CHAPTER XXX.

 

OF MASTERS AND SERVANTS.

 

§ 1396. There are two kinds of servants in this Kingdom, viz:

 

1. Apprentices, that is, those engaged to serve any one in order to learn some art, trade, profession, or other employment.

 

2. Those who engage to serve by the day, week, month, year, or other fixed time, in consideration of certain wages.

 

(l)—Of Apprentices.

 

§1397. All minors above the age of ten years, may be bound as apprentices or servants, if females, to the age of eighteen years, or to the time of their marriage within that age; and if males, to the age of twenty years, in the manner following:

 

1. By the father of such minor; or, if he be dead, or be incom­petent so to do from lunacy, idiocy, habitual drunkenness, or other cause, or if he shall have abandoned and neglected to provide for his family, then,

 

2. By the mother; if the mother be dead, or incompetent, or if she refuse, then,

 

3.  By the guardian of such minor, duly appointed. If such minor have no parent living, or none competent to bind or appren­tice him, or her, and there be no guardian, then,

 

4.  By the governor of the island in which such minor shall re­side.

 

§1398. No minor shall be bound as aforesaid, unless by a con tract of two parts, signed and delivered by both parties; and one part shall be kept for the use of the minor, by his father, mother, guardian or the governor.

 

§1399. Every contract for the binding out of any minor as aforesaid, shall contain an agreement on the part of the person to whom such minor shall be bound, that he will cause such minor to be instructed to read and write, and if a male, will cause him to be further instructed in the general rules of arithmetic.

 

Note.––Chapter XXX of the Civil Code, is a re-enactment of the Act of June 21st, 1850, “For the Government of Masters and Servants.”

 

§1400. The age of every minor shall be inserted in the con­tract, and shall be taken to be the true age, without further proof thereof.

 

§1401. All considerations of money or other things, paid or allowed by the master, upon any contract of apprenticeship, made in pursuance of the foregoing provisions of this chapter, shall be paid or secured to the sole use of the minor thereby bound.

 

§1402. Parents, guardians, and the governors of the respec­tive islands, shall enquire into the treatment of minors bound by them respectively, and of all who shall have been bound by their predecessors in office, and defend them from all cruelty, neglect, misusage, or breach of contract, on the part of their master.

      

§1403. If any master shall be guilty of any cruelty, misusage, or violation of the terms of the contract, towards any minor so bound, a complaint may be made by the father, mother, guardian, governor, or minor, to any circuit judge or district justice of the island in which said master shall reside, who shall have all the requisite powers for bearing and determining such complaint.

 

§1404. After a full hearing of the parties, or of the complain­ant if the master shall neglect to appear after being duly notified, the magistrate, in case the complaint is sustained, may render a judgment that the minor be discharged from his apprenticeship; and for the costs of the suit against the master, and may issue execution accordingly.

 

§1405. If it shall appear that the complaint was made with­out any just or reasonable cause, the magistrate may award costs for the master against the complainant, and issue execution ac­cordingly.

 

§1406. Every master shall moreover be liable, whether such be filed or not, to an action on the contract, for the any covenant on his part therein contained, and all damages recovered in such action shall be the property of the minor.

 

§1407. Such action may be brought either by the parent, guardian or governor, or their successors in the trust of the minor, or by the minor himself after the expiration of the term of appren­ticeship or service.

 

§1408. No such action shall be maintained unless it be com­menced during the term of apprenticeship or service, or within two years after the expiration thereof.

 

§1409. If judgment in such action, brought during the term of service or apprenticeship, shall be rendered in favor of the plaintiff, the magistrate may, upon motion of the plaintiff, dis­charge the minor from his apprenticeship or service.

 

§1410. If any apprentice or servant bound as aforesaid shall, without just cause, depart from the service of his master, any dis­trict or police justice of the Kingdom, upon complaint made under oath by the master, or by any one on his behalf, may issue a war­rant to apprehend the apprentice or servant, and bring him be­fore the said justice; and if the complaint shall be supported, the justice shall order the offender to be restored to his master, and he shall be compelled to serve double the time of his absence, unless he shall make satisfaction for the loss and injury sustained by such absence; provided, however, that such additional term of service shall not extend beyond one year, next after the end of the original term of service.

