130 Ky. 530 | Ky. Ct. App. | 1908
Opinion of the Court by
Reversing.
The appellant instituted this action against the appellee to recover damages for an alleged breach of contract of employment. The canse of action is' contained in the following excerpt from the petition. “He states: That plaintiff was in the employ of defendant in and aronnd said establishment during the month of September, 1904, and, while plaintiff was engaged
The trial court, in sustaining the demurrer to the petition, was of opinion that the contract set up by the plaintiff lacked mutuality, or, in other words, a consideration, and for that reason came within the prin
The case of Yellow Poplar Lumber Co. v. Rule, 106 Ky. 455, 20 Ky. Law Rep. 2006, 50 S. W. 685, is in all respects similar to that at bar. In that case Buie was employed in the sawmill of the appellant company, and upon having his thumb cut off, as he claimed, by the negligence of the company’s agents, demanded damages for the injury. This claim was compromised by the company, as it was alleged, by an agreement that, if the employe would forego his suit for damages and surrender all claim therefor, it would give him. employment at the rate of $2.50 per day so long as it-was engaged in the sawmill business on the Ohio, river. This proposition he accepted, but after-, wards, when he was able to work, and when the mills of the company resumed operation, he was refused employment. In an action for a breach of the contract for employment, the employe obtained a verdict for $1,400, and upon appeal it was insisted by the company that the contract alleged lacked mutuality. In other, words, it was said there, as here, that the company was bound to hire, but the employe was not bound to serve; he could work or not, as he chose, whereas, the company had obligated itself to give him employment at $2.50 per day as long as its mills were. operated on the Ohio river. In response to the contention that the contract alleged lacked mutuality, it was said: “In our opinion, whilst these are the characteristics of the contract, it does not follow that the employe is without remedy. Except for the fact that courts do not, as a rule, so enforce these contracts of hiring, by reason of their personal nature, the' agreement as alleged might be the ba-sis of an' action for specific performance, and, such an action not being
It seems to us that the opinion in the case last above cited is conclusive of the Question we have here. We see no reason why a company should be allowed to settle a proposed action against it for damages by promising to give permanent employment to its injured employe, and, when the time within which the employe could prosecute his claim for damages had expired, to refuse to carry out the contract. This would be exceedingly unjust and inequitable to the employe, and would tend to uphold the fraud and chicanery of dishonest employers. It seems' to us much more rational to encourage the settlement of such claims as appellant alleges he originally had against appellee, by upholding the compromises by which they are effected, than to force the injured employe either to litigate his claim for personal injuries or afterwards be at the mercy of his employer.
,Judgment reversed, with directions to overrule the
Petition by appellee for rehearing overruled.