Oral contract

“ Whether they are reasonable or not, is for the Court, not the jury, to say. A contract made with an assistant, or with a partner, that upon separating from the principal, or partner, he will not practise within a certain section of country, or for a certain time, is valid when made in consideration of instruction to be given, or pecuniary or other benefits to be enjoyed in consequence of the partnership. ”

“ It is a fundamental rule that in the construction of contracts the courts may look not only to the language employed, but to the subject-matter and the surrounding circumstances, and may avail themselves of the same light which the parties possessed when the contract was made. ”

“ Thus, it will be seen, that the learned jurist could appropriate the soft advantages of a tentative contract, and escape the expected payment on a technicality, as well as any man he ever solemnly upbraided in court for the same act. ”

“ And in many cases of prevention by the defendant or of tender and refusal, the plaintiff has been held to have the right of action on a special contract, prevention or refusal being equivalent for that purpose to performance. ”

“ It is a general principle, that where a contract is entered into for the purpose of executing the provisions of a prior instrument, by which the rights of the parties are settled, and the subordinate contract declares that it is made in pursuance of the prior instrument, that any departure from that instrument is presumed to be by mistake. ”

“ Where a simple contract, other than a bill or note, is made by an agent, the principal whom he represents may in general maintain an action upon it in his own name, and parol evidence is admissible, although the contract is in writing, to show that the person named in the contract was an agent, and that he was acting for his principal. ”

“ It presents the question, whether parol evidence should have been received, to vary, alter, or contradict that which appears on the face of the bill of exchange.
When the operation of a contract is clearly settled by general principles of law, it is taken to be the true sense of the contracting parties. ”

“ To prove that the contract exists, I produce the contract. To prove that the rescission exists, I demand that they produce the rescission. This they have utterly failed to do. Mr. Hunt simply asserts a verbal agreement, which I deny. A verbal agreement between two parties, which one party stoutly maintains, and the other flatly denies, is, I submit, an agreement more suited to the latitude and longitude of Dublin than of Athens. A verbal agreement, which on examination proves to be an utter and absolute disagreement, cannot cancel a written contract. ”

“ An express contract of the parties is always admissible to supersede or vary or control a usage or custom, for the latter may always be waived at the will of the parties. But a written and express contract cannot be controlled or varied or contradicted by a usage or custom ”

“ It would seem difficult to substitute words which are more intelligible, or less liable to misconstruction, than those who are to be explained. A contract is an agreement, in which a party undertakes to do, or not to do, a particular thing. The law binds him to perform his undertaking, and this is, of course, the obligation of his contract. In the case at bar, the defendant has given his promissory note to pay the plaintiff a sum of money, on or before a certain day. ”

“ On the contrary, this court has consistently maintained the principle that the intention of the parties is to be arrived at by a proper construction of the agreement made between them, and that whether a particular stipulation to pay a sum of money is to be treated as a penalty, or as an agreed ascertainment of damages, is to be determined by the contract, fairly construed, it being the duty of the court always, where the damages are uncertain and have been liquidated by an agreement, to enforce the contract. ”

“ For these reasons we are of opinion that the Circuit Court should not have decreed performance in specie of the contract, but should have left the cross-complainant to his action at law, or to the remedy reserved in his deed. ”

“ If a particular form of proceeding is prohibited, and another is left or is provided which affords an effective and reasonable mode of enforcing the right, the obligation of the contract is not impaired. ”

“ DEFINITION OF CONTRACTS.—What is a contract? Simply a promise or set of promises which the law enforces as binding. Any promise, if it is binding, is a contract or part of a contract. So the law of contracts in their formation resolves itself into this: What promises are binding? A man may make all sorts of promises, but when has he a right legally to say "I have changed my mind, I am not going to do what I said I would," and when will he be liable in damages if he fails to do as he agreed? ”

“ In the latter cases the question is always one of intent; and the court, being untrammeled by any other consideration, is bound to give it effect. As the meaning of the lawmaker is the law, so the meaning of the contracting parties is the agreement. Words are merely the symbols they employ to manifest their purpose that it may be carried into execution. If the contract be unsealed and the meaning clear, it matters not how it is phrased nor how it is signed, whether by the agent for the principal or with the name of the principal by the agent, or otherwise. ”

“ The law we are in search of, which is to decide upon the nature, interpretation, and validity of the engagement in question, is that which the parties have, either expressly or presumptively, incorporated into their contract as constituting its obligation. ”

“ We think that the rule of law, which admits extrinsic evidence for the purpose of applying a written contract to its subject matter, justifies its admission, beyond the mere designation of the thing, or corpus, if we may so express it, on which the contract operates, and extends so far as to embrace the circumstances which accompany the transaction ”

