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10 Indus. L. Rev. 267 (1955-1956)
Servants' References

handle is hein.journals/indust10 and id is 277 raw text is: SERVANTS' REFERENCES by John Nevin, B.A. (Cantab.) Barrister-at-Law The purpose of this article is to gather into one place the rules which are scattered through various parts of the law about the characters or references of servants. There do not appear to be any unifying principles on the matter and it is therefore thought best to set the law out under headings as follows:- 1. The right to a reference. 2. The ownership of references. 3. Liability to the servant in respect of references. 4. Liability to subsequent employers in respect of references. 5. Criminal offences in connection with references. 1. The right t6 a rdfetewe It is familiar learning that it was held in Carrol v. Bird' that no action lies for damages occasioned by the refusal of a master to give a servant a character. The case was one of a domestic servant who had been dismiissed and had then obtained a promise of em- ployment on producing a satisfactory reference. The former master refused to give any reference at all, and the opportunity of em- ployment was lost. The case is reported only in Espinasse, and the report is tantalisingly brief. Lord Kenyon having asked the plaintiff's counsel, for authority to support a claim for damages in these circumstances and having received none dismissed the action. What can the plaintiffs advisers have had in mind? Would they have sought to rest the claim on an implied term, or on a custom, or on some duty arising independently of the contract? If the report answered these questions fully it would valuably illustrate the mode of thinking of lawyers a century and a half ago. The only indication we have is a reference in Lord Kenyon's brief judgment to ancient statutory obligations to give references to labourers; he suggests that it is these obligations which have misled the plaintiffs advisers into thinking that they conferred a right on domestic serv- ants to a reference. 1 (1800) 3 Esp. 201. 267

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