Column on "Lawtalk" Book

[Baker, John]

I was just thinking about a couple of legal phrases that are missing from Lawtalk, both from contract law.  Both are still in use, unlike, say, "The exception proves the rule," which is rarely cited as a legal maxim today.

"Time is of the essence":  In legal usage, this means that the time of performance is essential to the fulfillment of a contract (i.e., that the contract has been breached if not performed by the time stated).  Time may or may not be of the essence of a given contract; if time is of the essence, it is common to say so in those exact words.  Google Books has an example from 1796, http://books.google.com/books?id=zPpKAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA2-PT787, but there are undoubtedly earlier examples.

"Ready, willing, and able":  In a contract dispute, one party may assert that it was ready, willing, and able to perform its part of the contract, but the counterparty failed to meet its obligation.  An early example is from Nourse v. Prime, Ward and Sands, 1 N.Y. Ch. Ann. 911 (1820):  "nor was there, during that period, any moment at which they [i.e., the defendants] could not have been ready, willing, and able to have transferred the said 430 shares to the plaintiff, on payment of their note, &c."  However, Google Books has earlier examples going back to 1678, http://books.google.com/books?id=zmAKAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA49, so now I'm not so sure that this phrase is really legal in origin.


John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Shapiro, Fred
Sent: Monday, March 05, 2012 7:20 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Column on "Lawtalk" Book

I forgot the link to the article:

http://www.yalealumnimagazine.com/issues/2012_03/arts_shapiro.html

Fred Shapiro




________________________________
From: Shapiro, Fred
Sent: Monday, March 05, 2012 7:16 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Column on "Lawtalk" Book

In my latest column in the Yale Alumni Magazine, I discuss the sensational new book, Lawtalk: The Unknown Stories Behind Familiar Legal Expressions, by James Clapp, Elizabeth Thornburg, Marc Galanter and myself.  The column specifically addresses the origins of the terms "blue laws," "rule of thumb," and "shyster."  Credit is given to Joel Berson for his ADS-L-promulgated discovery of the earliest known citation for "blue laws."  I had also given credit to Gerald Cohen for his dissemination of a New York Historical Society librarian's discovery of the first use of "shyster," but that was edited out by the magazine.

Fred Shapiro
Editor
YALE BOOK OF QUOTATIONS (Yale University Press)

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