“ Taking “an act in the law” to be a matter “capable of having legal effect and concerned with rights and duties which can be dealt with by a court of justice,” the learned justice concludes that an agreement between A and B to enter into a contract at some future time is not a contract; but that an agreement by A with B that he will make a contract (as for a lease of land in this case) with C, is a contract in law that may be enforced. Specific performance not being asked for at the trial, he gives damages to the plaintiff. ”

“ So when an act has been done by a person, and it is doubtful whether he acted in a private or official capacity, it is allowable to prove by parol that he was an agent and acted as such. But these cases fall far short of proving that when a statute requires a contract to be in writing, you may prove by parol the fact that the defendant was purchaser, the writing being silent as to that fact; or that a writing, which does not state who is vendor and who purchaser, does contain in itself the essentials of a contract of sale. ”

“ The validity of a contract, as a matter of fact, depends upon the ability of the parties to enter into it, for no court can enforce a contract when it is shown that the principals to it had not legal right to make it or to fulfill the conditions of it. ”

“ The obligation of the contract can only be discharged by law, never by the mere virtue of a rule of practice established by court-certainly, not by a rule, made after the execution of the bond, or recognizance. ”

“ A written contract can be proved in no other way than by the production of the writing itself, whenever its production is possible. Certain kinds of contracts, such as one for the sale of land, cannot be proved except by writing, no verbal testimony being of virtue enough in the law to establish the existence of them. ”

“ A claim that a State statute impairs the obligation of contract is an appeal to the United States Constitution, and cannot be foreclosed by a State court's determination whether there was a contract or what were its obligations. ”

“ It had jurisdiction to enforce those contracts by sale of her individual property. The note on which she was sued had every indication that it was her individual contract, as it no doubt was, and that her husband's name was placed there to show his consent. ”

“ The facts proved must show either a contract expressed in terms, or else it must be implied from facts which leave no room for doubt that such was the intention of the parties and that a valid consideration existed for the contract. ”

“ Having elected to treat the original contract as at an end, it is estopped now to claim that the plaintiff had not performed it. 'It is a principle of law that he who prevents a thing from being done shall not avail himself of the nonperformance which he has himself occasioned.' 3 Add. ”

“ Rep. 80, that we have no jurisdiction of a writ of error to a state court upon the ground that the obligation of a contract has been impaired, when the validity of the statute under which the contract is made is admitted, and the only question is as to the construction of the statute by that court ”

“ Even in the domain of contract, we find the striking doctrine that an undisclosed principal has the rights as well as the obligations of a known contractor,—that he can be sued, and, more remarkable, can sue on his agent's contract. The first precedent cited for the proposition that a promise to an agent may be laid as a promise to the principal, is a case of master and servant. ”

“ Parol proof, said the same learned magistrate, is admissible in equity to correct a mistake in a written contract in favor of the complainant seeking a specific performance, especially where the contract in the first instance is imperfect without referring to extrinsic facts. ”

“ This expression, that the third paragraph of the contract of January 19, 1912, 'is a statement of the least that defendant was to do, not of the most that he was to have,' is repeated in the opinion of each of the three courts as the sufficient reason for concluding, as the District Court said, that the contract gave to the defendant 'all the rights mentioned for all time.' It is not the first time that a catchy phrase has diverted attention from less picturesque realities. ”

“ An obvious situation in which the employee should not be limited to the exclusive remedial procedures established by the contract occurs when the conduct of the employer amounts to a repudiation of those contractual procedures. ”

“ The contract created by the indorsement and delivery of a negotiable note, even between the immediate parties to it, is a commercial contract, and is not in any proper sense a contract implied by the law, much less an inchoate or imperfect contract. ”

“ After an agreement has been reduced to writing, it is competent for the parties at any time before breach of it, by a new contract not in writing, either to altogether waive, dissolve, or annul the former agreement, or in any manner to add to or subtract from, or vary, or qualify, the terms of it, and thus to make a new contract. ”

“ DP D. To formulate standards of agency under Rule 4 (d) (1) which allow a plaintiff with a form contract to extend a District Court's service of process for suits on that contract anywhere in the country (or, presumably, the world) is to do something which Congress has never done. ”

“ It is the contract that has been made through the agent authorized to make it that is to be reduced to writing, and if a clerk or some other agent makes a mistake we perceive no reason why the writing should not be made to conform to the fact. The contract is not unlawful in the preliminary stage, or even void in a strict sense, but simply not to be enforced against the United States. ”

“ When the obligation is mutual, the party asking a specific performance must show that he has been in no default in not having performed the agreement on his part, and that he has taken all proper steps towards the performance. He must show himself desirous, prompt and eager to perform the contract. ”

“ Where a factor makes a contract in the name of his principal and himself signs as agent only, he drops out as soon as the contract is made, and the principal and third party alone can sue or be sued upon it. ”

“ This principle is fundamental. The allegations of the bill show that the contract sued on was made and entered into subsequently to the termination of the proceedings before the referee. By the terms of that contract the note in dispute between Mrs. ”