25 Tex. 695 | Tex. | 1860
The charge of the court was correct in, its terms, though it did not embrace the whole law of the case.. We have frequently decided, however, that where there is no error in the charge, as given, this court will not reverse the judgment, because the instruction to the jury was not sufficiently comprehensive. In such case, it' is the duty of the party, who is- dissatisfied with the charge, to ask for a further instruction to supply the deficiency in the general instruction. It would have been proper for the court to have instructed the jury that the plaintiff below could not, in any event, recover beyond the amount to which he woulddiave been entitled had the contract been fulfilled. This rule applies as well to a case like the present, where the overseer is to receive a portion of the crop for his remuneration, as to those cases in which the parties agree upon a sum of money as the price of the overseer’s services. In this case if the overseer was discharged without sufficient cause, he was entitled to recover for the four months during which he served the appellant in the capacity of overseer, and also to recover such damages as he suffered in consequence of being improperly turned out of employment. In estimating such damages, however, it is error to adopt the amount to which he would have been entitled had the contract been fulfilled as the damage which the overseer has suffered. Because to do this, and also to- allow him compensation according to the contract price (which is the true rule) for the time which he actually served, is at once to violate the fundamental rule which does not permit him to recover more than he would have been entitled to receive if the contract had been fulfilled. If wrongfully discharged, the overseer can recover for his actual services, according to the contract price,
Reversed and remanded.