MASTER AND SERVANT. In its broadest sense, persons in such a relation that one is em ployed to work for and represent the other. Modern law, however, distinguishes the employee who is engaged to represent his employer in busi ness transactions involving; the making of con tracts on the employer's behalf from others, and designates him as agent (q.v.). This article will be confined to the law of master and servant in its narrow sense—to the rules governing the relation of persons where one is employed to render service for the other but not to bind him by contract.
Formerly servants were classified as voluntary and involuntary, the latter class including slaves and apprentices (q.v.). only volunLiry ser vants will be here considered. Eminent legal writers hold that some of the rules governing master and servant to-day "can only be ex plained by going back to the time when servants were slaves." For example, it is said the genesis of the master's extraordinary liability for acts of his servant which he has neither commanded nor app'roved is found in the right of the ancient master to surrender the slave who has injured another. This and similar views, however, have not been sufficiently established.
The modern servant becomes such as the result of an agreement with the master which either party may break at will subject only to the usual that the party in the wrong is liable to pay damage for the breach. If the contract is not to be performed within a 3-ear after it is made, it is required by the Statute of Frauds (q.v.) to be in writing. Tf, however, it. he for an indefinite period, which may end within a year after the agreement is entered into, no writ ing is necessary. Thu,: a contract of service. to continue during the life of either party thereto, nmy be made orally. since it may terminate with in a year after it is made. .:\nd even when an oral agreement is made for a term longer than year. if the master receive and accept services rendered by the servant and then refuse to go on and complete the contract, the latter may re cover. in an action upon an implied contract, technically called a (plant um nicruit, the value of the labor he has thus performed. When the services continue tor a year and after its expira tion the servant remains in the same employment without any further expressed agreement, a re mlewal of the contract for another year and upon the same terms is presumed by law. In the ab sence of special contract as to the time of service, it is sometimes difficult to determine whether the hiring is for a year or for a shorter period, such as a. month, week, etc. The common instance of the hiring of farm hands, in which each of the interested parties had a right. in the absence of any contract stipulations, to assume that the services would continue through the four sea sons, gave rise to the presumption. which came to be applied to most contracts of hiring in Eng land, that if no (ITU(' were specified an agreement was meant to last for one year. But this pre sumption is easily overcome by slight evidence of facts and circumstances which indicate a con trary intention. Thus the period for which the wages are to lie paid, as by the quarter, month, week, etc.. will frequently be decisive in proving the hiring to be for a year, a month, a week, etc. And it may be laid down as the general rule in the United States that where the contract is silent as to the term of service and there is no well-defined usage in the particular community on the subject, the hiring is terminable by the will of either party.
After the relation has been duly constituted, we have to consider (1) the mutual duties and liabilities of the parties, and (2.) their liabilities to third parties and rights against them.
( 1 ) DrTIF.s AND LIABILITIES. The servant is bound to have competent skill for the service which he undertakes. to exercise due diligence in his work, to Whey all hiwful orders of his master concerning- the labor for which he was engaged. to conduct himself respectfully. and not to leave his employment during the time for which the cont ract Was if he leave the minister without just cause during the stipulated time, he eannot recover unpaid wages for the services already rendered. And if be be right fully discharged he forfeits his wages for the period during which he has served without pay ment. Itut if he he prevented by sickness from completing his part of the contract. he may re cover for the value of the services which he has rendered. If his unjustifiable breach of emit raet results in damage to his employer he is liable therefor. In some cases servants may be en joined by the from breaking their eon traets of service. (See ('oNsetr,Acv and STRIKE.) SuIlle of the grounds on which a servant mat• he lawfully discharged before the expiration of his term are gross immorality, willful disobedience of orders, habitual negligence, and glaring in competence to perform his duties. if during his term he be discharged unjustly and without any such cause, lie may either treat the contract as rescinded. and sue far the value of the services already rendered; or he may sue for the breach of the contract and in that action recover both the value of the services already rendered and the compensation for the damages sustained by him because of his wrongful discharge. But it is always his duty, during the residue of the term for which he Was employed. to seek for other employment of a similar in the same locality, in order to rednee as much as pos sible the damages recoverable against his master. if he do not thus seek and accept such similar employment as ho may he able to obtain, the master may show that fact. in mitigation of damages. in the action brought by the servant for the breach of the contract. If, after the col tract. is made, the master neglect or refuse to furnish work pursuant thereto. the servant may recover as damages the entire amount of the stipulated wages, if lie have duly held himself in readiness to perform and been unable by rea sonable effort to obtain other employment of a similar character. if he sue. however, before the expiration of the stipulated time and recover damages up to the time of trial, he will be there IT barred or precluded from maintaining any further action for subsequently securing dam ages. This results from the principle that a contract for work and services is entire, and its breach gives only one right of action. When a servant becomes sick, the master is generally under no obligation to supply him with medical attendance: but an implied contract to pay for the services of a physician who is called in is frequently fastened upon the master from the fact that. he has the physician called and other wise acts as if he were assuming the obligation. if a master furnishes medical attendance gra tuitously, he is not liable to the servant for the physician's negligence, provided he used reason able care in selecting him.