CENTRAL COURTS 



193 



A justification for the departure of a servant, allowed by 

 the ordinance, but more difficult to prove, is " reasonable 

 cause." This is interpreted by the courts in varying ways : 

 unpaid salary, either in money or in kind ; ^ lack of suffi- 

 cient food ; - ill-treatment, of which there are many specific 

 instances; thus a servant's life is threatened,^ or a servant 

 is beaten so that she departs pur doiite de niort.'^ In addi- 



^ In case 3, list in app., an action against a master for retention and 

 against two servants for departure, the plea of one of the latter is that 

 his wages had not been paid; the plea is traversed by the plaintiff, and 

 the issue was on the question of fact. In case 22, list in app., the de- 

 fendant justifies his departure by the failure of the plainiifif to pay the 

 wages stipulated and issue was joined on the question as to whether the 

 payment had been made. In De Banco, 34, Hill., 276, Kent, the de- 

 fendant justifies his departure by the neglect of the plaintifif to pay the 

 promised wages of " unum quarterium bladi et duos solidos argenti;" 

 . . . therefore he had departed "post rationabilem promonicionem 

 eidem Thome prout moris est factam.'' See also De Banco, 41, Mich., 

 244 d, Oxford; 45, Hill., 408, Suffolk.; 4g, Pasch., 298 d, Kent. In 

 case 18, list in app., when a servant sues an employer for his arrears of 

 wages it is apparently held by the court that the plaintifif's departure 

 within the term, if proved, would bar his action. 



-De Banco, 39, Pasch., 392, Midd. {cf. p. 188, note i); 40, Mich., 

 142, Camb.; Fitzherbert, op.cit., 391: "And keeping from the Servant 

 Meac and Drink is a good Cause for his Departure from his Service. 



And so for Battery; or Licence to depart, is a good Cause of De- 

 parture." 



■' De Banco, 46, Mich., 299 d, Leic; the defendant, a "communis 

 ancilla," had departed because her employer had threatened to take her 

 lite on her refusal to be his mistress. Ibid., 49, Pasch., 274 d, Line; 

 the plaintifif is accused by the servant of having threatened him " de 

 vita et membris." Ibid., 38, Trin., 388 d, Kent, the servant (Willel- 

 mus) " dicit quod Matilldis, vxor predicti lohannis Colkyn (the first 

 employer), ipsuni Willelmum de die in diem sepius verberauit, et sim- 

 iliter idem lohannes Colkyn ipsam Matilldem manutenens etc., ipsum 

 de vita et mem.bris minatus fuit et ad ipsuni verberandum quendam cul- 

 tellum extraxit, per quod ipse metu mortis sue vel perdicionis aliquorum 

 membrorum etc., recessit alibi pro seruicio sibi querendo, . . ." 



'Case 25, list in app. Fitzherbert, op. cit., 392: "If the Master's 

 Wife do beat the Servant, it is good Cause for the Servant to depart and 

 leave his Service." 



