SERVANT, one who has contracted to serve another. The person whom he has contracted to serve is styled master. Servants are of various kinds; apprentices [Arrss.rrIcs], menial or domestic servants who reside within the house of the master, servants in husbandry, workmen or artificers, and clerks, warehousemen, &c. From the relation of master and servant a variety of rights and duties arise. Some of these are founded on the common law, and some on special statutory enactments.
A contract of hiring and service need not be in writing unless it be for a period longer than a year, or for a year to commence at some future time. If in writing, it is not liable to any stamp duty, unless it apply to tLe superior classes of clerks, &c. To all such contracts the law attaches an implied undertaking on the part of the servant faithfully and carefully to serve the master, and to do his lawful and reasonable commands within the scope of the employment contracted for ; on the part of the master, to protect and fairly remunerate the servant. This implied undertaking to remunerate may be rebutted by circumstances showing that it never was contemplated, as where it appears that the servant merely came on trial, or where a party has brought to England a person who was his slave abroad. In all hirings where no time of duration is expressed, except those of menial servants, it is a rule of law that the contract shall continue for a year. In the case of menial servants it is determinable by a month's warning, or the payment of a month's wages. Servants in husbandry can only be discharged or quit the service upon a quarter's notice. This rule as to time may of course also be rebutted by any circumstances in the con tract inconsistent with its existence. In the case of immorality, or any kind of offence amounting to a misdemeanor committed during the time of the service, or of continued neglect, or determined dis obedience, a servant may be immediately discharged; and the service having been determined before the expiration of the time contracted for, in consequence of the fault of the servant, he is not entitled to claim wages for any portion of the time during which he has served.
The contract continues to exist, notwithstanding the disability of the servant to perform his duties from illness, and he is in such a cue entitled to receive his wages. The master however is not bound tc pay the charges incurred by medicine or attendance upon his shill servant. In case the goods of the master are lost or broken by the uselessness of the servant, the master is not entitled to deduct their slue from the wages of the servant, unless there has been a special :ontract between them to that effect. His only remedy is by an motion. Where a master becomes bankrupt, the commissioners are authorised, on proof that they are due, to pay six mouths' wages to his :lerks and servants. If the wages for any longer period are due, they oust be proved for like other debts under the fiat. If a servant has eft his service for a considerable time without making any demaud for sages, it will be presumed that they are paid. A master may chastise cis apprentice for neglect or misconduct, but he will not be justified in striking any other description of servant. Servants who steal or nnbezzle their master's goods are subject to a greater degree of punish nent than others who commit those crimes. [Lanes:iv.] Masters ire not compellable to give a character to servants who leave their employment. If they choose to do so, and they give one which is false, they may be liable to an action at the suit of the servant ; but in males to recover in such an action, the servant must prove that the tharacter was maliciously given for the purpose of injuring him. If the master, merely for the purpose of confidentially communicating, :owl fide state what he believes to be the truth respecting a servant, he is not responsible for the consequences of his communication.