Ramsey v. Brown

• Decision Date: 06 March 1899
• Citation: 25 So. 151,77 Miss. 124
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
• Parties: WILLIAM A. RAMSEY v. WALLACE P. BROWN ET AL

25 So. 151

77 Miss. 124

WILLIAM A. RAMSEY v. WALLACE P. BROWN ET AL

Supreme Court of Mississippi

March 6, 1899

March 1899

FROM the circuit court of Jones county, HON. A. G. MAYERS, Judge.

Ramsey the appellant, was the plaintiff in the court below; Brown and his partners, members of the firm of W. P. Brown & Co. appellees, were defendants there. The facts are fully stated in the opinion of the court.

Reversed and remanded.

Shannon & Street, and Frank Johnston, for appellant.

Here is a case presented, under which an employe was to work for an employer under a written contract for a season of eight months for the consideration of $ 800. This written contract is silent as to how or when this money was to be paid; but under a verbal contract it was shown to be due and payable monthly at the rate of $ 100. This is clearly the contract, else why did Brown & Company pay the first month's salary, and admit in their letters that the second month's salary was due, and that they did not blame appellant for wanting it, etc.?

Then when this monthly salary of $ 100 (to be paid under the verbal contract at the end of each month) was fifteen days past due, we submit that appellees, and not appellant, must be charged with first breaking the contract as a whole.

Hardy & Howell, for appellees.

An entire contract for services cannot be apportioned, so as to permit a recovery for a part performance by one who is guilty of a breach of the contract. Timberlake v. Thayer, 71 Miss. 279, s.c. 24 L. R. A., 231; 2 Parson's on Contracts, 38; 1 Add. on Contract, 633; 2 Sutherland on Damages, sec. 686; Olmstead v. Bach, 22 L. R. A., 74.

Argued orally by C. A. Street, for appellant.

OPINION

TERRAL, J.

W. A. Ramsey, a cotton buyer at Ellisville, Miss. claiming that W. P. Brown & Co., of New Orleans, La., were indebted to him for services as a cotton buyer for one and a half month's wages, and for other sums of money aggregating $ 196.50, sued them for that sum in attachment, and the case by appeal from the justice court was tried in the circuit court of Jones county. Upon the trial in the circuit court the following was shown to be the written contract between the parties:

"This is to show that W. P. Brown & Co., of New Orleans, have this day employed W. A. Ramsey on the following terms for the cotton season of 1897-8, said season to begin September 1st, 1897, and to last until May 1st, 1898. Said W. P. Brown & Co. agree to pay said W. A. Ramsey $ 800 for the season, and they reserve the right to dispense with the service of said W. A. Ramsey at any time they find he is not conducting the business in a proper manner, and in accordance with the instructions he received from them.

"W. P. BROWN & Co.

"W. A. RAMSEY."

The plaintiff testified that he duly entered and...