In that case the warehouseman may at any time elect to consider the agreement at an end, and may demand that the owner of the goods shall remove them at his own expense. The owner then has a reasonable time in which to take his goods, and if they are still in the warehouse at the expiration of such reasonable time, the warehouseman may remove them at the expense of the owner and store them elsewhere. That the owner intends to place his goods in another store belonging to the same warehouseman does not affect the question. LIABILITY OF A WAREHOUSEMAN-MEASURE OF DAMAGES. A customer of this office has stored with a certain warehouse and lighterage company some merchandise. He instructs the warehouse and ighterage company to transfer the merchandise from one warehouse to another, and in order to do so it becomes necessary to transfer said merchandise by lighter. A damage occurs by reason of the merchandise falling overboard. Our customer has no insurance, but looks to the warehouse and lighterage company for reimbursement on account of loss. The market value of the merchandise at the time of the accident is 71⁄2 cents per pound. A day or two after, the market value of the merchandise goes up to 9 cents per pound. In the meantime no adjustment has been made between the lighterage company and the owner of the merchandise. It is supposed that the insurance policies held by the lighterage company indemnify them only for the market value of the merchandise on the day of the accident. Our customer is willing to accept merchandise of like quality in settlement of his claim. Is he under obligations to accept a settlement of his claim on the basis of the market value of the merchandise the day of the accident, or can he collect from the lighterage company at the rate it would cost him to replace the merchandise? REPLY.-When a warehouseman becomes liable for damage to goods arising merely from his negligence, and not caused by any willful wrongdoing on his part, the measure of damages is the market value of the goods at the time they were damaged or lost, with interest from that time to the date of payment. The theory of the law is that it is the duty of the warehouseman to repair the loss instantly. If he does not do so, he may repair it at any subsequent time by paying the amount which would have been required to make good the loss at the time of the damage, together with interest for the delay. A warehouseman is not an insurer of profits; and in the case our correspondent puts, he cannot be held for more than 71⁄2 cents per pound of merchandise destroyed, with interest at 6 per cent. per annum from the date of loss. EXECUTION AND ATTESTATION. Wills. Please inform me what are the requirements for a will in New York, and particularly as to the requisite number of witnesses. Are the witnesses required actually to witness the signature, or is it sufficient that they be requested to sign as witnesses by the testator? Are there any special regulations as to married women? REPLY.-The formalities required in the execution and attestation of a will in this State are the same in a case in which the testatrix is a married woman as in any other case. They are as follows: 1. It shall be subscribed by the testator at the end of the will. 2. Such subscription shall be made by the testator, in the presence of each of the attesting witnesses, or shall be acknowledged by him to have been so made, to each of the attesting witnesses. 3. The testator, at the time of making such subscription, or at the time of acknowledging the same, shall declare the instrument so subscribed to be his last will and testament. 4. There shall be at least two attesting witnesses, each of whom shall sign his name as a witness, at the end of the will, at the request of the testator." MUTUAL WILL. Can husband and wife own personal property, say household furniture, jointly, to become the absolute property of the survivor, and, if so, how should the title be fixed? REPLY. If a husband and wife own property which they wish the survivor to have, upon the death of either, the simplest plan is for them to join in a mutual will devising the property reciprocally to each other. Then, when either of them dies, the will may be proved as the will of that person, and those portions by which the survivor undertook to devise his interest will simply become inoperative. WILL OF A MARRIED WOMAN. A married woman dies, leaving personal property and real estate which, by will, she bequeaths to a married daughter for her sole use and disposition, no other son or daughter living, thereby cutting off entirely her husband, who in great part had accumulated such property and bad placed it in his wife's name. No estrangement existed between hustand and wife, and the former feels an injustice has been done him. The husband has no suspicion of undue influence, and desires to know if he can be legally cut off. REPLY.-Under the laws of this State a married woman may, by will, cut off her husband from all interest in the personal or real property left by her. A provision in her will to this effect is valid and will be upheld. Property accumulated by a husband, and placed in his wife's name, becomes her property, unless the husband can prove that there was an understanding between them by virtue of which she was to hold as trustee for him and not as absolute owner. LAPSING OF LEGACIES. I made a will several years ago, bequeathing to my son a sum of money at my death, the balance of my estate given to my wife. My son marries, and the issue of that marriage is a daughter. My son, one year after daughter is born, dies, and two weeks later a son is born to his widow. Has the grandson the same claim as the granddaughter, under my will, share and share alike, and has my son's widow any claim on said money bequeathed to my son? I do not wish to make another will if I can help it, and want the sum set apart in my will for my son (since deceased) to go to his children, and none to go to his widow. REPLY.