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48 Ark. 485

Henry & Bro. v. Wells

Supreme Court of Arkansas

Decided November 15, 1886

Supreme Court of Arkansas · decided 1886-11-15

Hon. J. M. Bradley, Judge. 1. The contract being a verbal one, and not to be performed within a year, was within the statute of frauds, and void. . Mansf. Dig., sec. 337l,subdivis. 6; Meyer v. Roberts, 46 Ark., 80; 1 Parsons on Gont., 529; Waite’s Act• and Def., vol. 7,p. 43; 55 Mo., 97; 36 Ala., 351; 13 R. 1., 480; 26 Ga., 551; 2 Helt{N. Y.) 116; 22 III, 248. 2. The verdict is contrary to the evidence.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1886-11-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 9 later decisions — most recently January 1969

1 federal appellate · 7 state decisions

40188618901900191019201930194019501960decided

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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Smith, J.

¶1The complaint stated that the defendants had employed the plaintiff as a bar-tender for the whole of the year 1884, but had, on the 1st day of May, in that year, discharged him without cause, paying his wages only to that date. The prayer was for a recovery of wages for the remaining months. The answer, among other defenses, set up the statute of frauds. The proof was that the contract was made in November, 1888, and according to the plaintiff’s version, was to include the remainder of that year and the year following, and that it was not manifested by any writing. The court charged, in substance, that the plaintiff’s entry upon the service and readiness to perform took the case out of the statute. And the plaintiff had a verdict and judgment.

¶2Verbal contracts are sometimes enforced in equity, especially for the purchase of land, where possession has been taken and improvements made on the faith of them. But partial execution has no effect at law to take any case out of the provisions of the statute. JBroion on Statute of Frauds, see. 451, 415 Ed.

¶3This case is governed by Meyer v. Roberts, 46 Ark., 80.

¶4Reversed for new trial.

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