598 LEGAL DEPARTMENT. 



could not be enforced, thus: if a boy under age hires for a specified 

 time at a fixed price, he is not bound by his contract, but may abandon 

 it at any time, although he cannot recover on his contract, yet he can 

 recover what his services are actually worth, and that without any 

 deduction for damages for his breach of contract. If there is no fixed 

 period of employment agreed upon, the employer has the right to dis- 

 charge a laborer, and the laborer has the right to leave at any time. 

 If there is no special agreement as to the price, the employer must 

 pay a reasonable value for the services, depending on the current rate of 

 wages for similar services at the same time and place. 



Contracts for More than a Year. — Contracts for services which 

 cannot be performed within a year, must, by the statute of frauds, be in 

 writing, in order to be legally binding. In Broadwell v. Getman, 

 2 Denio, N. Y. 87, it was held that where it was agreed orally in the 

 month of January to clear a piece of woodland and fence a part, one 

 portion in one year from the ensuing spring, when the party who 

 cleared the land was to put in the crop, which, with the wood and 

 timber he was to have for his compensation. It was held that the con- 

 tract was within the statute of frauds, and void, being an oral contract 

 which was not to be wholly performed within the year. 



If an oral contract is made to employ a laborer for a year, and the 

 contract cannot be completed within the year, it is binding. But if the 

 performance of such contract is to commence at some future day, it 

 cannot be enforced, yet it seems that an oral contract in which a laborer 

 was hired for the year, to begin the next day, is valid. 



Enticing a Laborer Away from His Employer. — When a person 

 is employed to labor on the farm or do any other work and the person 

 entices, hires or persuades the laborer to leave the services during the 

 time of employment, the person who employs the help has the right of 

 action for recovery of damages against the person who so enticed the 

 laborer away, and for all inconvenience and losses thereby suffered by 

 the employer. But attempting to entice a laborer away, unless damage 

 is sustained, is not actionable; nor can an action be sustained for 

 inducing a laborer to leave his employer's service at the end of the 

 time for which he was hired, even though the laborer had no intention 

 of leaving. 



Abandoning Service Without Cause.— When a laborer is hired 

 for a definite time, and before that time has expired he leaves without 

 cause, or the consent of the employer, the laborer cannot recover any 



