34 S.C. 217 | S.C. | 1891
The opinion of the court was delivered by
This action was brought by the plaintiff to recover the sum of five thousand dollars, alleged to be due him for his salary as president of said company from the 27th of November, 1887, to the 27th of November, 1888. In his complaint the plaintiff states as his first cause of action a special contract on the part of defendant company to pay him the said sum of money as his salary for the year mentioned, and his second cause of action is based upon a quantum meruit. The defendant answered, setting up as his first defence a general denial, and for a further defence alleges, that though the plaintiff was president of said company for the year mentioned in the complaint, yet that for a part of that time the railway was in the course of construction, and was not completed until November, 1888, and that plaintiff never had charge of or operated said railway, but that it was under construction by the contractor, George Potts, and that under the contract for the construction of said railway it was expressly stipulated that the Atlantic and Northwestern Construction Company was to pay the salary of the president of defendant company, and that plaintiff accepted the office of president, knowing of such stipulation, and is therefore es-topped from claiming his salary from defendant company.
The records of the defendant company, the contract with the construction company, and the contract with Potts, together with the verbal testimony of witnesses taken in court and by commission, were all offered in evidence. There was also some testimony adduced by defendant, and received against the objections of plaintiff, tending to show that certain assets of the defendant company had been placed in the hands of the plaintiff for the purpose of paying off its debts at the time the contract was entered, into with Potts for the construction of that portion of the
As we have already indicated, we do not see how the contract between the defendant company and the construction company, whereby the latter undertook to pay the salary of the president, can affect the question in this case. The plaintiff was no party to that contract, which was made long before the plaintiff was elected president, and though he doubtless knew of that contract, he, as an individual, was in no way bound by its terms, and could not be unless it was shown that he had agreed to look to the construction company alone for his salary, which is not pretended. If he accepted the office of president, either under a special contract as to his salary or under an implied agreement that he was to be paid whatever his services might be reasonably worth, he certainly has a right to recover from the company which employed him, either the amount stipulated for or the
The judgment of this' court is, that the judgment of the Circuit Court be affirmed.