ACCESSORY CONTRACT
Legal Term: ACCESSORY CONTRACT
Definition: one made for assuring the performance of a prior contract, either by the same parties, or by others, such as suretyship, mortgages, and pledges.
2. It is a general rule, that payment of the debt due, or the performance of a thing required to be performed by the first or principal contract, is a full discharge of such accessory obligation. Poth. Ob. part. 1, c. 1, s. 1, art. 2, n. 14. Id. n. 182, 186. See 8 Mass. 551, 15 Mass. 233, 17 Mass. 419, 4 Pick. 11, 8 Pick. 522.
3. An accessory agreement to guaranty an original contract, which is void, has no binding effect. 6 Humph. 261. ACCIDENT. The happening of an event without the concurrence of the will of the person by whose agency it was caused or the happening of an event without any human agency, the burning of a house in consequence of a fire being made for the ordinary purpose of cooking or warming the house, which is an accident of the first kind, the burning of the same house by lightning would have been an accident of the second kind. 1 Fonb. Eq. 374, 5, note. 2. It frequently happens that a lessee covenants to repair, in which case he is bound to do so, although the premises be burned down without his fault. 1 Hill. Ab. c. 15, s. 76. But if a penalty be annexed to the covenant, inevitable accident will excuse the former, though not the latter. 1 Dyer, 33, a. Neither the landlord nor the tenant is bound to rebuild a house burned down, unless it has been so expressly agreed. Amb. 619, 1 T. R. 708, 4-Paige, R. 355, 6 Mass. R. 67, 4 M"Cord, R. 431, 3 Kent, Com. 373.
3. In New Jersey, by statute, no action lies against any person on the ground that a fire began in a house or room occupied by him, if accidental. But this does not affect any covenant. 1 N. J. Rev. C. 216.
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