Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1883-04-14
Contracts.

Contracts.
When two or more parties agree for 4
oad or valuable consideration to do or
oyhear doing some act, and each ac-
YVES y right to what the other promises.
NV are said to make an agreement or
s.sga;n. When this agreement contains
u]aa,oises to be performed at a future
!;ne It is called a contract-exec-
.'+nry. The parties to a contract may
he two or more, and each party may con-
s;st Of one or more persons. To render
Contracts valid SO that they may be ell
forced when they are not to be performed
Thin a YEAR,; when they are of the
natnre of security; when made in CON
.;deration of marriage Except mutual
nromises to marry; when they involve
amount fixed by law Casually $5O) ex-
cept when a part is paid or a part Of the
MERCHANDISE delivered; leases having
more than one year to run; and all re-
iating to sales Of land, they should be re-
duced to writing and signed by the par
t;es thereto. In cases where the law does
not specially provide they may be sealed
and witnessed, or not.
Afixing a seal to a written contract ia
considered evidence that it is made with
dne deliberation. A sealed instrument
nresumes a consideration, although it
NAV not be expressed.
No person under twenty-one years of
age il 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
married women may make contracts 80
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 tobe a charge
upon, her separate estate, or incurred
while she is carrying on a separate bust
ness on her w account.
All contracts must be made for a good
or valuable consideration. A good con-
sideration may consist Of friendship, re-
lationship, good will, OF 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
3 way that it will not be liable for his or
her debts, but may sell for a 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
a mutual understanding and agreement
of their W deliberate will and judg-
ment; their minds must meet: it must be
without "a fraud, mutual in its character,
certain in it's 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 ia
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 percent, the legal interest in Nevada,
can be collected; .butiif no place of pay
ment is named, only six per cent, the
legal interest in New York, can he 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 a 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
1t, or that he signed the same through
some mistake. It is usually better and
often cheaper in the end for those unac-
customed to drawing contracts to employ
one who is in practice of doing it rather
than to do it themselves. This is often
done by u best lawyers when the mat
ter involves questions in which they are
personally interested, an uninterested
party being, as a rule, better qualified to
nate all things clearly and without bias.
>L.A. Roberto, in Rural Neo- Yorker.
A Needed Etiquette.