by John Marshall Harlan

“ There is nothing whatever in the contract indicating that the payment for the machine, dial, and lamps was to depend, in any degree, upon the transfer of the stock, or that the transfer of the stock was to depend upon the adoption of the Brush electric light by the city. The covenants were wholly independent; and therefore it was not essential to the plaintiff's right to recover that it should allege or prove that its agreement to transfer or have transferred to the defendant the above-described stock had been performed. ”

“ It was there said that the inclination of the courts strongly favors as obviously just that construction of contracts which makes the covenants or promises of the parties dependent, rather than independent. ”