WORKS OF JOHN C. WAIT PUBLISHED BY JOHN WILEY & SONS, INC. Engineering and Architectural Jurisprudence. A Presentation of the Law of Construction for Engineers, Architects, Contractors, Builders, Public Officers, and Attorneys at Law. 8vo, lxxx +905 pages, cloth, $7.00. The Law of Operations Preliminary to Construction in Engineering and Architecture. Rights in Real Property. Boundaries, Easements, and Franchises. For Engineers, Architects, Contractors, Builders, Public Officers, and Attorneys at Law. 8vo, lxiii +638 pages, cloth, $5.00. The Law of Contracts. A Text-book for Technical Schools of Engineering and Architecture. 8vo, xiv +331 pages, cloth, $2.75. ENGINEERING AND ARCHITECTURAL JURISPRUDENCE. A PRESENTATION OF THE LAW OF CONSTRUCTION FOR ENGINEERS, ARCHITECTS, CONTRACTORS, BUILDERS, PUBLIC OFFICERS, AND ATTORNEYS AT LAW. BY JOHN CASSAN WAIT, M.C.E., LL.B., (M.C.E. CORNELL; LL.B. HARVARD,) Attorney and Counselor at Law and Consulting Engineer; "All laws as well as all contracts may be controlled in their operation and effect by general, fundamental maxims of the common law. 'No one shall be permitted to profit by his own fraud, to take advantage of his own wrong, to found any claim upon his own iniquity, or to aquire property by his own crime.'"-Justice EARL, in Riggs v. Palmer, 115 N.Y. Reports 506; accoid, Angle v. Chicago, St. P., M. & O. Ry. Co., 151 U. S. Reports 1, 14 Sup. Ct. Rep. 240. FIRST EDITION FOURTH THOUSAND. NEW YORK JOHN WILEY & SONS, INC. LONDON: CHAPMAN & HALL, LIMITED 18375 PREFACE. IN the autumn of 1887 the author found himself an Instructor in Engi neering at Harvard University, with some leisure time and with every opportunity open to him for special study in any subject. His experience had been that of many other engineers. He had had a good preliminary training in Engineering at Cornell University, and had devoted several years to active practice He had prepared specifications and contracts for engineering works by copying those that had done service for other jobs, had found them misfits, and had been through more or less litigation in consequence, and had felt, as have thousands of other engineers and contractors, the need of some advice and understanding as to the legal rights and liabilities of the contractor and owner, and as to his own duties and responsibilities. He had consulted older members of his profession in regard to these matters, who thought they were questions of law; and from lawyers he had received the reply that they were not familiar enough with the duties of an engineer or architect and with the customs and usages of the building trades to venture an opinion. Lawyers invariably answered that they should have to inquire more especially into the nature of an engineer's duties and his relations to the work, and to his employer and to the contractor, before they could answer, and that it seemed to them a matter for a specialist. Specialists the author did not find, and he determined to become one himself, well knowing the meaning of the term in its modern acceptation, and fully realizing the labor it involved. He knew that to become a specialist required one first to acquire a general knowledge of the subject, to accomplish which he entered the Harvard Law School and completed a three years' course in the study of law, enjoying special privileges in the libraries of the School and University by reason of his position. During and subsequent to this period the author delivered each year a brief course of lectures upon the subject of Engineering Law to the technical students in engineering, the attendance of which fully satisfied him of the interest that the subject had for students in engineering, and gave him some impressions of its value to the profession. The outgrowth of those lectures is this book |