Pinkerton's Nat. Detective Agency v. Rosedale Silk Co.
| Decision Date | 16 April 1936 |
| Docket Number | 6-1936 |
| Citation | 121 Pa.Super. 496,184 A. 282 |
| Parties | Pinkerton's National Detective Agency v. Rosedale Silk Company, Appellant |
| Court | Pennsylvania Superior Court |
Argued March 2, 1936
Appeal by defendant, from judgment of C. P., Luzerne Co., July T. 1932, No. 187, in case of Pinkerton's National Detective Agency, Inc. v. Rosedale Silk Company.
Assumpsit. Before Coughlin, J.
The facts are stated in the opinion of the Superior Court.
Verdict and judgment for plaintiff. Defendant appealed.
Errors assigned, among others, were various rulings on evidence.
Affirmed.
Maurice S. Cantor, with him Andrew Hourigan, for appellant.
Clarence J. Wing, with him Thomas Byron Miller, for appellee.
Before Keller, P. J., Cunningham, Baldrige, Parker, James and Rhodes, JJ. Opinion by Keller, P. J. Judge James took no part in the consideration or decision of this case.
Pinkerton's National Detective Agency brought this action in assumpsit against Rosedale Silk Company, a Pennsylvania corporation, for services performed at the defendant's plant, No. 241 West Eighth Street, Wyoming, Pennsylvania, and expenses incurred in connection therewith, between August 3, 1931 and September 26, 1931. The total amount of the bill was $ 602.04. Credits were allowed of $ 336.51. The balance sued for was $ 265.53, with interest.
The defense set up was that defendant had leased its plant in October 1930 to Pearl Silk Company; that plaintiff's contract of employment had been with that company and the services rendered under it had been performed for that company and not the defendant. There was no dispute as to the services rendered, their value or the amount due plaintiff, or the terms of employment, except as to the party with whom plaintiff contracted.
The undisputed evidence was that the Rosedale Silk Company owned the building and machinery in the plant at 241 West Eighth Street, Wyoming. No other name appeared on the building. The business was listed in the telephone book as Rosedale Silk Company. Defendant's counsel formally admitted on the trial, (p. 44a), that 241 West Eighth Street was the principal office of the defendant company. Workmen's compensation insurance was carried in the name of Rosedale Silk Company from October 1930 to March 1932 covering the operations carried on at that plant. No lease was produced on the trial from Rosedale Silk Company to Pearl Silk Company or anyone else.
It also appeared in evidence, without contradiction, that all the stock of Pearl Silk Company was owned by Isaac M. Pearlman and his wife Yedda Pearlman; that it was a New Jersey corporation with plants at Paterson, N. J. and Norwalk, Conn., of which Isaac M. Pearlman was president; that a firm in New York City named Ginsberg Bros. had owned all the capital stock of Rosedale Silk Company, that Ginsberg Bros. wanted I. M. Pearlman to take over this stock, and allowed him to operate the plant on trial from October 1930 to January 1931, when he bought all the capital stock, which was issued and delivered to him and then assigned by him to Ginsberg Bros. as collateral security for the unpaid purchase money, which was to be paid in monthly instalments over a period of time. Pearlman thus became the owner of all the stock of Rosedale Silk Company and was elected its president. As such he signed the affidavit of defense in this action. He had the telephone listed and the workmen's compensation insurance taken out in the name of Rosedale Silk Company, and neither was changed until March 1932. He gave Max Goldberg, superintendent of the plant, general authority (57a) to do what he thought proper by way of employing the plaintiff company and having it place one of its operatives, as an employee, in the plant in an endeavor to find the person or persons who were abstracting goods from the plant.
Johnson, superintendent of plaintiff's Scranton agency, who acted on behalf of the plaintiff in making the contract of employment, testified that pursuant to a telephone call from one Kaplan, an official of the Belmont Silk Company at Forty Fort, Pa. for which they had done similar work, he met Max Goldberg and William Pearlman, son of I. M. Pearlman, at the Hotel Sterling, Wilkes-Barre; that Kaplan introduced Goldberg as the superintendent of the Rosedale Silk Company at Wyoming, and Pearlman as the son of I. M. Pearlman, the president of that company; that they talked over the conditions existing at the plant; that Goldberg informed him that he was superintendent of the Rosedale Silk Company and Pearlman said he was looking after his father's business. They arranged for the placing of an operative in the mill, the rate, expenses, wages, credits and other terms, and the next day (July 30, 1931) Johnson sent a letter addressed to "Rosedale Silk Co., 111 [1] W. 8th St., Wyoming, Pa," the contents of which were as follows:
"Thanking you for the business entrusted to us, we remain" etc.
This letter was duly received and opened by Max Goldberg, superintendent, and no objection was made as to the name of the company for whom plaintiff was to work. An operative, named Peppe, was accordingly placed in the plant as an employee, who made daily reports, which were sent daily, addressed to Max Goldberg, Superintendent, Rosedale Silk Company, 241 West 8th Street, West Wyoming, Pa. All of these were admittedly received by Goldberg and no objection was ever made by him, or any one else, that they were wrongly addressed and should have been sent to Pearl Silk Company. The employment, which was for no definite period, ended on September 26, 1931. Bi-weekly checks of Pearl Silk Company were given the operative, which were credited on the account, and on January 18, 1932, nearly four months after the employment ended, in response to frequent requests for payment, I. M. Pearlman sent plaintiff a check of Pearl Silk Company for $ 200. Pearl Silk Company failed in March 1932, and immediately thereafter, another company, Wyoming Weaving Company, owned by I. M. Pearlman and his wife, Yedda Pearlman, of which the latter is president, is said to have taken over the operating end of the business. The monthly payments on the stock bought by I. M. Pearlman from Ginsberg Bros. have been made by checks of Pearl Silk Company and Wyoming Weaving Company.
Defendant called as witnesses Max Goldberg and I. M. Pearlman. The former said he had been superintendent of Pearl Silk Company and was now superintendent of Wyoming Weaving Company but denied being superintendent of the Rosedale Silk Company or that he had ever told Johnson that he was superintendent of that...
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