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OPTIONS IN HIRE

SECTION I.

Contractual options.

Article 497. A contractual option exists in the case of hire, as in the case of sale. Either or both of the parties may give or take on hire, subject to an option of a certain number of days.

Article 498. The person having the option may cancel the contract of hire during the period of the option or may ratify such contract.

Article 499. Both cancellation and ratification may be by word of mouth, or in writing, or by conduct, as is set forth in Articles 302, 303- and 304. Consequently, if the person giving on hire possesses an option and performs any act with regard to the thing hired indicative of the exercise of a right of ownership, the contract of hire is cancelled by conduct. If the person taking on hire possesses an option and performs any act with regard to the thing hired indicative of the exercise of the right of a lessee, the contract of hire is ratified by conduct.

Article 500. If the person possessing an option allows the period of the option to expire without canceling or carrying out the contract, the option is lost and the contract of hire becomes irrevocable.

Article 501. The period of option is presumed to run from the time of the conclusion of the contract.

Article 502. The commencement of the contract of hire is presumed to run from the time when the option was lost.

Article 503. If a piece of land taken on hire and said to consist of so many yards or donums proves to be of greater or smaller extent, the contract of hire is valid and the fixed rent becomes payable. Should it prove to be smaller, however, the person taking the land on hire has the option of canceling the contract of hire.

Article 504. If a piece of land is taken on hire at so much per donum the rent is payable at so much per donum.

Article 505. If a wage is fixed as payment for work to be performed by a given period, the contract of hire is valid and the condition effective.

Examples:

(1) A gives cloth to a tailor to be cut up and made into a shirt to be ready on the same day.

(2) A hires a camel from B to carry him to Mecca in so many days.

 

In both cases the contract of hire is executory, and if the person giving the thing on hire fulfils the condition, he can claim the fixed wage. If he fails to do so, however, he is entitled to an estimated wage, provided such wage does not exceed the fixed wage.

Article 506. The wages may validly be fixed alternatively in two or three ways as regards the work, the workman, the load, the distance, the place and the time, and the wages must be paid according to whichever way the work is carried out.

Examples:

(1) A contract is made for back-stitching a thing for so much, and for over-stitching it for so much. The wages must be paid according to the way in which it is sewn.

(2) A contract is concluded for so much in respect to a shop to be used as a perfumery and for so much as a forge. The person taking the thing on hire must pay the fixed rent according to the way in which he uses the shop.

(3) A contract is concluded to load corn on a draught animal for so much and iron for so much. The hire agreed upon must be paid according to the load used.

(4) A muleteer states that he has let a particular animal on hire to go to Chorlu for one hundred piastres and to Adrianople for two hundred piastres and to Philipolis for three hundred piastres. The person taking the animal on hire must pay a sum corresponding to the place to which he goes.

(5) A states that he has let one particular house on hire for one hundred piastres and another house for two hundred piastres. The person taking the house on hire agrees. Such person must then pay the fixed rent according to whichever house he lives in.

(6) A hands a cloak to a tailor stating that he will pay fifty piastres if it is stitched on the same day, and thirty piastres if it is stitched on the following day. The contract is executory and the condition is valid.

 

SECTION II.

Option of inspection.

Article 507. The person taking the thing on hire has an option of inspection.

Article 508. An inspection of the thing hired is equivalent to an inspection of the advantage to be derived there from.

Article 509. If a person takes a piece of real property on hire without seeing it, he may exercise an option as soon as he sees it.

Article 510. If a person takes on hire a house which he has seen previously, he has no option of inspection in respect to such house. However, if the place is dilapidated and unfit for habitation to such an extent that its original form is changed, such person may exercise an option.

Article 511. A person hired to do a piece of work which changes in accordance with any change in the subject-matter of such work, has an option of inspection.

Example:- An agreement is concluded with a tailor to stitch a cloak. Upon seeing the cloth or the cloak, the tailor may exercise an option.

Article 512. There is no option of inspection attaching to a thing which is not changed in accordance with any change in the subject-matter of such work.

Example:- A contract is made to clean a certain amount of cotton seed for a certain sum of money. Although the person so employed has not seen the cotton seed, he has no option of inspection.

SECTION III.

Option for defect.

Article 513. There is an option for defect in the case of a contract of hire, as in a contract of sale.

Article 514. In a contract of hire, the circumstance which creates an option on account of defect is something which causes the complete loss of or interference with the benefits sought to be obtained.

Example: A house is entirely destroyed; the utility of a mill is negatived by the water being cut off; the frame of the roof of a house sinks; a place is knocked down so as to be unsuitable for habitation; the back of a horse which is hired is injured by galling. In all these cases there is an option for defect if they are taken on hire, on account of the benefits sought to be obtained being destroyed. But defects which do not interfere with the benefits sought to be obtained give no right to an option for defect in the case of a contract of hire, as where the plaster of a house falls off, but not to such an extent that rain and cold can enter; or where the mane or tail of a horse is cut.

Article 515. If a defect occurs in the thing hired before such thing has been put to the use for which it was hired, such defect is considered to have existed at the time the contract was concluded.

Article 516. If a defect occurs in the thing hired, the person taking the thing on hire may exercise an option. He may either put the thing hired to the use for which it was hired in spite of the defect, in which case he must pay the whole of the rent, or he may cancel the contract of hire.

Article 517. If the person giving a thing on hire removes a defect of recent origin before the cancellation of the contract of hire by the person taking such thing on hire, the latter has no right of cancellation. And if the person taking the thing on hire wishes to take possession thereof for the remainder of the period, the person giving such thing on hire cannot prevent him from doing so.

Article 518. If the person taking a thing on hire wishes to cancel the contract of hire prior to the removal of a defect of recent origin which prevents the thing hired being put to the use for which it was hired, such person may cancel the contract in the presence of the person giving the thing on hire. He may not do so in his absence. If he cancels the contract in the absence of the person giving the thing on hire, that is to say, without giving him notice thereof, such cancellation is of no effect, and the rent continues to be payable as heretofore. If the benefits sought to be obtained are entirely lost, however, the contract may be cancelled in the absence of the person giving the thing on hire. Whether the contract is cancelled or not the rent is not due, as is set forth in Article 478.

Example:- A place collapses and destroys the use to which a house taken on hire can be put. The person taking the house on hire may cancel the contract of hire. The cancellation, however, must take place in the presence of the person letting the house on hire. If he fails to give notice and leaves the house, he is bound to pay rent as though he had not left the house. If the house is entirely destroyed, however, the person taking the house on hire may cancel the contract without the necessity of doing so in the presence of the person giving the house on hire. In any case the rent is not due.

Article 519. If a room or a wall of a house collapses and the person taking the house on hire does not cancel the contract of hire, but dwells in the rest of the house, no portion of the rent is remitted.

Article 520. If a person takes two houses on hire together for a certain sum of money and one of them collapses, he may leave both of them together.

Article 521. If a house taken on hire as containing so many rooms proves to contain fewer rooms than the stipulated number, the person taking the house on hire has the option of canceling the contract of hire or of agreeing to the contract of hire and of paying the fixed rent. If he carries out the terms of the contract of hire, however, he is not entitled to any reduction in the rent.

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