Nesbitt v. Drew

Citations

• 17 Ala. 379

Syllabus

<p>1. Where two slaves are hired for a year at a gross sum, the contract is entire, and its entire fulfilment a condition precedent to its enforcement:. If therefore the owner take one of them from the service of the hirer * before the expiration of the term, without his consent, he cannot recover any part of the price contracted to be .paid.</p> <p>2. A provision in a contract for the hire of slaves that the owner shall “ deduct or account for all time lost by sickness or otherwise,” being evidently-intended fur the benefit of the hirer', must be so construed as to effect that intent, and the term otherwise be taken to refer to death or other cause, unmixed with the fault of either party, by which the slaves are rendered incapable of performing the expected service.</p> <p>3. Where slaves are hired to work at a saw mill, it is not a breach of the contract to employ them in rafting saw logs down an adjacent river, that being at the time of the hiring and long before, a part of the ordinary labor performed by the hands at said mill.</p>