Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1883-04-12
Contracts

When two or more parties agree for a
good or valuable consideration to do or
to forbear doing some act, and each ac-
quires right to what the other promises,
they are said to make an agreement or
bargain. When this agreement contains
promises to be performed at a future
time it is properly called a cOntract-exec-
utory. The parties to a contract may
be two or more, and each party may con-
sist of one or more persons. To render
contracts valid so that they may be en-
forced when they are not to be performed
within year; when they are of the
nature of security; when made in con-
sideratiOn of marriage Except mutual
promises to marry when they involve
the sale of merchandise beyond the
amount fixed by law usually 500 ex-
cept when part is paid or a part of the
merchandise delivered; leases having
more than one year to run; and all re-
lating to sales of land, they should be re-
dueed to writing and signed by the par
ties thereto, In cases where the law does
not specially provide they may be sealed
and witnessed, or not.
Affixing a seal to written contract is
considered evidence that it is made with
presumes a consideration, although it
may not be expressed.
No person under tWenty-one years of
age is competent to make a contract to
charge or bind himself except for the
necessaries of life, as an apprentice, or to
marry. In the latter case the legal age
in most States is for females twelve and
for males fourteen years. In most States
oaly 81
far as regards their private property, but
in New York and some other States no
agreement to pay money will be binding
on a married woman unless it is agreed
by her to be paid out of, or to be charge
upon, her separate estate, or incurred
while she is carrying on a separate bust
ness on her own account.
All contracts must be made for good
or valuable consideration. A good con-
sideration may consist of friendship, re-
lationship, good will, or other of no
money value, and is valid only as
between the parties to the contract and
not as to creditors. No one can seques-
ter his or her property without a valuable
and sufficient consideration therefore, in
way that it will not be liable for his or
her debts. but may sell for fair and
valuable consideration without regard to
creditors if there be no evidence of fraud
in the transaction.
All contracts made in violation of law
or of public policy are void or voidable,
as contracts bearing usuriOus rates Of
interest; to pay bets or losses at games Of
chance or hazard; to do or perform an
illegal act, or any act plainly against the
good of society.
The parties to a contract must come to
mutual understanding and agreement
of their own deliberate will and judg-
ment; their minds must meet: it must be
without fraud, mutual in its character,
certain in its terms and signed by all the
parties to be charged Herewith.
Too much care cannot be taken to
have everything to which an agreement
relates fully considered and clearly ex-
pressed. Nothing should be left out be-
cause it is deemed trivial, or because it is
we'll understood by and between the
! parties. Nothing is part of the con-
| tract, or can be enforced as such, that
| does not appear therein. Parol evidence
is sometimes received to explain a written
| document when ambiguous, but not to
add to, take from or vary it.
! Contracts are construed in accordance
with the laws of the place where made,
or where they are to be enforced, as may
appear. That is, if a note given and
dated in New York, payable with in
terest in Nevada, and no rate is named,
| ten per cent, the legal interest in Nevada,
can be collected; but if no place Of pay
ment is named, only six per cent, the
legal interest in New York, can be col
lected.
No contract should be signed that has
not been carefully read, and it is better
! that it be read more than once, and at
different times, in order that the meaning
of the phraseology may be understood,
and that there may be no ambiguity.
| Sometimes great trouble and expense is
| incurred because the meaning of phrase
can be construed in more than one way.
| Care should be taken that every word
| shall mean Just what it stands for and is
intended to mean, and nothing else. The
law always presumes the contract to have
been read by the parties signing it, and
none of them will be allowed to plead
that he has not read it, unless he can
show that some fraud has been perpe
trated upon him by the other side for the
purpose Of preventing him from reading
it, or that he signed the same through
some mistake. It is usually better anC
often cheaper in the end for those unac
customed to drawing contracts to employ
one who is in practice of doing it rathel
than to do it themselves. This is otter
done by our best lawyers when the mat
ter involves questions in which they ar
personally interested, an uninteresteC
party being, as rule, better qualified t.
State ali things clearly and without bias
L. 4. Roberts, i11 RatrGL NeaV- Yorker.
| A Needed Etiquette.