150 Mass. 448 | Mass. | 1890
The plaintiff, a minor, with the assent of his mother, agreed with the defendant to work for him for eight dollars a week, one half to be paid to the plaintiff, and the other half to be applied by the defendant to the payment of a debt due to the defendant from the estate of the deceased father of the plaintiff. The judge, who tried the case without a jury, found that the plaintiff’s services were not worth eight dollars a week for the first part of the time he worked, but “ were worth eight dollars a week for the whole time.” The plaintiff’s pay was raised from time to time, and, after he had worked for the defendant eight weeks, “his pay was raised to
Graffney v. Hayden, ubi supra, shows that, if the amount of the wages agreed upon had not been as much as the plaintiff’s services were worth, the fact that the plaintiff had received his pay while a minor would not prevent him from avoiding the contract, and suing on a quantum meruit. In the opinion, the cases of Stone v. Dennison, 13 Pick. 1, and Breed v. Judd, 1 Gray, 455, which the present defendant cites, are considered and distinguished.
It is suggested that the plaintiff’s agreement that the defendant should apply a part of the wages to the extinguishment of the father’s indebtedness makes the actual application of the wages by the defendant in pursuance of this agreement, and before it was revoked, equivalent to a payment of money by the plaintiff to the defendant for the purpose of extinguishing this debt. It is argued that, if a minor voluntarily pays money under
So ordered. ■