 

§1411. The justice’s warrant, when directed to any officer or other person by name, shall authorize him to convey the offender to the place of residence of the master, although it may be on any other island in the Kingdom.

 

§1412. All the costs incurred ‘in any such process against a servant or apprentice, shall be paid in the first instance by the complainant, and if the complaint shall be supported, the master may recover the amount of such costs in an action against the minor, after he shall arrive at full age.

 

§1413. If any such apprentice or servant shall be guilty of any gross misbehavior, or refusal to do his duty, or willful neglect thereof, his master may make complaint thereof to any circuit judge, police or district justice of the island in which said master shall reside, who shall have all the requisite powers for hearing and determining such complaint.

 

§1414. After a full hearing of the parties, or of the com­plainant alone, if the adverse party neglect to appear after being duly notified, the in magistrate, in case the complaint is sustained, may render a judgment that the master be discharged from the contract of apprenticeship or service, and for the costs of the suit; such costs to be recovered of the parent or guardian of the minor, if there be one, who executed the contract, and execution there for may be issued accordingly; and if there be no parent or guard­ian liable for such costs, the amount thereof may be recovered in an action against the minor, after he shall have arrived at full age.

 

§1415. No contract of apprenticeship to service, made in pursuance of the foregoing provisions of this chapter, shall bind the minor after the death of his master, but the apprentice or servant shall be thenceforth discharged, and the minor may be bound out anew.

 

§1416. Any contract of apprenticeship or service, made in pursuance of the foregoing provisions of this chapter, on behalf of a minor, may be made either with a woman or a man, and all the foregoing provisions shall apply as well to mistresses as to masters.

 

(2)—Of Contract Labor.

 

Note.––The following statutes here inserted between Sections 1416 and 1417, amend  or qualify portions of this Chapter

 

TO REGULATE CONTRACTS BETWEEN MASTERS AND SERVANTS.

 

Section 1. All contracts for service between masters and servants where only one of the parties is a native Hawaiian shall be written or printed in both the Hawaiian and English languages. No such contract shall have any effect in law when executed in one language only, provided that nothing herein contained shall be held or construed to prevent any such contracts being written or printed in the Hawaiian language only, where both parties thereto are native Hawaiians.

 

Section 2. The Minister of the Interior is hereby authorized to prepare, in both languages, printed forms of contract, as pro­vided for in the foregoing section, in blank, as to place, time of service, wages, name, place where engaged, and place of residence.

 

FOR THE PROTECTION OF PARTIES TO CONTRACTS AUTHORIZED BY SECTION 1417 OF THE CIVIL CODE.       
           

Section 1. Every contract for service authorized by Section 1417 of the Civil Code, shall, in order to its validity, be acknowledged by the master or his duly empowered agent, and the ser­vant, before the agent to take acknowledgments of contracts, as hereinafter provided, and the certificate of acknowledgment shall be substantially as follows:

 

Island of_________}ss.

Hawaiian Islands.

     

On this ___day of _____ A. D___ personally appeared before me ________ master, and ________ servant, known to me (or satisfactorily proved to me by the oath of A. B.), to be the persons executing the above contract, and the same having been by inc read and explained to them, they severally acknowledged that they understood the same and that they had executed the same volun­tarily and upon the terms and conditions therein set forth.

 

Section 2. In order to carry out the provisions of this Act, the Minister of the Interior is hereby authorized to appoint an agent or agents in each elective district of this Kingdom, who shall have the power to take acknowledgnents to the contracts authorized by Section 1417 of the Civil Code; provided, however, that such agents shall be authorized to appoint a deputy during their temporary absence from their districts, and the deputy so appointed shall be empowered to perform all the duties of the said agents as prescribed by this Act; and provided further that nothing herein contained shall authorize the appointment of any judge or his deputy, or any storekeeper to such agency.

 

Section 3. The officer taking the acknowledgment shall be entitled to a fee of fifty cents for each contract, to be paid by the master, and no charge shall be made for the certificate of acknowl­edgment on the copy of the contract furnished the servant; pro­vided, however, that no officer shall take an acknowledgment to any contract in which he is interested.

