaintiffs' father, a free black man, acted, overseer on the plantation of the defendants, since the year 1796, till his death in 1811-that in 1801, the superior of the convent made a donation to him of two arpents of land fronting the river, with the usual depth, for his services; and in the year 1804, the supe-nor, and nuns entitled to a vote in the chapter, confirmed the donation-that he remained in possession of the premises till his death, devising it to the plaintiffs-and that the nuns have since sold the premises, and the purchaser has drove off the plaintiffs. The prayer of the petition was, that the defendants might warrant and protect the plaintiffs' possession, or compensate them for the services of their father, whose executors they are.
    The plaintiffs' counsel produced a writing, subscribed by the superior of the convent, by which she makes a donation of the premises "to " Jacob, a free negro, who has served us with so " much fidelity, without having ecer enjoyed his "freedom."
    Next was introduced an instrument, by which the superior and vocal nuns give to Jacob the usu-fruct of the premises.
    Livingston, for the defendants.
    These instruments cannot be received; the nuns could not dispose of their land, without the authority of the ecclesiastical superior, the bishop or his vicar-general.
    The power of the superior (ordinary or bishop) shall extend to spiritual, as well as to temporal affairs. Constitution of U. Nuns, part 3, chap. 1, art. 4. He shall sign .... all contracts and leases, &c. art. 7
    All ordinary expenditures shall be made, on the ordinance of the superior nun, and in case of notable or extraordinary expenditures, she shall consult the assistants, zelatrice, and depositary, and have the superior's, ordinary or bishop's, leave. chap. 4, art. 12. The superior nun shall not give, by her sole authority, more than 20 sousin alms or gifts; neither shall she do this often: and she, and the discreet nuns, may only give the Value of one crown, art. 13.
    When it shall become necessary to commute (commuer) any part of the real estate of the convent, or to bring a suit the superior nun shall never do so without goed counsel, the advice of the discreet nuns, and the permission of the supe-nor, ordinary or bishop. art. 15.
    By the Court. Communities, in the civil law, are considered as under a perpetual nonage, and those who administer their estate, cannot alien it, without a special licence.
    Morel, for the plaintiffs.
    The principal object of our suit, is compensation for services rendered. We introduce these writings as a recognition of them.
    Livingston, for the defendants.
    The plaintiffs' father was a black man, once the slav& of the defendants; his emancipation must be proven, before his wages are claimed.
    Morel, for the plaintiffs.
    By the instruments before the court, the plaintiffs acknowledge him, and treat with him as a freeman.
    By the court. These instruments do not bind the community, being made without the requisite licence. Nothing, theretore, which they contain, can bind the defendants.
    On a subpaena duces tecum being obtained, a notary attended, with a proper deed of emancipation, executed with the licence of the bishop of Louisiana. Witnesses were next heard, who deposed that the deceased served the defendants as the overseer and driver of their plantation, since the year of 1796, the time of his emancipation, till his death in 1811, a period of 15 years. He was 60 years of age when liberated, and consequently 75 at his death.
    Father Antonio, a capuchin monk, swore, by laying his hand on his breast, that he would, in verbo sacerdotis, tell the truth, &c. according to the manner in which Rothan priests swear.
    Evidence was offered of the declaration of several of the nuns.
    By the Court. It cannot be received. Individuals of a corporation cannot bind it, by any act of theirs; much less by any thing which they say.
    The will of the deceased contained a clause that he owed nothing to any body, neither did any person owe him any thing: and the defendants proved that a number of muskets being seized on their plantation, as they had no free person on it, they were advised to free him-that the land he had occupied, was worth, according to some witnesses, one hundred dollars a year, and according to others, double that sum-that with a verr fine gang of negroes, the plantation made nothing to sell, supplying the convent with milk, vegetables, rice, corn, and fuel; the number of the negroes thereon, at different periods, varied from 18 to 42.
    Tn E wages of overseers were proven to be from five to one hundred dollars a month.
    Rodriguez, for the plaintiffs.
    The donation being void, it follows it is no payment, and the deceased's services being still without a reward, the defendants still owe the value of them. No specific price having been agreed upon, the services must be paid what theyare fairly worth.
   By the Court.

A party, who works for another, is only entitled to wages, when he has stipulated for them, or when, by implication, the person who received the services promised to pay them. If the work be performed, in expectation of being rewarded by a gift, or by a legacy, wages will not be demandable.

As where the plaintiff had done much bosiness for Mr. Guy (who bequeathed all his possessions to the hospital) and had done it in contem-platiori of a legacy from him. But being disappointed, after Guy's death, he brought this action on a quantum meruit for his former services done for Mr. Guy, when it was adjudged, that it wroulci not lie, the business having been done, not with a view to immediate or certain recompense, but with a view to a legacy. Osborn vs. Governors of Guy's hospital. 2 Stra. 728.

So where in an action on an apothecary's bill, for medicines and attendance on the testator. It appeared that the plaintiff had never made any regular entries in his books, but had attended the testator in expectation of a legacy, he being related to him ; and that he had declared, that had the tes tator kit him any thug, that he would never have made a charge. The plaintiff was nonsuited on the above prir ciple. Hiccox vs. Proud. Staff. Lent Ass. 1762, cor. Wilmot. MSS.

During a period of 15 years, no application was made for payment, and the will of the deceased says nothing is due him. Overseer's wages are paid quarter-yearly, and yearly, at farthest. It is not probable that if any had been expected, the deceased would have forborn any claim during fifteen years. It follows, perhaps, that gratitude for the greatest gift a man may receive, his freedom, induced the new freeman to continue his services, in the expectation that the nuns would continue to supply his wants, as long as he lived. Void as the instrument which contains the donation is, still, as the plaintiffs produced it, it is evidence of the acknowledgment their father was willing to receive. An acknowledgment which precludes the idea that monthly, or yearly wages, were either promised or expected. But if the instrument, which wasto be the evidence, was void, still the donation has been otherwise-the deceased has had the full effect of it: he has enjoyed the premises during the whole period mentioned in the instrument.

THE donation was made in 1801, and according to the petition, confirmed in 1804, when the deceased was 65 and 69 years of age : his services, after that age, were not perhaps worth much more than his support: this he appears to have had till his death. If it be believed that no wages were promised or expected, for his services before the donation, it is for the jury to determine whether there is room to believe that any were expected, or promised, for the posterior services-whether they were not rendered without any hope of wages, but on the expectation that the nuns would pro. vide for his support.

The jury could not agree on a verdict.