the owner; but trover may be maintained in many cases and in some cases replevin will lie. The owner is not bound to resort to a trial of the right of property.

HUSBAND AND WIFE

Liability of Husband for Goods Sold to Wife.-When goods necessary and suitable to the position in life of a wife are sold to her, the jury will be justified in finding a verdict against the husband, as she acted as agent of the husband in contracting the debt.

Wife Living Apart from her Husband.—A husband is not liable for necessaries furnished his wife when she lives separate from him without his fault.

Separate Maintenance.-Where the wife leaves her husband without sufficient cause, she will not be entitled to a decree for a separate maintenance.

When she leaves him with his consent and on account of his ill treatment, he is liable for the expense of a separate main. tenance.

FENCE LAWS

Fences are mostly regulated by statutes of the State where located. There are certain laws, however, that are applicable to them generally.

Legal Fence. The laws of the several States provide what shall constitute a legal fence, which generally must be four feet high, with sufficient boards or wire, or both, to turn cattle.

Damages. As a general rule all premises must be properly inclosed before damages can be recovered from the owner of trespassing stock for injury thereto.

Partition, or Division Fences.-The owners of adjacent tracts of land, in most of the States, are bound to erect and maintain one-half of a suitable fence along the line separating such tracts.

Repairs.-Each party is bound to look after his own part of the fence and keep it in good repair, and he must restrain his own stock from trespassing upon the lands of his neighbor.

Fence-Viewers, in some of the States, are provided for by statute to determine the just share of each party liable to maintain a partition fence, and suitable methods are provided for enforcing their awards.

Railroads are required by statute in many States to fence their tracts, and a failure to do so renders them liable for stock killed by reason of non-compliance with the statute.

Barb-wire fences must be so used and cared for as not to endanger persons and property, and the use of such fences imposes upon those who use them care reasonably proportionate to their danger.

Railroads using barb wire fences must use due diligence in running their trains, not only to avoid killing stock, but to avoid precipitating them by fright against a fence to be mangled or bruised.

THEY WENT TO LAW ABOUT THE LINE FENCE-THE SUIT BEGINS
TRESPASSING AND MISCHIEVOUS ANIMALS

Owners of domestic animals, such as cows, horses, sheep, hogs, poultry and dogs, must not permit them to stray upon the premises of others, or they will be liable in trespass for damages.

No Right to Kill or Injure.-But those upon whose premises such animals trespass are not justified in killing or injuring the animals, no matter how aggravating or repeated the acts of trespass may be.

Remedy Provided.-The persons injured by such trespassing have their remedy in an action at law for damages, and there

are statutes providing for the taking up of such animals and holding them at the expense of their owner or impounding them as estrays.

Mischievous Animals.-The owner of a mischievous animal, known to him to be so, is responsible, when he permits him to go at large, for the damages he may do. And any one may justify the killing of a ferocious animal at large. The owner of such an animal may be indicted for a common nuisance.

THE SUIT ENDS AND THE LAWYER GETS BOTH COW AND MILK

If a person enters the barn or pasture of another, and is injured by a vicious horse or bull, it must be shown that the owner used all reasonable means in the care of his animals for the safety of his help and neighbors.

If a person enters upon the land of another, and is injured, he must show good cause for entering upon said land, and also prove ordinary caution, in going where cattle and horses were kept.

RESPONSIBILITY OF OWNING A DOG

A person has a right to keep a dog to guard his premises, but not to put him unconfined at the entrance of his house; because a person coming there on a social or business errand may be

injured by him. But if the dog is chained, and a visitor so incautiously goes near him that he is bitten, he has no right of action against the owner.

Liable for Damage.-Owners of dogs must keep them from straying upon the public highway, or they will be responsible for any damage caused by their annoyance of travelers, scaring of children, barking after teams, etc.

If a dog strays upon the premises and kills or injures any other domestic animal, its owner is liable for damages.

Dangerous Dogs running at large may lawfully be killed when their ferocity is known to their owner, or in self-defense; and when bitten by a rabid animal a dog may be lawfully killed by any one.

But a person is not justified in killing a dog without notice to the owner, merely because it barks around his house at night.

The owner of a vicious dog will not be held liable for the dog's biting a person unless it can be shown that the dog had previously exhibited a propensity to violence, and that the owner was acquainted with this propensity.

BREACH OF TRUST

Breach of trust is the willful misappropriation of personal property by one who has been intrusted with its possession in confidence.

As Distinguished from Larceny.-The cases where personal property is taken by a person to whom it has been intrusted, and who converts it to his own use, present very nice discriminations of mere breaches of trust from larceny.

If a person has property in goods, and a right to the possession of them, he cannot, in general, commit the crime of larceny in taking them; but if he only has the custody of them, and no property in them, he may steal them.

The courts generally lean toward construing the offense to be larceny, and not merely a breach of trust, where the party gains possession by some false pretense, with the original intent to steal.

A bailee who fraudulently converts the property intrusted to him to his own use is guilty not simply of a breach of trust, which is only a trespass, but of larceny, which is a crime.

LEGAL GIFTS

Definition. A gift is the voluntary and gratuitous transfer or conveyance of the right and possession of property by one person to another.

Names of Parties.-The giver of the property is called the donor, the receiver the donee.

Who May Make a Gift.-Any person competent to transact ordinary business may give whatever he owns to any other person.

Delivery to the donee is essential to a gift, and there must also be actual acceptance. It must be an actual delivery, so far as the subject is capable of delivery. If the thing be not capable of actual delivery, there must be some act equivalent to it; something sufficient to work an immediate change in the control of the property.

Looked Upon with Suspicion.-The law generally looks with some degree of suspicion upon gifts, and they are usually considered to be fraudulent if creditors or others become sufferers thereby.

Retracting. Where a gift has been executed by delivery of possession, it is not in the donor's power to retract it; but so long as the gift has not been completed by delivery of possession, it is not properly a gift, but a contract, and this a person cannot be compelled to perform but upon good and sufficient consideration.

A Gift Made in Prospect of Death may be revoked by the donor at any time during his life, though it be completed and executed by delivery and acceptance.