10 N.Y.S. 213 | N.Y. Sup. Ct. | 1890
This is an appeal from a judgment of the Albany county court, rendered upon the verdict of a jury in favor of the plaintiff, and also from an order of the county court denying a motion for a new trial, upon the judge’s minutes. The action is upon an alleged contract by the defendant for the labor of the plaintiff in the defendant’s brewery for one year, at the rate of two dollars per day, which the plaintiff alleges the defendant broke by discharging him from its employment before the expiration of the term. The defendant denies the making of the contract; and the principal contention is, was the plaintiff employed by the defendant to work by a contract or agreement binding upon the defendant? The jury found for the plaintiff, and a judgment was entered upon their verdict, and from that judgment the defendant appeals.
The jury having found for the plaintiff upon the disputed question of fact, as to whether or not there was an agreement between the parties that the plaintiff was to work for a year, and also that there was a breach, and damages resulting therefrom, their finding should be upheld, unless there was some error committed on the trial upon questions of law. It is insisted on the part of the appellant that, as matter of law, no binding contract upon the defendant was proved, as there was no affirmative proof on the part of the
The plaintiff had a right to assume that the person at the office, who assumed to employ laborers, had authority to act in that capacity; and it has been held that a jury may presume the authority in such a case, from an act •openly done in the usual course of business, at the office of the company, without the evidence of actual knowledge on the part of the company or its directors, or of express ratification. We discover no error in the charge of the judge, or in his refusal to charge, which will justify a reversal of this judgment. As we have seen, any private instructions by the manager of the company to Gray, prior to the making of the contract, that no laborer should be hired for a longer time than for one day, not known by or communicated to the plaintiff, would not relieve the defendant from liability, so long as the defendant permitted Gray to act for it at the office in the capacity of an employer of labor. It was not, therefore, error for the judge to refuse to ■charge as requested upon that point. The judgment and order are affirmed, with costs. All concur.