Commercial law for high schools, business colleges and business men

Preface

The laws of all the States (except Louisiana) are based upon the Common Law of England. Consequently the student knowing the laws of Illinois knows the fundamental law of all the States. It seems better to study the laws of one State than to give cases from all the States since to master one system is easier than forty-eight.

There is no book on the market that deals with only Illinois law. The Author is in a new field altogether in this respect. The fundamental laws of the State can be learned without reference to Statutes or Reports. It is needless to point out the value of this to business men and law students.

The aim is not to make lawyers, but to guide men in business transactions. The day of buying a book and becoming a lawyer is not here. It would be as reasonable to expect one to buy a stock of drugs and become a doctor.

While this is written to fit the needs of elementary study yet the Author has been gratified to learn that it has been of value as a ^^quizzer'' for students preparing for the IlUnois State Bar Examination.

Actual cases rather than the theoretical have been emphasized. Almost without exception the illustrations are cases taken from the Illinois Supreme Court Reports, stated in the simplest language. The specific predominates rather than the general. As far as possible technical terms have been avoided.

The Author wishes to thank Mr. W. A. Goodier for his reading of the manuscript; to express his appreciation of vi PREFACE

the advice and suggestions of Mr. S. P. Irwin and to acknowledge the assistance of Mr. E. H. Cooke.

Wayne C. Townley.

Bloomington, lUinois.

May 10, 1922.

I

VENERATION OF THE LAW

^'The earliest conception of justice appears to have been not an act of any lawmaking assembly, but a judgment pronounced by the primitive ruler — the patriarchking. In the belief of his people it was a divine inspiration, what we should call a stroke of genius.

We have traveled a long road since then. How can we expect men any longer to revere the law, which they now understand to be no gift of a god, but only the result of conflicting social forces — a conflict in which, perhaps, the individuaFs own idea of what the law should be has been overborne?' And yet, if men are capable of taking a broader view they will see that there is really something noble and august in this conception of law as the expressed will of a free and mighty people; and there should be something impressive, not to say awe-inspiring, in the visible enforcement of that will. This may not be the poorest of all times to consider whether it may not be worth all the pains we take to surround the execution of the law with every form of dignity, and propriety that may serve to touch the imagination of the people, and lead them to associate the act with all that is worthy of regard and veneration. For one thing is certain; there never was a great people that did not venerate the law. What gave Sparta her long supremacy among the states of Greece? What, indeed, but her inflexible — you might almost call it her blind and unreasoning — ^fi^dehty to law? '* Stranger, go tell the Spartans that we lie here in obedience to their laws. '' Those were the words graven on the tomb viii VENERATION OF THE LAW

of Leonidas and his companions at Thermopylae. There they slept in unquestioning obedience to a law that said no Spartan ever should retreat, no matter what the odds. Such a sentiment, inspiring all its members, is enough to make any nation great. Without some such reverence for law, the authentic voice of our millions of self-governed men, we may pile our wealth in mountains, but we shall be as a rope of sand. ^'

— Address of Justice Wendell Phillips Stafford at the rededication of the Courthouse of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia.

—The Docket.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. The Basis of Law 3

1. Definition 3