Boggs v. Pacific Steam Laundry Co.
Missouri Court of Appeals
Appeal from St. Louis City Circuit Court.. — Hon. Horatio H. Wood, Judge. (1) An oral contract to employ a man for life is not void by reason of the statute of frauds. The man -may die the next' day and hence the contract may be performed within a year.
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Appeal from St. Louis City Circuit Court.. — Hon. Horatio H. Wood, Judge. (1) An oral contract to employ a man for life is not void by reason of the statute of frauds. The man -may die the next' day and hence the contract may be performed within a year. The contract made with Bog’gs, in the case at bar, was as good and as valid and as legal a contract as it would have been had it been drafted by all the lawyers of the land and reduced to writing and executed in the presence of the most august court in the nation. A few Missouri decisions on this point will suffice: Eoster v. McO’Blenis &…
1Dissent
Dissenting Opinion.
BIGGS, J.
1. The vice in the majority opinion is the erroneous assumption that the written contract was a valid and subsisting obligation from the date of its execution, to-wit, December 13, 1888, whereas, the uncontradicted testimony of the plaintiff is that the contract was retained by him and was not regarded by him as binding until the ninth or tenth of *627April, 1889, when he delivered it to the defendant’s manager as an executed agreement. It was on the last mentioned day .and prior to the delivery of the contract, that the plaintiff testified that the manager of the…
2Cases cited7 opinions
- Jackson v. Chicago, St. Paul & Kansas City RailroadMissouri Court of Appeals · 1893
- Smith's Administrators v. ThomasSupreme Court of Missouri · 1860
- Pearson v. CarsonSupreme Court of Missouri · 1879
- James v. CloughMissouri Court of Appeals · 1887
- New York Life Insurance v. GoodrichMissouri Court of Appeals · 1898
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