FRAUDS, STATUTE OF. The many provisions of the celebrated English statute appear to fall under the following heads: 1. The creation and transfer of estates In land, both legal and equitable, such as at common law could be effected without deed. 2. Contracts which in certain cases could at common law be validly made by oral agree ment. 3. Additional solemnities in case of. wills. 4. New liabilities imposed in respect of real estate held.in trust. 5. The disposition_ of estates during life. 6. The entry and effect of judgments and executions. The first and second heads contain all that in common professional use is meant by the statute of frauds. They present this important feature, characterizing and distinguishing all their minor provisions; that is, that whereas before their enactment the law recognized only two great classes of contracts, etc.—those which were by deed, and those which were by parol, including under the latter term what was written and what was oral—these provisions introduced into the law a distinction between written parol and oral parol transactions, and rendered a writ ing necessary for the valid performance of the matters to which they relate. These matters are as follows: Conveyances, leases, and surrender of interest in lauds; decla rations of trusts of interests in lands; special promises by executors or administrators to answer damages out of their own estate; special promises to answer for the debt, default, or miscarriage of another; agreements made upon considerations of marriage; contracts for the sale of lands, tenements, hereditaments, or any interest in or con cerning them; agreements not to be performed within the space of one year from their making; contracts for the sale of goods, wares, and merchandise for the price of L'10 or upwards. By the statute all these must he put in signed by the party
charged, or his attorney. In regard to contracts for the sale of goods, wares, and merchandise, the payment of earnest-money or the acceptance and receipt of a portion of the goods dispenses with the written memorandum.
The substance of this English statute so far as regards the provisions referred to has been enacted in nearly all the states of the American union, Some points of law, com ing within the same general policy, but not embodied in the original courts of equity, have been made the subject of enactments.
Both law and equity courts come under the provisions of the statute of frauds. although, in exceptional cases, courts of equity have the privilege of granting relief which may not come within the strict of the law. Supposing, for example, that a contract which has been only verbal is fully and efficiently detailed in the bill of the plaintiff in equity, it can be enforced, because no fraudulent intention is to be sus pected, and besides, the defendant, by neglecting to urge his right of defense under the statute, may be suliposed to have wittingly set it on one side.—'So, too, in case of an oral contract, if once the undertaking has been commenced, the completion of it will be decreed; that is to say, if-the commencement is more than the mere payment of money, it must be something done entirely with the intention of fulfilling the contract.