THE

LAW SUMMARY;

COLLECTION

OF

LEGAL TRACTS ON SUBJECTS

OF

GENERAL APPLICATION

IN

BUSINESS.

BY BENJAMIN L. OLIVER,

COUNSELLOR AT LAW.

Second Edition, corrected and enlarged.

HALLOWELL:
GLAZIER, MASTERS & CO.

1833.

BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the 13th day of May, A. D. 1831, in the fifty-sixth year of the Independence of the United States of America, BENJAMIN L. OLIVER, of the said district, has deposited in this office the title of a book, the title of which is in the words following, to wit:

'The Law Summary; a Collection of Legal Tracts on Subjects of General Application in business. By BENJAMIN L. OLIVER, Counsellor at Law;' the right whereof he claims as author, in conformity with an act of Congress, entitled An act to amend the several acts respecting Copy rights.'

JNO. W. DAVIS,
Clerk of the District.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

THE design of the following work is to furnish a concise view of the law, in relation to certain subjects of frequent occurrence in ordinary business.

In the selection of these subjects, particular attention has been paid to their practical utility, and general application. And, though it is not presumed that, in every instance, the most useful topics have been selected, and far less, that every thing useful in relation to them, has been introduced in these pages; yet, it is believed, there is but little can be found in them, which will not well repay the reader, if impressed on the memory, and the cautions necessarily arising from them are carefully attended to in his dealings with others.

One of the greatest evils which can befal a man in business, is to be continually entangled in contentious litigation. For, in the animosity and rancour, which it creates between the litigant parties, it is mutually destructive; in the trouble and anxiety which it occasions, vexatious and harrassing; in the disbursements for fees of counsel and officers, and costs of court, expensive to both parties, and to one of them an uncompensated loss; in waste of time, an unprofitable consumption of human life; and in the measures, which it is apt to suggest, especially to the party in the wrong, in order to obtain a favorable decision, highly discreditable, because tending to sap the foundations of integrity and justice.

It is worthy of remark, that the same cause, the proverbial uncertainty of the law, produces contrary effects on persons of different characters. The timid and cautious are frequently deterred by it from going to law, in the assertion of the plainest right; while the bold and unprincipled will not hesitate, on the same account, to set up for the most flagrant wrong, any defence, however shameless and dishonest, if it can be brought, though only in appearance, under the shelter of any rule of technical law;