In 1903 Alva R. Hunt (1862-1940), a sole practitioner in Litchfield, Minnesota, published a 720 page treatise on tendering money into court. In a "Preface" he explains the need for such a book:
"Sifting from a mass of several thousand decisions, all the various questions relating to the necessity for a tender, the manner of making, the time and place, to whom and by whom made, the amount, the kind and quality of the money or specific articles, etc., must be conceded to be a laborious and difficult task. We found, also, that those questions which follow the making of a tender, such as the consequences, keeping a tender good, abandonment, subsequent demand, and bringing money into court, were equally intricate and difficult to solve by such an examination of a mass of decisions as is the average practitioner able to give. These difficulties suggested the need for such a work as is the one between the covers of this book intended to be. The writer is not alone in his belief of the utility of such a work. During the years it has been in preparation, very naturally the subject has been the theme for discussion with many members of the profession, who, without exception, pronounced it a subject upon which a treatise was much needed.
"The writer found that it was a distinct subject, apart from every other branch of the law. While it dovetails with other subjects (indeed what branch of the law does not?), he found that no writers upon contracts, mortgages, commercial paper, evidence, etc., who treated of it at all, did so in a comprehensive, or in a topically arranged manner; and could not without a wide digression; a thing incompatible with the proper arrangement of their respective subjects. Of the truth of this the professional reader, to be convinced, has but to keep in mind the chapter titles of this treatise while making even the most cursory examination of the subject in the works referred to. That writers on other subjects were not able to give it the treatment the full subject demands, in no way detracts from the thoroughness of their labor or the quality of their work."
The text of Hunt's treatise follows. A review of it in "The American Law Register" (December 1904) is posted separately.
In 1912 Hunt published a second treatise, this one on the law of accord and satisfaction. It was reviewed in "The Central Law Journal" (April 1913).
Alva Hunt's books are two of over fifty treatises and textbooks published by Minnesota practitioners and law professors from the 1890s to the First World War. Many are posted in the "Treatises/textbooks" category in the "Archives" of the Minnesota Legal History Project. Curiously these century-old books are some of the most frequently downloaded articles and books on this website.
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