Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1883-02-01
The Law Of Mistakes.

The source of almost every lawsuit
is to be found in mistakes of law, SAYS
Youths Companion. Experience has
proved that the ablest men sometimes
make blunders, and thela has decided
that real istake of fact in an i'm
portant part Of contract will excuse
the party mistaken from performing
his part of the agreement.
For instance, aman made contract
with one ice company and refused to
deal with another. When the bill was
presented he found that the latter com
pany had supplied his ice. He refused
to pay the bill, and it was decided that
the mistake freed him from liability.
A horse was sold by Il trader and
paid for on the spot. While the trade
was going on the horse died. The
buyer brought suit for the money paid,
and it was decided it should be paid,
back. since both parties had made
mistake Of fact, in supposing the horse
to be alive when the trade was ended.
If farmer intending to sell hay
sells oats by mistake instead, he may
refuse to deliver the oats on that
ground. 1t sometimes happens that
bill is paid with counterfeit bank notes.
7
In such case the payment is yoidand
the receipt is worthless.
A mistake in the quantity of the
thing bargained for is no ground for
breaking an agreement. If 4 man
buys a cheap thing, with the idea that
it will serve his purpose as well as
more expensive article, he cannot, be-
cause he was mistaken, send it back
and recover the money paid
A mistake of law is no ground for
refusing to carry out a contract. This
rule is founded on the old maxim. Ig-
norance of the law doth not excuse"
And every man is supposed to know
the law of the land he lives in.
Suppose a debtor gives his note,
promising to pay a sum of money
with lawful interest, thinking that
the legal rate is six per cent. If ten
per cent. is the legal rate, his igno-
rance of the fact will not excuse him
from paying the ten per cent.
When well-known legal words are
used in contract, with mistaken
idea of their meaning, they are bind
ing, in their legal sense, upon the per-
son using them.
If land is decided to man and to
his heirs, he receives the estate abso-
lutely, although both parties intended
that he should only have the estate
during his own life.
Some mistakes of law put an end to
agreements on the ground that they
are rather mistakes of fact than of
law. An executor of win pays money
to person whom he thinks is an heir.
If the supposed heir be an impostor,
the money can be recovered. If, under
a complicated will, person buys rights
which are his already, he may get back
what he paid for them.
Mistakes Of law in civil cases only
cost money; but mistakes of the Grim.
inal law have more serious effects in
the loss Of respectability and reputa-
tion. Here the plea of ignorance Of
aw will not be accepted. A criminal
must suffer the penalty of his deed,
though he thought it lawful when he
committed it.
Formerly an outlaw might be slain
by anybody; but if a private person
should now kill an outlaw, with the
idea that he had right to do so, it
would be punishable as murder.
An old law book gives a curious in
stance Of the plea Of ignorance. Sir
John Johnston, Scotehman, was
tried for stealing and marrying one
Mary Wharton, an heiress, "to the
great displeasure Of Almighty God, to
the great disparagement Of the said
Mary, and to the utter sorrow and
affection Of her friends" When he
was found guilty and sentenced he
asked, with surprise, if it was hang
ing matter. He was told that it was.
and he was sentenced and executed
on gibbet before his lady's door in
Great Queen street"
Happily, the days of harsh and cruel
laws are past, and penalties are now
imposed to reform the offenders rather
than to avenge the offense.
1t is bad policy to despise small
persons or small things. A single
grapeshot settles the destiny of an EN-.