Ramsay v. Rodgers

RICHARDS, J.

This action was instituted by the plaintiff for recovery of the sum of $12,750, with interest, alleged to be due the plaintiff from the defendants under the terms of a certain written contract for the employment of plaintiff by the defendants as general manager of certain real properties of the latter situate in California and Nevada and for a period from and after December 1, 1916, at a salary of $6,000 per annum, payable in monthly installments and for additional compensation of five per cent of the amount of the net annual income in excess of $25,000 derived from the operation or leasing of saia properties, to be computed in the manner specified in said agreement. The contract, which was attached to the complaint as an exhibit and expressly made a part thereof, contained the following provision:

"It is mutually understood and agreed between the parties hereto that the owners shall not discharge the general manager during the term of this employment except on account of a breach by the general manager of some material part of this agreement going to the essence thereof; the right is reserved, however, to the owners, of discharging the general manager at any time, but if they discharge him without legal cause the owners obligate themselves to pay to him at the time of such discharge, in addition to the amount of compensation due him at such time according to the terms of this agreement, a full year’s compensation. If, however, such discharge shall occur prior to the completion of the first year of service then the extra amount of such compensation shall be the sum of six thousand dollars ($6,000.00); if, however, such discharge shall occur after the first year of his employment as such General Manager then the amount of such additional compensation over and above his regular salary to be paid to the General Manager shall be the sum of six thousand dollars ($6,000.00) plus five per cent (5%) of the estimated net income over and above the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000.00), of the year during which he may be so discharged; and the General Manager shall have no right to cease his services as such general manager except on account of a material

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breach of said agreement by the owners or either of them going to the essence thereof.”

Plaintiff, in his complaint, alleged that he entered upon the performance of the obligations of said contract on his part to be performed and had continued to perform the same until the first day of March, 1919, when the defendants without cause discharged said plaintiff. He further alleged that there was due him at the time of his said discharge on account of his salary for the month of February, 1919, the sum of $500, which was unpaid, and that there became due him thereafter, pursuant to the terms of said contract, the sum of $6,000 as his full year’s compensation for the year succeeding said date of his discharge, and the further sum of $6,250, being five per cent of the amount of income of said properties in excess of $25,000 for said year; which sums also remain unpaid. He prayed judgment for the sum of $12,750, the aggregate of these several sums, with legal interest from the date of his discharge, and costs of suit. Defendants demurred to said complaint generally and also presented a special demurrer alleging certain specified uncertainties therein. These demurrers being overruled, the defendants answered, denying generally the averments of the plaintiff’s complaint. Later they asked and obtained leave to file an amended answer and cross-complaint, the former of which embraced amplified denials and the latter alleged certain breaches of said contract on the plaintiff’s part, which it was asserted justified his discharge, from which the defendants were alleged to have sustained a large amount of damage for which they sought affirmative relief through their said cross-complaint. The cause was tried before a jury, which returned a verdict in the plaintiff’s favor for the sum of $10,000. Judgment was entered accordingly. A motion far a new trial was presented and denied, whereupon this appeal was taken.