13 Mo. App. 310 | Mo. Ct. App. | 1883
delivered the opinion of the court.
The petition states that the defendant employed the plain tiff on October 8, 1879, for one year, as brewer, at a salary of $2,200, and that he was wrongfully discharged on June 26, 1880; for which breach of contract he demands $500 damages. The answer denies generally, and sets up a justification of the alleged discharge. There was a verdict for the plaintiff.
An indefinite hiring, at so much per day, per month, or per year, is a hiring at will, and may be terminated by either party at any time. If the servant seeks to make out a hiring for a year, the burden is on him to establish it by proof. De Briar v. Minturn, 1 Cal. 450. The first essential of any right of recovery by the plaintiff in this case is, that his contract for hiring was for the full term of one vear. If there was no evidence even tending to show that such was the contract between the parties, the case should have been withdrawn from the jury, and thejudgment must here be reversed.
The only evidence upon which the jury were permitted to find that there was a yearly hiring, is contained in the fol
It is quite clear from his statements, what the witness himself understood to be the contract, to wit: that he was to be employed at the same wages which he had received up to that time from Mrs. Koch, and that this was to continue for a year, if he did his work well, i.e., to the satisfaction of his employer. This was not a contract for a year. It was determinable at least at the pleasure of the employer, if not at that of either party. Durgin v. Baker, 32 Me. 273; Harper v. Hassard, 113 Mass. 187. In the very nature of such a contract, the question whether the work is done well, or not, must be determined by the employer, and not by the employed.
The testimony tended to show that the plaintiff was discharged for fighting with other employees in the brewery. We need not inquire whether the facts were such as to warrant a discharge, if the contract was for a year, since, in our view of the case, there was no proof whatever of such a contract, and the defendant’s demurrer to the evidence ought to have been sustained. The judgment is reversed and the cause remanded.