Texarkana Lumber Co. v. Lennard

• Decision Date: 22 June 1907
• Citation: 104 S.W. 506
• Parties: TEXARKANA LUMBER CO. v. LENNARD.<SMALL><SUP>*</SUP></SMALL>
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

104 S.W. 506

TEXARKANA LUMBER CO. v. LENNARD.^*

Court of Civil Appeals of Texas.

June 22, 1907.

Rehearing Denied October 12, 1907.

Appeal from District Court, Bowie County; P. A. Turner, Judge.

Suit by F. M. Lennard against the Texarkana Lumber Company. From a judgment for plaintiff, defendant appeals. Affirmed.

Hart, Mahaffey & Thomas, for appellant. Chas. S. Todd, for appellee.

TALBOT, J.

This suit was instituted by the appellee, Lennard, against the Texarkana Lumber Company, to recover the sum of $1,800 as damages alleged to have been sustained by him on account of the breach of a contract. The case was before this court on a former appeal; the judgment of the lower court sustaining the lumber company's plea of the statute of frauds by demurrer being reversed and the cause remanded for trial. See 94 S. W. 383. At the fall term, 1906, of the district court, the case was tried by the court without a jury, and judgment rendered for appellee in the sum of $849, from which the lumber company has appealed.

The appellee was a practicing physician residing in Miller county, Ark., and the appellant a private corporation operating a sawmill at Draper, Bowie county, Tex., employing a large number of men who were required to and did reside at and near the mill with their families. There was no town other than the mill settlement, and no physician resident there. It was necessary, and the custom in the operation of such mill was, to employ a physician to reside there, or be near at hand, to give medical aid and attention to the employés, and pay such physician either a salary or certain fees apportioned per capita among the employés. On the 8th day of October, 1903, the appellant, through its superintendent and authorized agent, wrote and delivered to appellee, by due course of mail in an envelope directed in writing to Dr. F. M. Lennard, the following letter or instrument, to wit: "Draper, Texas, 10-8-03. Dr. F. M. Lennard, Boggy, Ark.—Dear Sir: I am sorry I was not here the other day to meet you. Will say we will collect for you $1.00 from all single employés, and $1.50 from all employés with families on the mill grounds, employés living in the country you will receive $1.00 from head of families, and for services for balance of families you will only charge half regular rates. We will furnish you with office building and barn and lot. Our Mr. Welch says we will do well to get you, as you have been at Boggy several years and know what sawmill practice requires and thinks you would be the man we want. We want some one who will stay with us until we cut out, as we will only be here about two years. If these terms suit you, you can come over and see me and make your arrangements to come with us. Yours very truly, C. E. Patton, Supt." Dr. Lennard, the appellee, received the foregoing letter, accepted the proposition therein contained, and about December 1, 1903, removed to appellant's mill and entered upon the performance of his duties; the appellant furnishing him an office building, barn, and lot, as stipulated in said letter. Appellee continued to render medical services to the employés of appellant, receiving from appellant his compensation therefor under the terms of the letter or contract mentioned, except for the month of June, until July 1, 1904, when appellant refused to longer pay him for his services or furnish him an office and discharged him.

Appellant presents several assignments of error, but we shall not notice them in detail. The questions raised will be sufficiently indicated without stating each assignment and discussing them separately. The court did not err in rendering judgment in favor of appellee for the sum of $849. The contract, for the breach of which appellee sought to recover, did not simply bind appellant as an agent to collect from its employés and pay over to appellee, monthly, the sums therein specified. The language of the letter, "We will collect for you $1.00 from all single employés and $1.50 from all employés with families on the mill grounds," etc., properly and fairly construed "in the light of the evident intention of the parties" and...