OF MASTER AND SERVANT: BEING A TREATISE ON THE LAW RELATING TO CONTRACTS OF SERVICE, APPRENTICESHIP, AND EMPLOYMENT. Part I.-COMMON LAW. Part II. STATUTE LAW. BY SIR JOHN MACDONELL, M.A., LL.D., C.B., ONE OF THE MASTERS OF THE SUPREME COURT OF JUDICATURE. SECOND EDITION BY EDWARD A. MITCHELL INNES, M.A. OXON., ONE OF HIS MAJESTY'S COUNSEL. LONDON: STEVENS AND SONS, LIMITED, 119 & 120, CHANCERY LANE, Law Publishers. PREFACE. THE first edition of this book appeared in 1883. Since that time that portion of the law with which it deals has undergone many changes, which are themselves the outcome and reflection of other changes, social, political and industrial. Sub-division of labour has increased; the combined operations of labour, and with them the relations of employer and employed, have grown more complex; organization has made Labour both conscious of its power and articulate in its demands. The result has been to alter considerably both the volume and character of industrial legislation. Even a cursory consideration of the statutes printed in Part II. of this book will show the growth of legislative control over the conditions of employment, and of State interference in questions connected with the relations of employer and employed. Perhaps one of the most interesting and significant instances of this tendency will be found in the application of the civil law of conspiracy to trade disputes. This question, which has been the subject of many recent cases, seemed to have been put on a firm basis by the decision of the House of Lords in Quinn v. Leathem. That decision stood for five years. In 1906 there was passed a statute, known as the Trade Disputes Act, 1906, by virtue of which the civil law of conspiracy, as laid down in Quinn v. Leathem, has no application to acts done in contemplation or furtherance of a "trade dispute" as therein defined. But this Act goes further. It had been decided in Taff Vale Rail. Co. v. Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants that a trade union could be sued and its funds be made answerable, in a properly constituted action, for the torts of its agents. The Trade Disputes Act, 1906, annuls this decision by prohibiting actions of tort against trade unions. I have tried to consult especially the interests of the lawyer who has not ready access to a law library. With that object in view, there have been printed, at the risk of unwieldiness, all the rules, forms and orders under such statutes as the Employers and Workmen Act, 1875, the Employers' Liability Act, 1880, and the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1906. Unfortunately and this fact accounts to a large extent for the delay in the appearance of this editionSir JOHN MACDONELL has been prevented by the claims of other work from taking part, as he had hoped, in the preparation of the present edition. He wrote the first chapter; his notes of decisions and changes in the law have been of very great assistance; while his suggestions and his supervision, particularly in connection with the Chapters on Trade Unions and the Truck Acts, have been most valuable. In any case, the authority of his name, and the knowledge that he has interested himself in the preparation of this edition, must greatly add to whatever value it may possess. The index has been entirely re-written, it is hoped with good result. I am indebted to the industry and experience of Mr. SYDNEY EDWARD WILLIAMS, of 4, New Square, Lincoln's Inn, for the Table of Cases and the Table of Statutes. I desire gratefully to acknowledge the great assistance given to me by Mr. KENNETH MARSHALL and Mr. M. P. GRIFFITH-JONES, both of Farrar's Building, Temple, in the reading and correction of the proofs-a task in which other friends have kindly borne a part. EDWARD A. MITCHELL INNES. FABRAR'S BUILDING, TEMPLE. September, 1908. |