The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1906-03-14
Popular Talks on Lew.
Copyrighted 1906, by William c.
Sprague. President The SpraEua
Correspondence School of Law.
CONTRACTS.

Ht t~SPSh1SAlSC S9CIiOOl OIL Law, |,
-e---
CONTACTS.
-
No. l. Importance of Subject. Dif-
ference Between Contract and
Agreement. Express and Implied
Contracts. The Consideration.
The law OF contracts lies at the foun-
1etion OF nearly every branch OF the
law. It Is therefore. ,hr frat and
most important subject OF not only
Tor the law student. 40 Is :. aGyi'i.;
Jaw for the purpose OF rrart!uinS. hLi
Tor the laynan, who wants to under
stand In ageneral way .l.s ltna' rights
and obligations.
We ate making contracts day py
DAY. usually unconscious of the fact. |
When l hall q street car and it stops
Ior me and l step aboard, I enter into
a contract with the corporation that
owns and operates the car. for u
preach OF which I am liable In dam
ages. as Is the corporation. Every
;iine I buy something in O store, no
matter whether 1t be a steam engine
Or II pin. ! am making contract In
hlr;ns servants md agents. in renting
ana soplettins property. in buying pro-
VISIONS Tor my table. In buying tickets
.oI al ehtertalnment-in fact. in al
most every act that Is not purely So
clal In its nuturc, I am enIuring Into
contract. Indeed, business Is but an
other lame for the making and eXecu-
ting or contracts. The Importance
Therefore Of ones knowing at least
the general principles OF contracts is
evident.
Some persons use the words "agree.
ment' and contract" as synonymous
that ts. meaning the sumo thing. A
contract ls always an agreement, eth
.r expressed or understood, but an
agreement is not always n contract.
may make an agreement with you
% spend the evening at your home.
out that agreement Is not a contract
[ am bound by the rules Of etiquette
md good morals to fulfil 1t, am mol
>ound by the law to suffer damages
" reason Of my failure; nor could
tou go into court and compel me t.
fulfil 1t.
Therefore. one distinction betwee,
/ Contract and an agrecmen is thai
he former Is an agreement. enforcIbl.
Il law. that Is an agreement that tn.
4" VIII either compel me to perform
'r VIII coirpel me to pay damages 10.
'allins TO perform. while the latter T.
'ot SO enfurcible
Another distinction between ar
agreement and a contract Is this: The
Nv says that In a contract a man cor.
emp!ates legal relations. that is, h,
intends to put himself puder le-
'ai obllgat ons. and In an agree
neht ne does not 30 intend his
purpose being merely to bind himself
W sociai obligation. We have moth.
hs 70 DO In these talks with merely
'"ciai obligations: we treat only OF
such engagements or agreements as
he law holds binding.
we distinguish too, between kinds OF
ontracts: for instance. q contract may
'e express or It may be implied. An
'xpress contract Ia one where the
ctn
orally or in writing. An implied con.
tract ls one where the facts In conncc-
ton with hte matter are such that tht
law VIII infer certain things. II go
tito store where l have credit. take
up an article, and say to the clerk
VIII take this. Charge IL to me-
the contract is not an express contract
here Ia no set price. no time Of pay
ment indicated, no promise OF payment.
The 1aw,i however. infers that I have
! made promise to pay . reasonable
| arlce for the article ii G reasonable
1r the customary time.
We often hear It said that contract
8 not good without consideration. -
, or that contract must have q Gonsid-
Grafton &c support it. The meaning OF
this is simply that e promise cannot
De enTnrcea In law. unless something
Is paid or promised to be paid for the
promise. or unless the person to whom
'Ao pto3ii'oC 10 HluQe nus zone some.
thing or suffered some loss by depend
ing on the promise. II promise to
make you q present and refuse to do
20 you cannot hold me In law account
able for breaking my promise, no mat
ter how much Inconvenience or unhap-
piness 1t may cause you. II however.
I promise to do something for you or
give you somethlng in consideration OF
you poying ME something. no matte.
how small, or doing something for me
or SUFFERING some loss, ! can be held
tn the promise. 1t Is In this sense that
the law requires that in order for q
promise to be binding, it must have q
consideratton-anothe word for q
price.
It used to bo said that whenever
promise was under seal, that is
where 1t WAS IN writing and the prom.
isor attached to his name his seal, the
law would forbid the promisor fron,
denying that there was q considerat ton
In other words the fact that a seal
appeared on the promise was evidence
conclusive. that there wns a considera-
tion received. and in O. suit at law to
compel the performance OF the prom
'ise the promlsor could not bring In
evidence to the effect that he had re-
ceived nothing for the promise, and
therefore was not bound by It.. Our
present law, however, has almost who'll
ly done away with this fiction. Now
the consideration Of q promise may
be inquired into, whether it be under
seal or not.
It must not be thought that in order
to support promise the other party
must necessarily give something or
promise to give something. II he Is to
lose or suffer something or promises
to S!ve up something the considerable
Is valid one. II promise to give
you q hundred dollars II you stop
smoking SIX months, and depending
upon my promise. you do stop smok-
Ing for six months. am bound to
pay the one hundred dollars. In this
case you have not given anything or
promised to give anything to me, but
you have suffered loss. or have Civ
en- up something, depending upon my
promise. It has always been held that
q promise is good consideration tor
promise. that is. my promielng to do
something for you. II given in ex-
change for a promise by you to do
something for me, makes a valid con.
tract. The most common example of