 

Section 4. The officer before whom the acknowledgment us above provided is taken, shall cause the money advanced to be paid to the servant in his presence, and shall keep an accurate record of the contracts acknowledged before him, which record shall set forth the names and residences of the parties, the date and term of the contract, the amount of advance paid and the wages stipu­lated for.

 

Section 5. Every contract for service acknowledged in the manner herein above provided, may be read in evidence without further proof, against any party whose identity has been estab­lished; but the said certificate of acknowledgment shall not be conclusive, but may be rebutted by competent testimony.

 

Section 6. No fee paid by the master to any agent, runner or middle-man for the purpose of procuring the services of any ser­vant under the provisions of the 1417 section of the Civil Code, shall be charged to such servant or deducted in any way from such servant’s wages.

 

TO FURTHER DEFINE THE NATURE AND OBLIGATIONS OF THE CONTRACTS AUTHORIZED BY SECTIONS 1417 AND 1418 OF THE CIVIL CODE.

 

Whereas, the law in relation to masters and servants has been misunderstood in some of its provisions and is wrongly interpreted by many persons; and

 

Whereas, some legislation is necessary in order to prevent such misunderstandings in future and to further define the nature and obligations of the contracts authorized by Sections 1417 and 1418 of the Civil Code; therefore,

 

Be it Enacted by the King and the Legislative Assembly of the Ha­waiian Islands in the Legislature of the Kingdom assembled:

 

Section 1. No contract of a married woman to serve another shall he valid in law, unless separated from her husband by de­cree of a court of competent jurisdiction; and in case any woman shall contract marriage while under contract to serve another, the marriage shall operate to annul said contract of service.

 

Section 2. In all cases when any person under contract to serve another, shall be sentenced by any court to make to his master satisfaction for loss of time by desertion, by working a period of time beyond that contracted for, he shall be paid his wages for such extra time worked at the rate stipulated for in the contract.

 

Section 3. No person bound by contract to serve another shall be held or compelled to work for any period of time beyond the date when the contract shall by its terms expire, in liquidation of any debt or advance made to said laborer during the term agreed for at the time of his engagement, and any clause introduced into the contract which shall contemplate any such service for any such advances shall be held utterly void and of no effect.

 

Section 1. That Section 3 of the said Act shall be and the same is hereby amended, by adding thereto the words, “and no contract for labor hereafter to be made shall be penally enforced if more than fifteen dollars advance shall have been received by the servant, in ease the term of such contract shall be not more than one year, or if more than twenty-five dollars advance shall have been received by the servant, in case the term of the con­tract shall be over one year. Provided, however, that such re­strictions shall not apply to contracts made with immigrants where larger advances are required for the payment of expenses incident to the introduction of such immigrants into the Kingdom.”

 

Approved this 5th day of August, A.D. 1882.

 

TO PROVIDE FOR THE NUMBER OF HOURS TO CONST1TUTE A DAY’S LABOR WHERE NOT SPECIFIED BY CONTRACT.

 

In all contracts for service under Section 1417 of the Civil Code, where the number of hours constituting a day’s labor shall not be specified, the length of a day’s labor shall be held not to exceed nine hours; for all labor in excess of such time the laborers shall be entitled to compensation at not less than the rate of wages agreed upon in the contract.

 

Stamps are required on contracts between masters and servants for labor………….$1.00

 

If for more than one year, then for each year or part of a year after the first……..…..1.00                                   

 

(This duty to be charged on each copy, and to be paid by the employer.)

 

RELEASING ALL PERS0NS SERVING UNDER CONTRACTS ON GOVERNMENT HOLIDAYS, AND ON THE DAY OF ELECTION FOR REPRESENTATIVES.

 

Whereas, it is proper that the whole nation should observe all Government holidays; and

 

Whereas, it is almost impossible for parties serving under con­tracts to vote for the Representative they really desire, owing to their being kept at work on the day of election for Representa­tives; therefore,

 

Be it Enacted by the King and the Legislative Assembly of the Hawaiian Islands, in the Legislature of the Kingdom assembled:

 

Section 1. All persons now serving under contracts, or may hereafter serve under contracts, shall, from and after the passage of this Act, he released from labor on all Government holidays gazetted by the Minister of the Interior, and on the days of elec­tion for Representatives; nor shall they be detained or made to ‘work on any of such days.

