Responsa for Bava Metzia 153:1
פסידא דפועלים לא סיירא לארעיה מאורתא פסידא דבעל הבית ויהיב להו כפועל בטל
the loss is the workers; if not, the loss is the employer's, and he must pay them as unemployed workers.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' If the labourer had not inspected the land beforehand, he can plead. 'You know the nature of your soil and that work is impossible upon it after a heavy rain, and so should have informed me in time to find other work'; therefore the employer must bear the loss. If the labourer had seen it he should have known himself, therefore the loss is his. (So one interpretation of Asheri.) It may also refer to the employer's inspection, as in the previous note. (The weight of authority is in favour of referring the inspection to the employer himself. V. H.M. CCCXXX, 1 and [H], a.l.) ');"><sup>1</sup></span>
Teshuvot Maharam
A. The law provides that when a tutor is prevented from carrying on his duties by his own illness, he is entitled to his pay; but if he is so prevented by the pupil's illness, he is not entitled to his pay, unless the pupil is a sickly child. Since a child is usually healthy, the burden lies with the tutor of stipulating at the time of the agreement that he is to receive his pay in the event the child is sick.
This Responsum was addressed to Rabbi Yekutiel.
SOURCES: Cr. 2.
Teshuvot Maharam
A. A contractor, a worker hired for the completion of a certain task and not hired by the day or week, is not permitted to resign before his task is completed. A scribe, however, is not permitted to resign even though he was hired for a specific period of time, and was thus not classified as a contractor; for the resignation of a scribe involves a definite loss of money to the person who hired him, as a book copied by two scribes is not uniform in appearance and, thus, commands a low price.
SOURCES: Cr. 247; L. 123; Mord. B. M. 343.
Teshuvot Maharam
A. I learned this law from my teacher, R. Samuel b. Solomon, of France: The tutor must be paid in full; for a tutor is in a similar position as the public workers of Mahoza who are reported to become weakened by lack of work (B. M. 77a). However, the following distinction should be made: If A's son was a sickly child, and A failed to warn the tutor about it, the tutor should get his full pay; but if the boy was usually healthy, the tutor should not be paid for the period of his pupil's illness.
SOURCES: Cr. 191; Pr. 137; L. 157; Mord. B. M. 344. Cf. Tesh. Maim. to Kinyan, 31; Agudah B. M. 117.