Atlanta Stove Works v. Hamilton

• Decision Date: 25 January 1904
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
• Parties: ATLANTA STOVE WORKS v. WILLIAM B. HAMILTON

35 So. 763

83 Miss. 704

ATLANTA STOVE WORKS v. WILLIAM B. HAMILTON

Supreme Court of Mississippi

January 25, 1904

FROM the circuit court of Lowndes county. HON. EUGENE O. SYKES Judge.

Hamilton appellee, was plaintiff, and the Atlanta Stove Works appellant, defendant in the court below. From a judgment in plaintiff's favor, defendant appealed to the supreme court. The facts are stated in the opinion of the court.

Affirmed.

William Baldwin, for appellant.

E. T. Sykes, for appellee.

[The reporter has been unable to find the briefs of counsel in this case, they were lost or withdrawn from the record before it reached him.]

OPINION

CALHOON, J.

On February 8, 1902, appellant employed appellee, Hamilton, as its traveling salesman in a specified territory at a salary of $ 100 per month. The contract appears in a letter of appellant which contains the following stipulations (italics ours): "It is understood that, if any providential cause should occur which will render either of us unable to continue this contract for a full year, either party shall have the right to terminate same, otherwise it shall continue to January 1, 1903. If your services shall be unsatisfactory this agreement is subject to cancellation."

No providential cause intervened, and so the contract was binding on the parties to it to January 1, 1903, with the right in the Stove Works to terminate it at any time before then if Hamilton's services in the employment were "unsatisfactory." Services were rendered by Hamilton up to October 22, 1902, when the Stove Works wrote him the following letter (italics ours):

"ATLANTA GA., Oct. 22, 1902.

"Wm. B. Hamilton, Columbus, Miss.--Dear Sir: Your favor received of last week enclosing letter from Lampton, Rawls & Co., telling us about the breakage in this car of goods. We have never shipped goods in any territory in our lives that we have had so much trouble as we have to Mississippi. Nearly every car that we have shipped has had more or less breakage. The car that went to Wright Bros., 46 out of a hundred were broken, and had to be returned to the factory for repairs. It seems that there are about 26 of the stoves sent to Lampton Rawls broken. The shipment made to McComb City Mer. Co., McComb City, Miss. every stove was broken, and they returned them and we repaired them, and we shipped them again, and have a letter from them saying they were all broken the second time, and they had to refuse to take them out of the depot. We don't understand why so much breakage should occur in the territory.

"Your telegram received this morning asking us if we would honor draft for $ 50.00 on salary account. We were a little bit surprised that you should want to draw on us before the end of the month, when you were at home not even at work. Taking all of the situation, as a whole, the unpleasantness of doing business in Mississippi, and the amount of breakage that occurs, and the fact that the people in the state are able to buy their goods at so much less money than we are able to sell them, we have decided to discontinue our efforts in your state and herewith enclose you check for $ 76.35, which is for your services and your account for the month of November, after which time we will not need your services any further. We are sorry that we have to do this, but the business in Mississippi has been so expensive to us, as you will see from the statement herewith enclosed, and to now give it up, which we have decided to do, makes this expense a loss to us. We, when we went into the territory, expected to build up a large trade and continue to work, and were therefore willing to undergo heavy expense for that purpose, but since the unsatisfactory nature of the business,...