 

Section 2. This Act shall become a law from and after the date of its passage; and all laws and parts of laws conflicting with the provisions of this Act are hereby repealed.

 

§1417. Any person who has attained the age of twenty years, may bind himself or herself, by written contract, to serve another in any art, trade, profession or other employment, for any term not exceeding five years.

 

§1418. All engagements of service contracted in a foreign country, to be executed in this, unless the same be in contraven­tion of the laws of this, shall be binding here: provided; how­ever, that all such engagements made for a longer period than ten years, shall be reduced to that limit, to count from the day of the arrival of the person bound, in this Kingdom.

 

§1419. If any person lawfully bound to service, shall willfully absent himself from such service, without the leave of his master, any district or police justice of the Kingdom, upon complaint made, under oath, by the master, or by any one on his behalf, may issue a warrant to apprehend such person and bring him before the said justice; and if the complaint shall be maintained, the justice shall order such offender to be restored to his master, and met he shall be compelled to serve the remainder of the time for which he originally contracted.

 

§1420. If any such person shall refuse to serve according to the provisions of the last section, or the terms of his contract, his master may apply to any district or police justice, where he may reside, who shall be authorized by warrant, or otherwise, to send for the person so refusing, and if such refusal be persisted in, to commit such person to prison, there to remain, at hard labor, until he will consent to serve according to law.

 

And in ease such person so hound as aforesaid shall have returned to the service of such master in and obedience to such order of such justice, and shall again willfully absent himself from such service without the leave of his master, such district or police justice may fine such offender not exceeding five dollars for the first offense, and for every subsequent offense thereafter not exceeding ten dollars, and in default of payment thereof such offender shall he imprisoned at hard labor until such fine is paid; and at the expiration of such imprisonment, such justice shall order such offender to be restored to his master to serve for the remainder of such original term of service.

 

§1421. The justice’s warrant or order, mentioned in Section 1419, when directed to any officer or other person by name, shall authorize him to convey the offender to the place of residence of the master, although it may be in some other island of the Kingdom.

 

§1422. All the costs incurred in any process against a servant, under either the 1419th or 1420th Sections, shall be paid in the first instance by the complainant, and if the complaint shall be sustained, the master shall have judgment and execution therefor against the offending servant.

 

§1423. It any master shall be guilty of any cruelty, misus­age, or violation of any of the terms of the contract, towards any person bound to service either under the l4l7th or 1418th sections, such person may make complaint to any district or police justice, who shall summon the parties before him, examine into, hear and determine the complaint, and in all such examinations the com­plainant shall be a competent witness; and if the complaint shall be sustained, such person shall be discharged from all obligations of service, and the master shall be fined in a sum not less than five, nor more than one hundred dollars, and in default of the payment thereof, be imprisoned at hard labor until the same is paid.

 

§1424. No contract of service made in pursuance of the 1417th or P118th sections of this chapter, shall bind’ the servant after the death of his master: provided, however; that where servants shall be so bound by any company of individuals, the death of any one partner, or the change of partners, in such company, shall not operate to release such servant from the terms of his contract.

 

§1425.  Nothing is this chapter contained shall be construed to destroy the right of civil action for damages, by the master or servant, for breach of contract.

 

to provide for the sanitary condition of dwelling houses

 

Whereas, on account of the over-crowding of persons in certain localities, it is expedient to provide for the sanitary condition of dwelling-houses and their surroundings, therefore,

 

Be it Enacted by the King and the Legislative Assembly of the Hawaiian Islands, in the Legislature of the Kingdom assembled:

 

Section 1.  Every house or tenement used or occupied as a dwelling for lodgers or contract laborers shall be kept by its owner in good repair, with the roof water-tight, and shall have the capacity of not less than three hundred cubic feet of space for each adult, or nine hundred cubic feet for one man and woman and two children.

 

Section 2.  The yard and grounds about all dwellings shall be well drained and kept free from rubbish of every description, with a closet, or privy, also to be kept in repair by the lodging-house keeper or employer of laborers, for every six adults.

 

Section 3.  Every owner or keeper and every other person having the care or management of a lodging-house or of a dwelling for contract laborers, shall at all times when required by the Board of Health or its agents give free access to such house or any part thereof.

