STATUTE OF FRAUDS. This name is applicable to any statute the object of which is to prevent fraud, but it is particularly applicable to the 29 Car. II. c. 3, which is entitled the " Statute of Frauds and Perjuries." One object of the statute was to prevent disputes and frauds by requiring in many cases written evidence of an agreement.
Before the passing of this statute many conveyances of laud were made without any writing as evidence of the conveyance. An estate in fee simple could be conveyed by livery of scisin, accompanied with proper words, and a nse could also be declared by pare. No writing was necessary to convey any estate in possession, for such estate is technically said to lie in livery; but a reversion could only be conveyed by deed.
The Statute of Frauds declared that all leases, estates, and interests of freehold or terms of years or any uncertain interest in any lands or hereditaments, made by livery and seisin only, or by parol, and not put in writing and signed by the parties, &c., shall have the force of leases or estates at will only. But leases for not more than three yearn, whereou the rent reserved shall be two-thirds of the full improved value of the thing demised, are excepted by the statute. Further, no lease, estates, or interest either of freehold or terms of years, or any uncertain interest, not being oopyhold or customary interest, shall be assigned, granted, or surrendered except by deed or note in writing.
Another section of the statute provides that all declarations or creations of trust or confidences of any land, tenements, or heredita manta shall be manifested and proved by some writing signed by the Tarty who is by law enabled to declare such trust, or by his last will in writing, or they shall be void. The 5th section of this statute declared that all devises of lauds or tenements, as more particularly described in this section, should be in writing and signed iu the wanner here prescribed by three or four credible witnesses; and the 6th section related to the revocation of a devise m writing of lands or tenements. Both these sections are repealed by the 1 Vict. o. 26, which makes alterations in other provisions also of the Statute of Frauds.
There are several other important provisions in this statute, which may be omitted here. The purpose of the statute is to prevent fraud by requiring the evidence of writing, which is a better kind of evi dence than men's memory. Its enactments have been usefully amended by the Mercantile Law Amendment Act, 1856, especially with reference to guarantees.