Sec.10.  There is, it is believed, no statute law in any state, particularly defining the rights and obligations of hired servants and the persons employing them.  Both are obliged to fulfill their agreement.  If a hired servant leaves the service of his employer, without good cause, before he has worked out the time for which he was hired, he cannot recover his wages.  And for immoral conduct, willful disobedience, or habitual neglect, he may be dismissed.  On the other hand, ill usage, or any failure on the part of the employer to fulfill his engagement, releases the laborer from his service.

Sec.11.  How far a master is answerable for the acts of his hired servant, is not clear.  As a general rule, the master is bound for contracts made, and liable for injuries done, by a servant actually engaged in the business of his master, whether the injury proceeds from negligence or from want of skill.  But for an injury done by a willful act of the servant, it is considered that the master is not liable.  If the servant employs another to do his business, the master is liable for the injury done by the person so employed.  But a servant is accountable to his master for a breach of trust, or for negligence in business, or for injuring another person in his master’s business.

Chapter L.

Right of Property.  How Title to property is acquired; Wills and Testaments Title to Property by Descent.

Sec.1.  Every citizen of the United States is capable of holding lands, or real estate, and of taking them by devise, descent, or purchase, and of selling and conveying away such estate.  Aliens, by common law, have not this power.  In many of the states, however, this disability has been removed by statute.  On declaring their intention to become citizens, and complying with certain regulations, aliens acquire the right to take and hold real estate to themselves and their heirs.  But they may hold and dispose of personal property without any special enactment.

Sec.2.  To devise property is to give or bequeath it by will.  A will is a written instrument in which a person declares his will concerning the disposal of his property after his death.  It is also called testament.  This word is from the Latin testis, meaning witness.  Hence the word has come to be applied to this instrument, which is the witness or proof of a person’s will.  A person making a will is called testator; one who dies without making a will or testament, is called intestate.

Sec.3.  All persons of full age and sound mind, except married women, may give and bequeath real and personal estate by a last will and testament.  In many of the states, personal estate may be willed at an earlier age.  In a few states, females at eighteen may make a will of real and personal estate.  In a few states, personal estate may be willed verbally, if the will is within a specified time reduced to writing, and subscribed by disinterested witnesses.  In Ohio such will must be written within ten days after the speaking of the testamentary words.  A will of this kind is called a nuncupative will.