Odom v. Bush
| Decision Date | 28 March 1906 |
| Citation | 53 S.E. 1013,125 Ga. 184 |
| Parties | ODOM v. BUSH et al. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
Syllabus by the Court.
Properly construed, the contract declared on by the plaintiff was an agreement under which he was employed by the defendants, for an indefinite term, as superintendent of a proposed manufacturing plant, at a fixed salary per month from a specified date, with the option of becoming a shareholder in a joint-stock company in the name of which the enterprise was to be conducted.
Such a contract of employment, being indefinite as to its duration is to be deemed a hiring for the term of one month only; and after the expiration of that period, it was the right of the defendants to terminate the employment at will.
Under the allegations upon which the plaintiff relied for a recovery, there was no breach of the contract declared on.
Error from Superior Court, Muscogee County; Wm. A. Little, Judge.
Action by W. G. Odom against Joel Bush and Ben L. Clark. Judgment for defendants, and plaintiff brings error. Affirmed.
Wheeler Williams and Goetchins & Choffell, for plaintiff in error.
L. L Miller, for defendants in error.
The plaintiff, W. G. Odom, brought a suit for damages for an alleged breach of a contract by the defendants, Joel Bush and Ben L. Clark, who were doing business under the firm name of the Georgia Coffin Company. According to the allegations of his petition, the defendants went to Newberry, S. C., where plaintiff was employed by the Carolina Manufacturing Company as superintendent of its factory, and solicited him to go to Columbus, Ga. (where they were to put up and establish a coffin factory), upon the following terms and conditions, to which he assented: (1) "Plaintiff was to be the superintendent thereof, at a salary of $100 per month beginning March 16, 1904;" (2) he was "to be also a stockholder in the joint-stock company, it being understood and agreed *** that plaintiff was to put in whatever money he could raise from the sale of his real estate in the city of Atlanta, Ga., and from the sale of his stock in the Carolina Manufacturing Company"; and (3) the plaintiff, though entitled "to receive a salary of $100 per month as superintendent of the proposed factory, *** was to draw at the end of each month only what was required to meet the living expenses of himself and family, the balance of said salary was to remain in the hands of the company until the end of the year, when stock would be issued to plaintiff to cover the same, or, at the option of plaintiff, paid to him in cash." This proposition was made by the defendants and accepted by the plaintiff on March 14, 1904. He at once disposed of his household goods, selling the same at a great sacrifice, in order to be able to leave Newberry at such a time as would permit him to reach Columbus at the time agreed upon for him to begin his duties as superintendent; gave up his position with the Carolina Manufacturing Company, from which he received a salary of $70 a month, and on March 16th left Newberry for Columbus to assume the duties of his new position. At the instance and request of defendants, he stopped en route, in Atlanta, to arrange for the disposal of his real estate, under the terms of the agreement, it having been understood and agreed that he should do so and that his salary was to start from the day he left Newberry, S.C. He reported to defendants for duty on March 21st. "Upon his arrival at Columbus, plaintiff was met by defendants in the manner and style of an associate in business, and was by them treated with such consideration as his position and his relation to them authorized, and he proceeded to carry out and perform the duties required of him by reason of his said engagement." He found that much repairing upon the factory building was needed, and being interested in the success of the undertaking, he performed much labor and service in making the needed repairs, although it was no part of his duty as superintendent to do so. He also, acting in that capacity and upon the request of the defendants, procured the services of an expert machinist from the Carolina Manufacturing Company, selected and ordered material and machinery for the plant, located places for machinery, and otherwise arranged all the necessary preliminaries for the business. After he had performed these services, and after the defendants had obtained from him all the information necessary to the successful inauguration of the enterprise, they informed him that they had no further use for him. Plaintiff had been engaged in the coffin manufacturing business for some 25 years, and it was because of his superior skill and knowledge of the business that the defendants sought him and procured his services. They knew absolutely nothing about the business, and relied entirely on him to select proper machinery and material for the plant, to see that the machinery was properly installed, and to do everything necessary for the suitable equipment and conduct of the plant. Acting upon the faith and according to the terms of the contract, "plaintiff placed his Atlanta real estate on the market, and one place thereof has been sold at a great sacrifice in order to carry out his part of said contract, plaintiff losing thereby the sum of $500." He brought with him to Columbus,
With respect to the breach of contract relied on for a recovery the plaintiff alleged: His dismissal by the defendants from their service occurred on May 3, 1904, without fault or blame on his part, and without just cause, the defendants having totally disregarded their contract and their duty to plaintiff, to his injury and damage in the sum of $5,000. Prior to the breaking of the contract by the defendants, he had done and performed all and every part thereof required of him by its terms up to that time, and was ready to do and perform every other part thereof, if permitted by them to do so; The items of damages sought to be recovered were: (1) Loss incurred in resigning the lucrative position he held in South Carolina; (2) loss resulting from the sale of his household goods at a great sacrifice; (3) like loss sustained in disposing of his Atlanta real estate; (4) expenses of moving from Newberry, S. C., to Columbus, Ga.; (5) loss of opportunity of securing lucrative positions or forming other profitable business alliances, open to him at the time the contract was made, and expenses incurred in endeavoring to secure employment after its breach; and (6) loss of anticipated profits arising from the coffin factory venture, in addition of the salary he was to receive under the contract. The fact that the plaintiff was left stranded in "strange place and among strangers, *** without a home and without employment," was also stressed as a reason why he had been endamaged in the sum of $5,000, though the specific amount claimed for leaving him in this situation was not stated, nor was any attempt made to estimate the amount of his loss of the anticipated profits of the business. The plaintiff did not seek to recover any damage for loss of salary for the intervening time between the date of his dismissal, May 3d and the date of the institution of the suit, May 14, 1904, or for any other given period. Nor did he pray for the recovery of the balance of the salary he had earned, and which was in the hands of the defendants, nor ask for any accounting for the tools and brushes he had turned over to them. The defendants...
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