What is "statute of frauds"

Fraud \Fraud\ (fr[add]d), n. [F. fraude, L. fraus, fraudis; prob. akin to Skr. dh[=u]rv to injure, dhv[.r] to cause to fall, and E. dull.]

1. Deception deliberately practiced with a view to gaining an unlawful or unfair advantage; artifice by which the right or interest of another is injured; injurious stratagem; deceit; trick.

   If success a lover's toil attends, Few ask, if fraud or force attained his ends.
   --Pope.

2. (Law) An intentional perversion of truth for the purpose of obtaining some valuable thing or promise from another.

3. A trap or snare. [Obs.]

   To draw the proud King Ahab into fraud.
   --Milton.

   Constructive fraud (Law), an act, statement, or omission which operates as a fraud, although perhaps not intended to be such.
   --Mozley & W.

   Pious fraud (Ch. Hist.), a fraud contrived and executed to benefit the church or accomplish some good end, upon the theory that the end justified the means.

   Statute of frauds (Law), an English statute (1676), the principle of which is incorporated in the legislation of all the States of this country, by which writing with specific solemnities (varying in the several statutes) is required to give efficacy to certain dispositions of property.
   --Wharton.

   Syn: Deception; deceit; guile; craft; wile; sham; strife; circumvention; stratagem; trick; imposition; cheat. See Deception.

n. A statute that bars enforcement of an oral contract.

The Statute of Frauds (29 Car 2 c 3) (1677) is an Act of the Parliament of England. It required that certain types of contracts, wills, and grants, assignment or surrender of leases or interest in real property must be in writing and signed to avoid fraud on the court by perjury and subornation of perjury. It also required that documents of the courts be signed and dated.

The attested date for the enactment of the Statute of Frauds is 16 April 1677 ( New Style)

The Act is believed to have been primarily drafted by Lord Nottingham assisted by Sir Matthew Hale, Sir Francis North and Sir Leoline Jenkins.

When the Statute of Frauds was originally enacted, the sections of, and the clauses of section 4 of, that Act were not numbered. They were numbered when the Act was republished in the Statutes at Large. The Statute at Large, Cambridge Edition published in 1770 divided the Act into 25 sections. The section on the sale of goods was section 17. In the Statutes of the Realm published in 1818, the Statute of Frauds was divided into 24 sections. The section on the sale of goods became section 16. This article uses the same numbering system as the Statutes of the Realm.