Putnam's Handy Law Book for the Layman. Bolles Albert Sidney

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СКАЧАТЬ state for protection. The rights for which he can seek the protection of the United States are only such as are established by the constitution and federal laws. For some purposes even a corporation may be included within the term citizen, for example the right to sue in the federal courts as a citizen of the incorporating state.

      By the fourteenth amendment of the federal constitution, all persons born in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction are citizens of the United States. In 1855 Congress passed an act conferring citizenship on alien women who should marry American citizens. An American woman therefore who marries an alien takes the nationality of her husband. When her marital relation ends she may elect to retain her marital or her original citizenship. Since minor children follow the status of their parent, by the marriage of an alien widow to an American citizen, her children also become American citizens.

      An alien may be naturalized. To do this he must have continuously resided in the United States for five years before his application, and he must have appeared in court at least two years before, and there declared his intention to become a citizen of the United States and to renounce allegiance to his former sovereign. He must prove by the oath of at least two persons his residence, also during that time that he has behaved as a man of good moral character and attached to the principles of the federal constitution. He must take an oath to support and defend the constitution and laws of the United States and renounce allegiance to any foreign prince. The naturalization of a person confers citizenship on his minor children if dwelling in the United States, also on his wife, unless she is of a race incapable of American citizenship.

      The rights of aliens, from the very beginning of the American government, have been expanded by treaty provisions and by liberal legislation. In nearly all the states resident aliens were given the right to take title to land, whether by deed or by inheritance, to hold such real estate and to transfer it by law or by descent. In some states they were given the right to vote and hold office. And at common law they were entitled to purchase, own and sell personal property, engage in business and to make contracts and wills. By the fourteenth amendment to the federal constitution their rights and privileges have been further secured.

      Aliens owe to the country in which they reside a temporary and limited allegiance, that is, an obligation to obey its laws and subject themselves to the jurisdiction of the courts. A non-resident alien is not within the terms of the fourteenth amendment, indeed it is doubtful if he can ask any aid or relief under the state or federal constitutions. A statute therefore imposing a higher inheritance tax on property passing to a non-resident alien than on his property if he resided here is valid. Non-resident aliens can acquire no rights incident to residence here except as permitted by the federal government. This power may be exercised, either through treaties made by the president and senate, or through statutes enacted by congress. So congress has excluded not only diseased, criminal, pauper and anarchist immigrants, but also contract and Chinese laborers.

      Contracts.– At the outset the various kinds of contracts should be explained so that the principles which apply to them may be better understood. One of the divisions is into simple contracts and specialties. A simple contract may be verbal or it may be in writing, but no seal is appended to the signatures of the parties. A specialty is in writing and a seal is added to the signature. A written contract may be a duplicate of another with a seal, yet the two belong to different classes and different rules of law apply to them as we shall learn.

      Another classification is into executed and executory contracts. An executed contract, as the name implies, is completed, an executory contract is to be executed or completed. An unpaid promissory note is an executory contract, when paid it becomes an executed one.

      Another classification is into express or implied contracts. An express contract is one actually made between two or more persons or parties; an implied contract is one that the law makes for the parties. Suppose a man worked a day for another at his request, and nothing was said about payment, the law would require him to pay a reasonable sum for his day's work. Another kind of contract technically called quasi contract differs somewhat from an implied contract and will be explained in another place.

      To every contract there must be two or more parties, who have the legal right to make it. Not every person therefore who wishes to make a contract can legally do so. Of those whose ability to contract are limited are minors or infants. The period of infancy is fixed by law, and is therefore a conventional, yet needful regulation. In most states infancy ends at the age of twenty-one, though some states fix a younger period, eighteen for women. A person becomes of age at the beginning of the day before his twenty-first birthday. The reason for this rule is, the law does not divide a day into a shorter period or time except when this is required in judicial proceedings. Another class of incapable contractors are married women. Their disability however has been largely removed by statutes in all the states, as we shall learn in another place.

      Insane and drunken persons also are under disability to make contracts. By the old law a drunken man who made a contract was still liable, and required to fulfill as a penalty for his conduct. A more humane rule now prevails and he can be relieved, though like a minor, if he wishes to avoid a contract, he must return the thing purchased, in other words he can take no advantage of his act to the injury of the other contracting party. If however he has given a negotiable note that has passed into the possession of an innocent third person, who did not know of his drunkenness at the time of making it, he can be held for its payment. It is not quite so easy to state rules that apply to insane persons because their conditions vary so greatly. A person may be insane in some directions and yet his insanity may not be of a kind affecting his capacity to make at least some kind of contracts. Again, he may have lucid intervals during which he is quite as capable of contracting as other persons. And again when an insane man has made a contract, the relief to which he is entitled depends on circumstances. In some cases he may repudiate it, a partial fulfillment only may be required.

      The law has much to say about the consideration that is an element in every contract; in other words, there must be a cause, something to be gained by the parties in every contract to sustain it. If A should promise to give to B a house next week, and on the day fixed for transferring it A should change his mind, he could not be compelled to transfer it, for the promise would be without any consideration or thing coming from B. But if the house had been transferred, A could not afterwards repent of his act and demand its return. An executed gift therefore, free from all fraudulent surroundings, is valid: the donor of an executory gift is free to withhold its execution.

      A consideration need bear no relation or adequacy to the other thing that is to be received. Nothing is more frequent than a one-sided contract, in which one party has gained far more than the other. If the law attempted to adjust these cases, many more courts would be needed than now exist.

      We will briefly note the need of consideration in some classes of cases. First, a voluntary undertaking to work for another without compensation cannot be enforced. Under this head is the promise to pay the debt of another. Why should one do such a thing? Let us remember that should one make such a promise and keep it, the money could not be recovered back, that is quite another thing. Again, if A owed B a debt and delayed payment, and B should say to him, "if you will pay me half of it next week I will give up the rest," B would not be bound by his promise. Suppose that B learning that A had ample means to pay, should sue him, A could not relieve himself from liability by offering to pay the amount A promised to take in settlement of the debt. But should B accept one half, in fulfillment of his promise, that would be the end of the matter.

      Again should a bank defaulter make good the amount taken, and the directors, in consideration thereof, promise to take no steps towards his prosecution by the government, there would be no valid consideration to sustain the promise. The state would be just as free to prosecute him as before. Very often such criminals are not prosecuted after returning all or a part of their unlawfully taken money, nevertheless no settlement of this kind stands in the way of prosecution.

      Suppose A agreed to work for B for a month and, after working a week, should leave СКАЧАТЬ