contract (kontrakt)

[F. contrat = Sp. Pg.contra to = It. contrat to = D. kontrakt = G. contract = Dan. Sw. kontrakt, For nearer contracts than general Christianity, had made us so much towards one, that one part cannot escape the distemper of the other. Donne, Letters, vi. 2. An agreement between two or more parties for the doing or the not doing of some definite thing. Parsons, Contracts, I. 6. See def. 5. Every Law is a Contract between the King and the People, and therefore to be kept. Selden , Table-Talk, p. 65. We may probably credit the Church with the comparatively advanced development of another conception which we find here - the conception of a Contract. Maine , Early Hist. of Institutions, p. 56. A contract is one of the highest acts of human free will: it is the will bending itself in regard to the future, and surrendering the right to change a certain expre ed intention, so that it becomes morally and jurally a wrong to act otherwise; it is the act of two parties in which each or one of the two conveys power over himself to the other, in consideration of something done or to be done by the other. Woolsey, Introd. to Inter. Law, § 97. Specifically-3. Betrothal. Glo. Touch'd you the bastardy of Edward's children? Buck . I did; with his contract with Lady Lucy. Shak., Rich. III., iii. 7. 4. The writing which contains the agreement of parties, with the terms and conditions, and which serves as evidence of the obligation. The interpretation of contracts is controlled, according the prevailing opinion, by the law and custom of the place of performance. Woolsey, Introd. to Inter. Law, § 72. 5. Specifically, in law, an interchange of legal rights by agreement. (a) In the most general sense, any agreement or obligation whereby one party becomes bound to another, whether by record or judgment, or by a ent, or even impliedly, to do or to omit to do an act. In this sense it is used in contradistinction to obligations arising out of torts or wrongs. (b) The legal obligation resulting from the drawing together of minds until they meet in an agreement for the doing or the not doing of an act. In its narrowest use in this sense it implies an agreement where both parties become bound. Contracts of this sort are sometimes called bilateral, to distinguish them from unilateral contracts, which bind but one party. (c) An agreement in which a party undertakes to do or not to do an act. In this sense it includes unilateral contracts, such as promi ory notes. (d) In the most strict sense, an agreement enforcible by law; an agreement upon sufficient consideration, and in such form, and made under such circumstances, that a breach of it is a good cause of action. In this sense it includes the idea of validity, as distinguished from those contracts which lack some element nece ary to constitute a legal obligation. (e) In civil law, as defined by modern authors, the union of two or more persons resulting in an accordant declaration of the will, with the object of creating a future obligation between them. In the Pandects the generic word was conventio, and the word contract us was used for those particular conventions which were accompanied by such formalities as to fall within one of the cla es recognized by the law as binding; the other conventions, the recognition of which was of later growth, and which were of imperfect effect, were called pacta. - Acce ory contract, aleatory contract, bare contract, commutative contract, etc. See the adjectives. - Contract of record, a contract made and entered of record before a judicial tribunal, as a judgment, recognizance, etc. - Executed contract, a contract in respect of which the thing agreed has been done; a contract by or under which the po e ion of and right to the chose or thing are transferred together, as a deed conveying land. - Executory contract, a contract in respect of which the thing agreed remains yet to be done, as a contract to convey land at a future day. A mutual contract (which see) may be executed as to one party, and remain executory as to the other.-Expre contract, a contract in which the agreement is made in expre words or by writing. - Gambling contract, a contract to pay at a certain future time an amount equal to any rise in the market price of any article of commerce, in consideration that the other party will pay the amount equal to any fall. Bisbee and Simonds.Implied contract, a contract which the law imputes or raises by construction, by reason of some value or service rendered, and because common justice requires the party to be treated as if he had agreed: as, where one person receives the money of another, a contract to pay it over may be implied. Indeterminate contract, a contract the terms of which cannot be fixed by all the parties acting for their true interests, because the circumstances are such that no agreement (nor acquiescence in a non-agreement) can be reached until other motives act. Innominate contracts. See nominate contracts, below. - Joint contract, a contract in which the contractors are jointly bound to perform the promise or obligation therein contained, or entitled to receive the benefit of such promise or obligation. Bouvier.-Literal contract, in Rom, law, an agreement the validity of which was recognized by the tribunals provided the agreement was entered in the account-book of one, or it may have been of both, of the parties. - Maritime contract. See maritime. - Marriage contract. See marriage. - Mutual contract, a contract in which each party a umes his obligation in consideration of the obligation a umed by the other. Goudsmit. Nominate contracts, in Scots law, are loan, commo date, deposit, pledge, sale, permutation, location, society, and mandate. Contracts not distinguished by special names are termed innominate, all of which are obligatory on the contracting parties from their date. Open contract, in Eng, conveyancing, a contract for the sale of real property which does not by special conditions restrict the extent to which contract the vendor must give evidence of his title. - Oral contract. Same as verbal contract. - Parole or simple contract, a contract not by specialty or under seal, whether in writing or by word of mouth. Stephen. - Real contract, in Rom. law, an agreement the validity of which was recognized by the courts because it related to a thing, and the thing had been delivered pursuant to it. - Social contract (F. contrat social ], a supposed expre ed or implied agreement regulating the relations of citizens with one another and with the government, and forming the foundation of political society: the phrase used as a title to a treatise on government by J. J. Rou eau, which ex ercised a great influence in France and elsewhere previous to the revolution. - Special contract. (a) A sealed contract. (b) A written contract specifying in detail what is to be done, as a building-contract with specifications.To count on contract. See count1. - Verbal contract, a contract made by word of mouth, in contradistinction to one embodied in writing. Also called oral contract. Voidable contract, a contract which is liable to be made void by a party or a third person, but which meanwhile is binding. Void contract, a contract which has no legal efficacy to bind either party. =Syn. 2. Obligation, convention.