490 ALTERNATIVE CONTEACT. 



said before several customers, " / intended to have dealt with you, hut I 

 shall not do so, for you changed the land) which I houghl of you for a 

 coarse piece of mutton,'' it was held by the Court of Exchequer in Crisp 

 V. Gill that an action for slander did not lie, as the communication so 

 made was a privileged one. 



Coutao-ious Diseases Animals Act, 32 &33 Vict. c. 70, s. 75 : in order 

 to convict a person for being in possession of a diseased animal under 

 this Act, it must be proved that he was aware of the fact that the animal 

 was diseased. Nichols v. Hall, 8 L. R. C. P. 322. 



Alternative contracts must he stated according to the fact ; and where a 

 contract was made for the purchase of 100 bags of wheat, 40 or 50 of 

 which were to be delivered on one market day, and the remainder on the 

 next market day, it was held that the plaintiff could not declare as npon 

 an absolute contract for the delivery of 40 bags on the first day, though 

 40 bags were then in fact delivered, but the contract must be stated in 

 the alternative according to the original terms {Penny v. Porter). And 

 if a contract to deliver soil be declared upon as a contract to deliver soil 

 or breeze, the variance will be fatal if it appears that soil and breeze are 

 diifereut things {Coolc v. Mcmstone). 



An agreement contamed in a contract for the jncrchase of a cargo of 

 wheat, to refer to arhitratioji any difference that might arise between the 

 parties as to the contract, is enforceable by action ; and a dispute as to 

 the amount of compensation to be paid to the plaintiif in respect of defi- 

 ciency of cargo, is a "difference" within the meaning of such agreement 

 {Livinyton v. Ralli). 



A contract to deliver goods to purchaser '■'■from time to time as re- 

 quired,'' does not lapse at the expiration of a reasonable time from the 

 date of the contract ; and the vendor must, to determine it, request 

 the purchaser to require the goods, and if the latter does not do so 

 within a reasonable time fi-om such request, the contract lapses {Jones 

 V. Gihhons). 



Where no entire sum has heen agreed upon, it is generally presumed 

 that it was the intentwn of the contracU^ig parties that the remunera- 

 timi should keep pace ivith the consider'ation, and be recoverable Mies 

 quotics by an action on a quantum meruit. And this doctrine seems 

 to be countenanced by Withers v. Reynolds, which was an action of 

 assumj)sit for not delivering straw according to the following agree- 

 ment : 



"John Reynolds undertakes to supply Josejih Withers with wheat-straw 

 delivered at his pi'emises till the 24th June, 1830, at the sum of 

 335. per load of 3G trusses, to be delivered at the rate of three loads 



