154 P. 753 | Or. | 1916
delivered the opinion of the court.
“I will want you to guarantee me $3,000 per year, a proportion of this amount to be paid me each day, and a settlement to be made at the end of each year, and, if I should make more than the above guaranty, the difference be paid me at the end of each year, when settlement is made.”
Upon acceptance of this offer the plaintiff entered the employ of the defendant on May 1, 1892, and continued therein until September 31, 1893, when he was discharged. Having been paid what he had earned up to the time of his discharge, he brought suit to recover damages in the sum of $1,500 for the six months following. He secured a verdict for the full amount, which was sustained on appeal. In Kelly v. Carthage
“And in the interpretation of contracts of this kind, as well as of all others, none of their provisions should be ignored or overlooked that serve to indicate the intention of the parties.”
In Du Pont v. Waddell, 178 Fed. 407 (101 C. C. A. 335), we find the following language:
“It is true, as said by counsel and sustained by authority, that, nothing more appearing, the language used by the parties would be controlling in fixing the duration of the relation of employer and employee. We must, however, look to surrounding circumstances, the relations then existing, the character of the employment, and if, after doing so, the meaning of the language used and the intention of the parties is doubtful, or capable of more than one construction, the question should be submitted to the jury. ’ ’
In Chamberlain v. Detroit Stove Works, 103 Mich. 124 (61 N. W. 532), quoted from in the Du Pont Case, we. find the following:
“What the relation was and how long it was to continue depended upon the original hiring, the subsequent relation, the nature of the services performed, and the mutual understanding- of the parties. As to duration, we think it was competent for the jury to determine from the evidence that the hiring was annual, and not subject to revocation or change by the board of directors or the president.”
“No man can adopt that part of a transaction which is favorable to him, and reject the rest to the injury of those from whom he derived the benefit.”
It is not shown that the by-laws of the corporation controlled the authority of the manager in this respect or made any provision relating to the employment of services. In 2 Thompson, Corporations, Section 1580, we find the rule:
“The power of the general manager, acting within the strict scope or the apparent scope of the corporate business about which and over which his employment extends, is practically unlimited as to the details of the business. In the internal management of the corporate business he has been held to have the right to exercise authority in the following instances: To employ clerks, servants and laborers and fix their compensa*506 tion; * * to employ a superintendent of a mine; and to employ a foreman in a paper-mill. * * ”
The evidence tended to show that the manager had authority to make the contract in question, and the court, acting as a jury, having so found, the findings should not be disturbed.
Finding no error in the record, the judgment of the lower court is affirmed.
Affirmed. Rehearing Denied.