Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

263

CONTRACT

CONTRACTOR

terms, susceptible of apportionment on ei ther side, so as to correspond to the unascer tained consideration on the other side, as a contract to pay a person the worth of hia services so long aa he will do certain work; or to give a certain price for every bushel of so much corn as corresponds to a sample. W barton. Principal and accessory. A princi pal contract is one which stands by it self, justifies its own existence, and is not subordinate or auxiliary to any other. Ac cessory contracts are those made for assur ing the performance of a prior contract, either by the same parties or by others, such as suretyship, mortgage, and pledges. Civil Code La. art. 1764. Unilateral and bilateral. A unilat eral contract is one in which one party makes an express engagement or under takes a performance, without receiving in return any express engagement or prom ise of performance from the other. Bilateral (or reciprocal) contracts are those by which the parties expressly enter into mutual en gagements, such as sale or hire. Civil Code La. art. 1758; Poth. Obi. 1,1, 1, 2. Consensual and real. Consensual con tracts are such as are founded upon and completed by the mere agreement of the contracting parties, without any external formality or symbolic act to fix the ob ligation. Real contracts are those in which it is necessary that there should be some thing more than mere consent, such as a loan of money, deposit, or pledge, which, from their nature, require a delivery of the thing, (res.) Certain and hazardous. Certain con tracts are those in which the thing to be done is supposed to depend on the will of the party, or when, in the usual course of events, it must happen in the manner stipu lated. Hazardous contracts are those in which the performance of that which is one of its objects depends on an uncertain event. Civil Code La. 1769. Commutative and independent. Com mutative contracts are those in which what is done, given, or promised by one party is considered as an equivalent to or in con sideration of what is done, given, or prom ised by the other. Civil Code La. 1761. Independent contracts are those in which the mutual acts or promises have no relation to each other, either as equivalents or as con siderations. Civil Code La. 1762.

Gratuitous and onerous. Gratuitous contracts are those of which the object is the benefit of the person with whom it is made, without any profit or advantage received or promised as a consideration for it. Jt is not, however, the less gratuitous if it proceed either from gratitude for a benefit before received or from the hope of receiving one hereafter, although such benefit be of a pecuniary nature. Civil Code La. 1766. Onerous contracts are those in which some thing is given or promised as a consideration for the engagement or gift, or some service, interest, or condition is imposed on what is given or promised, although unequal to it in value. Mutual interest, mixed, etc. Con tracts of mutual interest are such as are en tered into for the reciprocal interest and utility of each of the parties; as sales, ex change, partnership, and the like. Mixed contracts are those by which one of the par ties confers a benefit on the other, receiving something of inferior value in return, such as a donation subject to a charge. Contracts of beneficence are those by which only one of the contracting parties is benefited; as, loans, deposit, and mandate. Foth. Obi. 1, 1, 1, 2. CONTBACT OF BENEVOLENCE. A contract made for the benefit of one of the contracting parties only, as a mandate or de posit. CONTBACT OP BECOBD. A con tract of record is one which has been declared and adjudicated by a court having jurisdic tion, or which is entered of record in obedi ence to, or in carrying out, the judgments of a court. Code Ga. 1882, § 2716. CONTBACT OF SALE.. A contract by which one of the contracting parties, called the "seller," enters into an obligation to the other to cause him to have freely, by a title of proprietor, a thing, for the price of a certain sum of money, which the other con tracting party, called the "buyer," on his part obliges himself to pay. Poth. Cont. CONTBACTION. Abbreviation; abridg ment or shortening of a word by omitting a letter or letters or a syllable, with a mark over the place where the elision occurs. This was customary in recoids written in the ancient "court hand," and is frequently found in thf books printed m black-letter. CONTBACTOB. This term is strictly applicable to any person who enters into a contract, but is commonly reserved to desig

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