Dickson & Co. v. Frisbee

Supreme Court of Alabama

Dickson & Co. v. Frisbee

52 Ala. 165

CourtSupreme Court of Alabama

DecidedJanuary 15, 1875

StatusPublished

Cited by12 cases

This text of 52 Ala. 165 (Dickson & Co. v. Frisbee) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook

Dickson & Co. v. Frisbee, 52 Ala. 165 (Ala. 1875).

Pincite

Opinion

JUDGE, J.

The contract sued on in this case was verbal, and was made on the twenty-first day of December, 1870, for a year’s service, to commence on the day following. The question in the case is, whether by its terms it was a contract not to be performed within a year from the making thereof, and therefore void under the statute of frauds.

Section 8 of our Code provides that the word year, when used therein, means a calendar year; and we hold that an agreement for the performance of a year’s service means a year to commence on the next day. This construction is in accordance with the ordinary rule for the computation of time which excludes fractions of a day; and it is in harmony, too, with section 14 of the Eevised Code, which provides that in computing the time within which any act is required to be done, there must be an exclusion of the first day and an inclusion of the last. Owen v. Slatter, 26 Ala. 547.

The court of common pleas of England, in a case almost identical with the present, and under a statute of frauds the same in substance as ours, decided that a contract made on one day for a year’s service to commence on the next was not within the statute of frauds. Cawthorne v. Cowdrey, 13 Com. Bench Rep. (N. S.) 406.

There was no error in the refusal of the circuit court to give the charges requested, and its judgment is affirmed.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

JUDGE, J.

The contract sued on in this case was verbal, and was made on the twenty-first day of December, 1870, for a year’s service, to commence on the day following. The question in the case is, whether by its terms it was a contract not to be performed within a year from the making thereof, and therefore void under the statute of frauds.

Section 8 of our Code provides that the word year, when used therein, means a calendar year; and we hold that an agreement for the performance of a year’s service means a year to commence on the next day. This construction is in accordance with the ordinary rule for the computation of time which excludes fractions of a day; and it is in harmony, too, with section 14 of the Eevised Code, which provides that in computing the time within which any act is required to be done, there must be an exclusion of the first day and an inclusion of the last. Owen v. Slatter, 26 Ala. 547.

The court of common pleas of England, in a case almost identical with the present, and under a statute of frauds the same in substance as ours, decided that a contract made on one day for a year’s service to commence on the next was not within the statute of frauds. Cawthorne v. Cowdrey, 13 Com. Bench Rep. (N. S.) 406.

There was no error in the refusal of the circuit court to give the charges requested, and its judgment is affirmed.

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)

52 Ala. 165, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dickson-co-v-frisbee-ala-1875.

Opinion

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack