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14 Wend. 219

Betts v. Perine

New York Supreme Court

Decided October 15, 1835

New York Supreme Court · decided 1835-10-15

Demurrer to declaration. The plaintiff declared in covenant, selling forth an agreement under seal, bearing date 4th May, 1832, whereby the defendant covenanted diligently and faithfully to labor for and serve the plaintiff, in the business of tanning and currying at a certain tannery lately occupied by the defendant and then owned by the plaintiff, to continue in the service of the plaintiff for the term of three years, and during such term to board himself.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1835-10-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 10 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 1876

8 state decisions

3018351840185018601870decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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¶1By the Court,

Nelson, J.

¶2The covenant of the plaintiff to provide a suitable dwelling house for the defendant for the time specified in the agreement was not a condition precedent; it formed part of the consideration for the services or work to be done, the residue of which, to wit, the $22 per month, was to be paid quarterly, and of course was an independent agreement. The whole consideration, when taken together, should be construed as a distinct and independent stipulation. The defendant, will have the benefit of any breach of it in his defence, by way of reducing the plaintiff’s damages, if he establishes any. Besides, the second count sets up simply a breach of that part of the covenant, by which the defendant was bound to perform his work faithfully and diligently, and according to the best of his ability; charging him with carelessness and neglect, in the doing of his work. . Now, even if the covenant to provide a dwelling house was dependent, a breach of it would be no answer to the right of action set forth in this count. If the defendant chose to waive the condition precedent and to enter upon his work, he was bound to perform such work diligently and faithfully. The demurrer being to both counts, must necessarily be overruled on this ground.

¶3Judgment for plaintiff, with leave to defendant to plead on payment of costs.

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