 

Section 4.  Every lodging-house keeper or employer of laborers who shall fail to comply with the provisions of this Act shall pay a fine not exceeding fifty dollars.

 

Section 5. Every person who shall keep his dwelling in so filthy a state as to be a nuisance or injurious to health, or who shall refuse or neglect to remove any nuisance or substance he may have caused or placed in the vicinity of the dwelling he occupies or any other dwelling, or shall commit any nuisance in any stream or thoroughfare, shall, on conviction, pay a fine not exceeding three dollars, or be imprisoned at hard labor for any term not exceeding thirty days.

 

Section 6. This Act shall take effect ninety days after its –passage.

 

 

Synopsis of rulings and decisions of the Supreme Court relating to the labor laws.

 

THE KING VS. GREENWELL,—lst Haw. Rep. p. 85;

 

The Whipping of servants or laborers is not justifiable under the laws of this Kingdom

 

A master may correct his apprentice with due moderation.

 

IN RE CHRISTOPHER H. LEWERS, PAKALO CHOW AND CHAS. C. HARRIS, Minister of Finance,---3rd Haw. Rep. p. 21;

 

“Persons coming here from China under contracts for labor made there,” are personally subject to the taxes of this Kingdom. JOHN H. WOOD VS. HOOKINA,—3rd Haw. Rep. p. 102;

 

In a complaint under the masters and servants law, the masters’ books may go in evidence.

 

Wages must be paid during the penal service, and for failure to pay them the contract is broken on the part of the master, and his complaint is dismissed.

                         

The lapse of time is no bar to penal enforcement of a contract of labor.

 

JOHN H. WOOD vs. AFO, ALIAS CHEONG YAN SANG,—3d Raw. Rep. p. 448;

     

Lapse of time is not a bar to the penal enforcement of a labor contract, if it result from the servant’s own act. (Hartwell J., dissenting.)

     

A. UNNA vs. KEALAULA ,—3d Haw. Rep. p. 690;

     

The true construction of Section 1 of the Act of 13th June, 1868, entitled “An Act to regulate Contracts between Masters and Servants,” is that each version of the contract, Hawaiian and; English, must be signed by both parties.

 

The law does not require, in order to validity of the contract,. that the servant be furnished with a copy.

 

THE OWNERS OF THE WAIHEE PLANTATION vs. KALAPU,—3^rd Haw Rep. p. 760;

 

A labor contract cannot be enforced against the servant by and in the name of the owners of a plantation, they being all different parties from the owners with whom the servant contracted.

 

H. J. COOLIDGE vs. PUAAIKI AND KEA, appeal to the Supreme Court in Banco,—3^rd Haw. Rep. p. 810;

 

A labor contract executed on the part of the master by his wife, who was left as a manager of the plantation in his absence porn the Kingdom, although without his authority in writing, binds both parties.

 

The agent to take acknowledgment having received his appointment in anticipation of the date, when the acknowledgment statute took effect, his acts thereafter are valid.

 

It will not invalidate a labor contract what it is not precise in terms as to the kind of labor-to be performed, and limited as to place:

 

It is erroneous to bring cases under labor contracts as Crown prosecutions.

 

KAALAEA PLANTATION vs. BOLABOLA AND 12 OTHERS AND WAILUKU SUGAR Co. vs. PAIA AND JIM BOMBAY,—3rd Haw. Rep. p. 818;

 

Rulings on Masters and Servants Labor Contracts:

 

An acknowledgment of contract made prior to the Act of 1876, is good if taken by any officer then- authorized to take acknowl­edgment of deeds.

 

The copy which may he furnished the servant is only required to be a literal transcript of the original including its signatures, and is to be certified by the acknowledging officer without charge and stamped at the expense of the master.

 

Contracts executed prior to the Stamp Act of 1876 need not be stamped now.

 

Contracts need not be made in a form prescribed by the Minis­ter of the Interior.

 

J. NOTT ET AL. vs. KANAHELE,—4th Haw. Rep. p.-------

 

When the laborer has executed a contract binding himself to labor for the plaintiffs, and in case of the transfer of their planta­tion to work for the person to whom such plantation shall be con­veyed, he will be held thereby. (Judd J., dissenting.)

 

 

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