-If our correspondent's will is not changed, the amount bequeathed by it to his son will go in equal parts, upon the death of the testator, to such children of the son as may then be alive. The general rule is that when a legatee or devisee dies before the testator, the devise or legacy lapses. But the statutes of this State make an exception to the rule, as follows: "Whenever any estate, real or personal, shall be devised or bequeathed to a child or other descendant of the testator, and such legatee or devisee shall die during the lifetime of the testator, leaving a child or other descendant who shall survive such testator, such devise or legacy shall not lapse, but the property so devised or bequeathed shall vest in the surviving child or other descend ant of the legatee or devisee, as if such legatee or devisee had survived the testator and had died intestate." The surviving children, or descendant-, in such a case, do not take through or by way of representation of their deceased parent or other intermediate ancestor, but they take as new or substituted legatees or devisees, directly from the testator. But even if they took in their representative capacity, the son would share equally with the daughter, in the present case. This he would do under the statute which provides that "descendants and next of kin of the deceased, begotten before his death, but born thereafter, shall take in the same manner as if they had been born in the lifetime of the deceased, and had survived him." The son and daughter of the deceased son, in the case under consideration, will take the property free of any claim on the part of their father's widow or creditors. Miscellaneous. DUTIES ON GOODS ACCIDENTALLY DESTROYED. If a fire should take place in a bonded warehouse, and the goods therein be totally or partly destroyed, have the custom-house authorities the right to ask for any duty on said goods? REPLY.-If imported goods are damaged or destroyed by fire or other like casualty while in the custody of the Government, the Secretary of the Treasury is authorized to rebate or refund the duties, and he always does so. The provision is contained in section 2984 U. S. Revised Statutes, which is as follows: "The Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized, upon production of satisfactory proof to him of the actual injury or destruction, in whole or in part, of any merchandise, by accidental fire, or other casualty, while the same remained in the custody of the officers of the customs in any public or private warehouse under bond, or in the appraisers' stores undergoing appraisal, in pursuance of law or regulations of the Treasury Department, or while in transportation under bond from the port of entry to any other port in the United States, or while in the custody of the officers of the customs and not in bond, or while within the limits of any port of entry, and before the same have been landed under the supervision of the officers of the customs, to abate or refund, as the case may be, out of any moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the amount of impost duties paid or accruing thereupon; and likewise to cancel any warehouse bond or bonds, or enter satisfaction thereon in whole or in part, as the case may be." LETTERS ADDRESSED TO CONSIGNEES. Please let me know whether it is necessary to put any stamps on consignees' letters by a steamer which has no mail contract? REPLY.-Letters re.ating wholly to the cargo of a vessel, or to any part of it, addressed to the consignees and carried by the vessel carrying the cargo, may lawfully be carried and delivered without passing through the Post-office and without having stamps affixed to them. If the vessel is engaged in the domestic trade, the matter covered by section 3985 U. S. Revised Statutes, while section 4016 grants like permission to those engaged in the foreign trade. EXCHANGE-COST OF SHIPPING Gold. 1. What is the usual range of fluctuations of New York exchange in London? 2. What rate of exchange usually obtains in London on points elsewhere in England? 3. What is the cost of shipping gold between New York and European ports? REPLY.-1. During the year 1897 New York exchange on London ranged from 4.8634 to 4.814 for 60-day bills, and from 4.884 to 4.84 for sight, and London exchange on New York fluctuates in unison with New York exchange on London. 2 The usual rate of exchange between London and other places in England is from one-sixteenth to one-eighth of 1 per cent. in favor of London. 3. The cost of shipping gold from New York to London is about 2.7 cents per pound sterling, made up of the following items: of the proceedings against either party, and this authority need not be expressly conferred upon the arbitrators. The soundness of this doctrine is disputed in some States, but the courts of New York have always enforced it. For a comparatively recent decision by our highest court, see 119 N. Y., 475. NEUTRALITY OF THE SUEZ CANAL. I enclose an extract from an editorial appearing in a Norfolk paper relative to the Suez Canal. Will you be good enough to advise me whether or not the statement therein contained is correct. If the statement be correct, please state where the convention of 1888 was held, what Powers were represented therein, and what was the general decision as to the subject. REPLY. It is true, as the clipping enclosed by our correspondent states, that "in 