Contracts Outlawed 203 



general usage or custom will govern the terms 

 of a contract; hence, if a person buys a "cord" 

 of wood where the custom and usage determines 

 that a cord is 128 cubic feet, he will get that kind 

 of a cord; but if, on the other hand, it is a 

 general custom in that part of the country to 

 consider a cord as being a pile 8 feet by 4 feet by 

 1 foot, he will simply get his 32 cubic feet for 

 a cord, regardless of what he understood the 

 word "cord" to mean. This is used only by way 

 of illustration, but there are a great many expres- 

 sions that require to be carefully explained in 

 a contract, in order that there may be no mis- 

 understanding. 



Of course, a contract may be allowed to run 

 so long that it will become, as we commonly 

 call it, "outlawed"; that simply means that when 

 a contract, which is not under seal, has been 

 allowed to remain wholly unperformed for six 

 years (or in some states for a shorter period) 

 after performance was due, and there has been 

 no written acknowledgment of the contract dur- 

 ing that time, any action to enforce perform- 

 ance or recover damages is barred by the statute 

 of limitations. This same rule applies to all 

 classes of actions and rights of action, and they 

 are all sooner or later barred by the lapse 

 of the prescribed period of time. This period 

 varies from a few months in some statutory pro- 



