211

PRESCRIPTIVE RIGHTS 214

QUASI CONTRACTS 218

SALE 227

SHIPPING 235

STATUTE OF FRAUDS 242

STATUTES OF LIMITATION 243

TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE 246

TORTS OR WRONGS 248

WARRANTY 260

WILL 262

WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION ACTS 266

LEGAL FORMS FOR EVERYDAY USE 277

INDEX 321

Putnam's Handy Law Book for the Layman

=Explanation of Terms.=--At the outset the explanation of a few terms,
often used, may be helpful to the reader. Among these are the terms
statute and common law. Statute law or statutes mean the laws enacted
by the state legislature and by the federal congress. Common law means
the decisions made by the state and federal courts. These decisions
may relate to the interpretation and application of statutes, or to
the application of former decisions or precedents, or to the
qualification and application of them, or to the making and
application of new rules or principles where none exist that are
needed to decide the case in hand.

It is a rule of the most general application that legal decisions are
precedents which are to be followed in other cases of the same
character. The decisions of the highest court in each state must be
followed by the lower courts, but no courts in any state are obliged
to follow the decisions of the courts in any other state. The courts
in every state must also follow the decisions of the federal courts in
all matters of a national character. Thus if a federal court decides
the meaning or interpretation of a federal statute, a state court must
follow the interpretation in a case requiring the application of that
statute.

Again, common law decisions are not binding on the courts that make
them like statutes or legislative commands. A decision may be modified
or set aside when it is regarded as no longer applicable to the
present condition of things. It may also be se