River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1913-12-18
VOL. 81
POPULAR TALKS ON LAW
~ Walter K. Towers, a. g., J. D., OF the
Michigan Bar.
Fulfilling The Contract

Not infrequently in his anxiety 10
to close a bargain, one will agree to
furnish an article or perform SER
vices to the satisfaction of the
other party. Your watch is out of
order; you take it to a watch maker,
vet hesitate about Living it for
him to repair. He a21 IS to fix II
to your satisfaction. You wish to
purchase a silver dish ~ JeWeler,
but you desire a monaars.m placed
upon il, and you doubt that he
possesses the artistic ability and
good taste to do the work SO that 1t
will please you. He assures you
that he can and will please you and
that if he does not perform the task
to your satisfaction you need not
take the dish You give him an
order under these conditions.
You wish to have your roof fixed
and, driving a close bargain, insist
that the carpenter agree that he
will perform the task to your salts
faction, else he need not be PAID.
You 20 to your tailor TO place an
order for a suit. In his anxiety to
secure the order, in which you seem
somewhat loathe to give, he assures
you that he will make you a suit
that will satisfy you and that If he
does not, you need not take it.
In each of these cases you have
entered into a contract with the
tradesman or workman, calling for
the performance of certain labor
and the furnishing of materials or
the sale of an article. Now, sup
pose that in each of these cases the
work specified is performed In a
fair and workmanlike manner, with
reasonable skill. Yet, suppose you
have changed your mind III every
case and no longer desire the article
or the work shat was done, or you
feel that the work does not quite
please you. Therefore, you insist
that as the others took the risk OF
pleasing you, you are entitled to
insist that they do it and if they do
not you may refuse to accept the
work which they have performed
for you. They insist that the work
is well done and that you aught to
be satisfied. Your contention is
that no one but your self can say
whether you are satisfied or not
and that if you say you are not that
settles it.
Suppose the watch maker, the
ieweler, the carpenter and the tai
lor All sue you, insisting that they
have performed their portion of the
contract and that you must make
the payment agreed. Are you en-
titled to insist upon the letter of
the contract and enforce your own
word as to whether you are satisfied
or not, regardless of whether a
reasonable man would say that you
ought to be satisfied? The answer
is that in some cases you can and
in some cases you cannot.
The matchmaker and the carpen-
ter could force you to accept their
work and make the agreed payment;
the ieweler and the tailor would
probably be forced to accept your
decision that you were not satisfied,
and make such other disposition as
they could of the dish engraved with
your monogram and the suit cut T.
YOUR measure, without receiving
any pay whatever from you.
The distinction which the law
draws between these cases is the
distinction between work requiring
mechanical excellence and work
designed to fit varying persona
taste, AS work of an artistic nature
IF brick foundation is to be bull
for your new shed, and is to bt
completed to your satisfaction, anc
it is completed in a substantial anC
workman like manner, and a jury
of ordinary men decide that a rea
sonable man would be satisfied
then the law will insist that yot
ought to be satisfied whether yot
say that you are or not. So it is
also. with the repairing of tn
watch and the repairing of the roof
These are mechanical acts, and
the Jury finds the work we'll an
properly done, and believes in viev
of all the circumstances that
reasonable person would be salts
fed, you will be compelled to &C
cept the work, despite the fact tha
the agreement required that
should be done to your persona
satisfaction. But suit of clothe
and a monogram upon silver dis
are matters involving p er a
taste rather than mechanical exec
1ance If these articles do not cor