FRAUDS, STATUTE OF. The name com monly given to the statute 29 Car. II. c. 3, entitled "An Act for the Prevention of Frauds and Perjuries." Sections 1-3 provide that all interest in real estate created by livery of seisin only, or by parol, and not put in writing, and sign ed by the parties, or their agents authorized by writing, shall have the effect of leases estates at will only, except leases not exceed-1 ing three years.
Section 4 provides that no action shall be brought to charge any executor or adminis trator upon any special promise to answer damages personally, or to charge the defend ant' upon any special promise to answer for the debt, default or miscarriages of another ; or to charge any person upon any agreement made upon consideration of marriage ; or up on any contract or sale of lands, or any inter est therein or upon any agreement that is not to be performed within one year ; unless the agreement or some memorandum or 'note thereof shall be in writing, signed by the par ty to be charged, or his agent.
Section 17 invalidates the sale of any goods, wares and merchandises for the price of ten pounds sterling or upwards, except the buyer shall accept part of the goods, and ac tually receive the same, or give something in earnest to bind the bargain or in part of pay ment, or that some note or memorandum in writing be made and signed by the parties to be charged or their agents.
These are the most important sections ; other sections provide additional solemnities in eases of wills ; new liabilities imposed in respect of real estate held in trust ; the dis position of estates pur enter vie; the entry and effect of judgments and executions.
The statute introduced into the law a dis tinction between written parol and oral parol transactions, and rendered a writing neces sary for the valid performance of the mat ters to which they relate. Those matters are the following: Conveyances, leases, and sur renders of interests in lands ; declarations of trusts of interest in lands ; special prom ises 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 consideration of marriage ; contracts for the sale of lands, tenements, or heredita ments, or any interest in or concerning them ; agreements not to be performed within the space of one year from the making thereof ; contracts for the sale of goods, wares, and merchandise for the price of ten pounds sterl ing or upwards. All these matters must be, by the statute, put in writing, signedlq the party to be charged, or his attorney.
As to the acceptance of bills of exchange, see ACCEPTANCE.
A sale by parol of standing timber to be immediately cut, is good ; In re Benjamin, 140 Fed. 320 ; Robbins v. Farwell, 193 Pa. 37, 44 Atl. 260 ; but not if it would require three or four years to work it up; White v. Fitts, 102 Me. 240, 66 Atl. 533, 15 L. R. A. (N. S.) 313, 120 Am. St. Rep. 483. A note or mem orandum of a sale of real estate is sufficient, though the party did not deliver, but retained it ; Lowther v. Potter, 197 Fed. 196.
Where possession is relied upon as part performance, it must be notorious, exclusive, continuous, and in pursuance of the contract ; Baldwin v. Baldwin, 73 Kan. 39, 84 Pac. 568, 4 L. R. A. (N. S.) 957. The statutory period commences with the date of the agreement and not from the time for commencement of performance ; Chase v. Hinkley, 126 Wis. 75,
105 N. W. 230, 2 L. R. A. (N. S.) 738, 110 Am. St. Rep. 896, 5 Ann. Cas. 328. An oral agree ment to pay back at the purchaser's option the money advanced on a sale of realty and assume the contract is void ; Esslinger v. Pas coe, 129 Iowa, 86, 105 N. W. 362, 3 L. R. A. (N. S.) 147. Where the purchaser orally agrees to pay the owner's debts as part of the consideration, he cannot interpose the statute if the contract has been so far per formed that he has received the property ; Ackley v. Parmenter, 98 N. Y. 425, 50 Am. Rep. 693 ; Satterfield v. Kindley, 144 N. C. 455, 57 S. E. 145, 15 L. R. A. (N. S.) 399, 1% Ann. Cas. 1098. A contemporary promise of one person to pay where the benefit inures to another is a promise to answer for the de fault of another ; when it appears that the credit is not given in the first instance wholly to the person who promises to pay for goods to be delivered to another, then the under taking is collateral, but if the credit is giv en direct, then no writing is necessary ; Har ris v, Frank, 81 Cal. 280, 22 Pac. 856 ; Hard man v. Bradley, 85 Ill. 162 ; Johnson v. Bank, 60 W. Va. 320, 55 S. E. 394, 9 Ann. Cas, 893. As a general rule contracts required to be in writing cannot be modified by parol; Nona maker v. Amos, 73 Ohio St. 163, 76 N. E. 949 ; 4 L. R. A. (N. S.) 980, 112 Am. St. Rep. 708, 4 Ann. Cas. 179 ; contra, Marsh v. Bellew, 45 Wis. 38 ; Stearns v. Hall, 9 Cush. (Mass.) 31, An authorization by one to another to pur chase stock for him from a third person not within the statute ; Wiger v. Carr, 131 Wis. 584, 111 N. W. 657, 11 L. R. A. (N. S.) 650, 11 Ann. Cas. 998. A delivery and ac ceptance of any part of the goods or chat tels subsequent to the oral agreement will take the case out of the statute.
A written and signed offer, which is ac cepted, either in writing or orally, constitutes a sufficient memorandum of contract under the statute of frauds; In re Pettingill & Co., 137 Fed. 143.
A parol submission of matters involving the title to real estate is invalid under the statute ; Hewitt v. R. Co., 57 N. J. Eq. 511, 42 Atl. 325 ; Wilmington Water Power Co. v. Evans, 166 Ill. 548.
As to contracts of indemnity to a third person see INDEMNITY; 42 Am. St. Rep. 186, n. ; as to contracts to be performed within a year see Warner v. R. Co., 164 U. S. 418, 17 Sup. Ct. 147, 41 L. Ed. 495.
In regard to contracts for the sale of goods, wares, and merchandise, the payment of earnest-money, or the acceptance and receipt of part of the goods, etc., dispenses with the written memorandum. See EARNEST; SALE.
The substance of the statute, as regards the provisions above referred to, has been re-enacted in almost all the states ; and in many of them, other points coming within the same general policy, but not embodied in the original English statute, have been made the subject of more recent enactments: as, for instance, the requirement of writing to hold a party upon a representation as to the character, credit, etc., of a third person, which was provided in England by 9 Geo. IV. cap. 14, § 6, commonly called Lord Tenter den's Act. For the legislation of the different star es see Browne, Statute of Frauds.