The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1914-04-30

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question very naturally arises who
can, and who cannot make a con-
tract, broadly speaking the law pre-
sumes that all natural persons are
capable of entering into a contract.
1t is specifically stated that certain.
persons cannot make contract:
Minors or infants at law.
Persons of unsound mind.
Drunken persons.
Spend thrifts for whom guardian
or conservators have been appointed.
And in some states married wo-
men cannot make a contract-at
common law, as a rule a married
woman could incur no contractual
obligations and it made no difference
whether she was living with her
husband or not; provided, he was
not civilly dead. The tendency of
the times is to grant married women
the right to make contracts on the
same basis as her lord and master.
1t was stated that no minors
could make valid contract.
must state that there are some ex-
ceptions to this rule or l shall have
the legal members of the circle at
my back with their objections.
The valid contracts of an infant
are contracts created by law or quasi
contracts.
Contracts entered into under au-
thOrity or direction of the law.
Contracts made in order to do
what he was legally bound to do,
and could have been compelled to do.
Under quasi contracts may be cited
the legal duty of a husband to pay
the anti-nuptial debts of the wife.
This is liability of an infant at law
as well as an adult husbands.
Also, if a person under twenty
one years marries he is bound to
support his wife and contracts for
the necessaries of life are valid.
Generally speaking an infant is liza
BILE for reasonable value of necessa-
ries furnished him; but things furn-
ished him must concern his person
and not his estate.
Also, there is much to be said
about ratification of contracts by
minors after attaining their majority,
this is large question and in this
paper time will not permit its discus
sion. The second essential was that
an agreement must be made between
the parties to contract-what then
is an agreement. in it's relation to
being the foundation to contract?
All agreements do not result in con-
tracts but all contracts are the re-
suit of an agreement.
Legal Obligations
"A contract is the meeting of two
minds that is, they must coincide or
there is no contract. Now an agree
ment resulting in obligation is a
contract, for example; if / meet our
President on Fifth Avenue and he
agrees to dine with me at the Wal
dorf Astoria; this agreement confers
no legal obligation on his part to
do so, neither is there any legal OBJ
legation on my part to carry out my
promise. Hence no contract was
made. But if l offered to sell him
my automobile for one-hundred dol
lars and he accepted my offer in the
same terms, this is an agreement in
volving legal obligation and is there
for. contract enforcible at law, or
if | meet a charming young lady
and [ promise to marry her. and she
likewise promises to marry me. this
is an agreement involving legal OBJ
legation the consideration being the
promise of each to marry the other.
The third essential:-A lawful
purpose Iced not be dwelt upon. 1t
is only necessary to state that to
bring out the meaning clearly, if l
agree to pay one thousand dollars to
a person to dynamite the post office
building and the act is done | could
not be forced to pay the one thous-
and dollars for this act, as it was an
unlawful one.
The fourth requisite, to valid
contract is consideration, this is the
keystone arch of the good contract,
the vital part of the agreement. A
contract without consideration is
void and unenforcible. There are
two kinds of consideration: Good
and valuable consid-
Grafton.
Good consideration consists of ma
tural love and affection existing be-
tween relatives and is what gives
to gifts from one relative to
in the case of father
presenting team of horses to his
son, the affection of the father is
good consideration but not valua-
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