9 Daly 66 | New York Court of Common Pleas | 1880
This was only the ordinary monthly hiring of a domestic servant at $16 a month. The plaintiff asked the defendant’s wife if she kept her girls
The understanding, in respect to the summer months, was simply a conditional one. It depended upon whether the plaintiff suited the defendant’s wife. The utmost that occurred towards the end of the first week was an affirmative response : “ Oh, yes, I like you very much,” to the plaintiff’s remark, “ Then as long as I suit you, there is no fear for the summer monthsthe plain construction of which is, that as long as she continued to suit Mrs. Shattuck, she would be employed, and necessarily implied the right to discharge her at the end of any month, if she did not suit her. Mrs. Shattuck may have liked her very well after she had been there about a week, but upon further experience, have found that she did not suit her ; and it would be going too far, from that remark, and her assent to what the plaintiff said, to hold that she meant to bind herself unconditionally to keep the plaintiff until September 1; or that the plaintiff even so understood it by the remark : “ As long as I suit you, there is no fear for the summer months.” It was simply assuming that, as she suited her then, she would continue to suit her, and nothing more, leaving her
The measure of damages, moreover, was wholly erroneous; but it is unnecessary to discuss that question, as there was no such contract as that upon which the action was based.
The judgment should be reversed.
Van Brunt, J., concurred.
Judgment reversed.