Chapter XLIX.
Domestic Relations, continued. Parent and Child; Guardian and Ward; Minors; Masters, Apprentices, and Servants.
§1. Parents, as the natural guardians of their children, are obliged to provide for their support and education during their minority, or while they are under twenty-one years of age. At twenty-one they attain the age of majority, when they are said to be of age. Under this age they are, in law, infants, or minors. The father, if he is able, is bound to support his minor children, even if they have property of their own; but in such case the mother is not so bound. But a husband is not obliged to maintain the child of his wife by a former husband. If, however, he takes the child into his family, he is responsible for its maintenance and education while it lives with him.
§2. A father may be liable for necessaries sold to a child. But to be so liable, it must be proved that the contract for the articles was made by his actual authority, or the circumstances must be sufficient to imply authority; or that neglect to provide for the child, or some other fault on the part of the father, rendered assistance to the child necessary. Being bound to provide for his children, the father has a right to their labor or service; and he may recover their wages from any person employing them without his consent.
§3. In general, a minor cannot bind himself by contract. If he lives with his father or guardian, by whom he is properly supplied, he can not bind himself even for necessaries. But if, on contracting a debt, he agrees to pay it after he shall have become of age, he will then become liable. If a minor has no father or other guardian, his contracts for necessaries are binding upon him.
§4. If a minor takes an estate and agrees to pay rent, he will be liable for its payment after he shall have become of age. If he receives rents, he can not demand them again when of age. If he pays money on a contract, and enjoys the benefit of the contract and then avoids it when he comes of age, he can not recover back the consideration paid. And if he avoids an executed contract when he comes of age, on the grounds of infancy, he must restore the consideration.
§5. Minors are answerable for crimes, and may be indicted and tried, and, on conviction, be fined and imprisoned. They are responsible also for acts of fraud. Their age and the peculiar circumstances in which they were placed, might be such as to exempt them from liability; but in cases of gross and palpable fraud committed by minors who have arrived at the age of discretion, they would be bound by a contract.
§6. In general, male infants and unmarried females under eighteen years, may, of their own free will, bind themselves, in writing, to serve as apprentices and servants, in any trade or employment; males until the age of twenty-one, and females until the age of eighteen years, or for a shorter time. But the minor must have the consent of the father; or if the father is dead, or disqualified by law, or neglects to provide for his family, consent must be had of the mother; or, if the mother is dead or disqualified, then of the guardian.
§7. Pauper children may be bound out by the officers having charge of the poor. And the laws of many of the states, perhaps of most or all of them, very properly require, that a person, to whom a poor child is bound, shall agree to cause such child to be taught to read and write, and, if a male, to be also instructed in the general rules of arithmetic.
§8. Masters have a right to correct their apprentices with moderation for negligence and misbehavior; and they may recover damage at law of their apprentices for willful absence. On the other hand, a master may be prosecuted for ill usage to his apprentice, and for a breach of his covenant. A master is liable to pay for necessaries for his apprentice, and for medical attendance, but he is not so liable in the case of a hired servant.
§9. When an apprentice becomes immoral and disobedient, an investigation of the matter may be had by the proper authorities; and for good cause the indenture may be annulled, and the parties discharged from their obligations. Upon the death of a master, an apprenticeship is dissolved.
§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.
§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.