32 Mo. 408 | Mo. | 1862
delivered the opinion of the court.
Henson sued Hampton before a justice of the peace to recover the value of fourteen days’ work and labor performed by the former for the latter, on board of a flatboat, during a certain voyage on the Osage river. Henson recovered a judgment before the justice, from which Hampton appealed to the Circuit Court, where a new trial was had, which resulted as below. On the trial in the Circuit Court, the evidence tended to show that the work and labor for which the
The same question is involved in this case as in those of Posey v. Garth, 7 Mo. 96; Dickson v. Caldwell, 17 Mo. 595; and Schnerr v. Lemp, 19 Mo. 40. If the plaintiff’s contract was to serve the defendant during the entire voyage at a fixed price, and that, before the termination of the voyage, he, without cause and against the consent of the defendant, abandoned the service, as the evidence tends to prove was the case, he cannot recover for the part performance of the contract; and the Circuit Court therefore erred in giving the instruction asked by Henson, and in refusing the one asked by Hampton.
For this reason, the judgment is reversed and the cause remanded for a new trial;