CENTRAL COURTS igi 



not actually begun, is equivalent to the corporaliter in ser- 

 vice of the common law/ 



Although information is lacking of the way in which this 

 parol agreement was solemnized, many details of its terms 

 and conditions are given in the ordinance or appear as the 

 result of decisions of the courts. The statute had specified 

 that engagements of labourers should be by terms of the 

 usual length, /. e. a year or six months, and not by the 

 day ; ^ the courts therefore hold that a contract for a day's 

 work or for several days cannot be enforced under this 

 legislation, and that to disprove the existence of a statutory 

 retainer it is sufficient to show that the agreement had been 

 for a day at a time merely.^ An extreme instance has come 

 to my notice in an action for departure and retention where 

 the justices of labourers had apparently construed such ser- 

 vice by the day as equivalent to a state of " vagabondage." ' 

 As early as 1356 issue is raised as to the legality under the 

 new law, of a contract for a term longer than a year ; it is 

 at this date decided that a contract of even seven years is 

 admissible ^ and records of actions continue for some time 

 afterwards to show examples of terms varying from two to 



'Cases 28 and 36, app., F, 5; but cf. the report of case 33, list in 

 app., for an apparently different decision. 



^App., 13. Hence the writ: "Quod servientes deserviant per ter- 

 minos usuales et non per dietas," in the Registrutn. Cf. also the quo- 

 tation from Vox Clamantis given on p. 75, note 2. 



^Case 3, list in app.; De Banco, 39, Mich., 233, Camb.; 41, Pasch., 

 199 d, York. Fitzherbert, op. cit., 391: " And if a Man do retain one 

 to serve him for 40 Days, and another doth afterwards retain him to 

 serve him for a Year, the first Covenant is avoided, because the Retainer 

 was not according to the Statute. 



And so if a Man be retained to serve at every Time he shall be re- 

 quired, it is no Retainer according to the Statute, but a Covenant if it 

 be by Deed; and without Deed it is void." 



*De Banco, 38, Pasch., 198, York. 



*Case 6, app., F, 4. 