1888 a convention of the Powers controlling the Suez Canal decided that ships of belligerents should be allowed to pass through the waterway in time of war." The convention containing this stipulation was signed at Constantinople on October 29, 1888, by representatives of Great Britain, AustriaHungary, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia, Spain, and Turkey. Article 1 of the convention is in these words: "The Suez Maritime Canal shall always be free and open, in time of war as in time of peace, to every vessel of commerce or of war, without distinction of flag." Other articles stipulate that this free use of the canal shall not be interfered with, and that the canal shall not be subject to blockade; that no act of hostility shall be committed in the canal, its ports of access, or within a radius of three marine miles of those ports; that war vessels of belligerents shall not take in stores in the canal or its ports of access, except such as may be strictly necessary; that their transit through the canal must be effected with the least possible delay; that their stay at Port Said or in the roadstead of Suez shall not exceed 24 hours, except in case of distress, and in such case it shall not exceed the necessities of the case; that an interval of 24 hours must always elapse between the sailing of a belligerent ship from the port of access and the departure of a ship belonging to the hostile power; that the Fowers shall not keep war vessels in the waters of the canal (including Lake Timsah and the Bitter Lakes), but may station vessels of war in the ports of access, the number of which shall not exceed two for cach Power, and the right not to be exercised by belligerents. WHEN AN ILLITERATE IS BOUND BY HIS SIGNATURE. Please inform me what has been the ruling or weight of opinion on the following question, if possible citing authorities: To what extent is a depos.tor of a bank, who signs bis name to the register assenting to the by-laws, etc., and to any changes therein that the bank may see fit to make, bound by this assent, in the event that he was unable to read or write? REPLY.-The weight of authority in this country is to the effect that an illiterate person who signs a contract without asking to have it read or explained to him is bound by it if no fraud or imposition was practiced upon him. Men who can read sometimes sign documents which they have not read. They are bound by such signatures, because they could have read the documents if they had chosen to do so. An illiterate man stands practically upon the same footing before the law. He is not compelled to sign an instrument which he does not understand, and he may demand that it be read to him before he signs it. If it is read to him incorrectly, he is not asking to have it read at all, be cannot escape bound by his signature; but if he signs without unless be can show that the purport of the document was misrepresented to him. See 103 Pa. St., 594; 130 Mass., 259; 62 N. Y., 56, and cases cited in those decisions. EXCLUSION OF IMPORTS. Has the President of the United States the right to prevent the importation into this country of German wines or woolens in order to retaliate against Germany for its late decree? REPLY.-The President has such power as our correspondent describes. It is conferred upon him by section 5 of the Act of August 30, 1800, which is as follows: "Section 5. That whenever the President shall be satisfied that unjust discriminations are made by or under the authority of any foreign State against the importation to or sale in such foreign State of any product of the United States, he may direct that such products of such foreign State so discriminating against any product of the United States as he may deem proper shall be excluded from importation to the United States; and in such case he shall make proclamation of his direction in the premises, and therein name the time when such direction against importation shall take effect, and after such date the importation of the articles named in such proclamation shall be unlawful. President may at any time revoke, modify, terminate, or renew any such direction as, in his opinion, the public interest may require." The INDEX. Information concerning individual subjects should also be sought under general Information concerning individual subjects should also be sought under general classes, and vice versa. Belgium-continued - immigration, 37 imports and exports by articles, 39 king, 522 land forces, 539 live-stock, 37 of gold and silver, 39 by totals, and per capita, with Africa, 130 with United States. See also UNITED STATES measures and weights, 281, 284 money, 39 population, and occupations of, 37 post-office, 142 railroads, 137 revenue, fiscal, 37 - shipping: number & tonnage, sail & steam, 132 and in ballast, and with cargoes telegraphs, 143 weights and measures, 281, 284 wheat crop, 461 Beloochistan: khan, 522 Bermuda: imports and exports, total, and per capita, 534 revenue and expenditure, total, and per capita. - telegraphs, 143 Bohemia: weights and measures, 281 See also GERMANY Bokhara: ameer, 522 Bolivia, 124 agriculture, 124 area, 124 banking, 124 - coinage, 376 coins, gold and silver, 144 debt, public, 124 post-office, 142 president, 522 - revenue, fiscal, 124 - telegraphs, 124, 143 - weights and measures, 284 agriculture, 118 area, 118 banking, 119 coins, gold and silver, 144 value of, 378 debt, public, 118, 148 duties, import, collected, 141 - expenditure, fiscal, 118, 533; and per capita exports. See Imports and Exports fiscal affairs (revenue, expenditure, etc.), 118 gold and silver, imports and exports, 119 imports and exports by articles, 118 of gold and silver, 119 |