149 Iowa 634 | Iowa | 1910
The principal question discussed by counsel is as to the correctness of the action of the court in determining’ that there was no evidence to support the portion of the claim which was withdrawn from the consideration of the jury, and the issues and evidence need only be stated in so far as they related to that question.
Plaintiffs entered into a written contract with defendant, a corporation engaged at Des Moines in the wholesale business of selling agricultural implements throughout the United States, by which contract plaintiffs were to have the right for five years from August, 1905, to make use of defendant’s repository and warerooms without rent or charge for the purpose of carrying on the retail business of selling defendant’s machinery within certain specified territory, and also selling on their own account specified lines of goods consisting in general of buggies and harness. As compensation for the selling of defendant’s machinery the plaintiffs were to receive the difference between the wholesale price of such machinery and the retail price at which plaintiffs should sell it, and plaintiffs were to pay defendant a percentage of the actual profit on goods winch they were allowed to sell, not procured at wholesale from the defendant. Plaintiffs continued in business under this arrangement for two years, at the end of which time the contract was rescinded by defendant and plaintiffs were
In the discussion of this question we think that the trial judge, in his expression of views preserved in the record, erred in excluding the profits, if any, which plaintiffs realized in the sale of goods which they were permitted to handle, aside from the machinery sold for the defendant. It wras evidently in the contemplation of the parties that in the use of the room furnished to plaintiffs in defendant’s building, for the sale not only of defendant’s machinery, but also of lines of goods carried by the plaintiffs, profits would arise and these profits- were as much in the contemplation of the parties as the profits on the machinery sold by defendant. It does not follow that plaintiffs could have made as large profits on their lines of goods carrying on their business elsewhere, and if the evidence shows profits of this character they should as we think, plainly have been taken into account in determining
There was nothing in the contract requiring or contemplating that plaintiffs should give their personal services to the conduct of their business or the sale of defendant’s machinery. If they had hired salesmen and clerks to carry on the business, as they might properly have done, and then, on breach of the contract, had sued for loss of profits, seeking to prove the profits of the two years for the purpose of showing loss of 'profits during the remaining years of the contract, it would certainly have been true that in estimating the profits earned they must deduct from the gross receipts the expenses of the salesmen and clerks. Plow can their damages by way of loss of profits be greater if, instead of employing salesmen and clerks at a reasonable expense, they carry on the business by personally rendering the same services ? It must be borne in mind that what plaintiffs are seeking to recover is not loss of personal earnings, but loss of profits in business; and if they seek to show as the basis of their proof of loss of profits what the proceeds were during the two years, they must deduct from their gross receipts the reasonable expense for salesmen and clerks whether the necessary services of that character in the business are rendered by themselves or by others. The reasonable expenses of such services were not to be determined by what plaintiffs were individually earning before entering into this contract, nor what they were able to earn either for services or by way of profits after the contract was terminated. Having entirely failed to show what the reasonable expense for salesmen and clerks would have been, they failed to furnish an essential element of the computation necessary to bo made in proving profits during the two years of their business, for the purpose of showing what the proceeds might have been during the remaining three years. It must always ■ be borne in mind that what plaintiffs were
Error is also assigned in the admission of evidence offered by defendant in the cross examination of one of the plaintiffs, as a witness, as to what salary he was getting before entering into the contract with defendant. In the view which the trial court finally took of the case this evidence was wholly immaterial, but its introduction was not prejudicial to plaintiffs. It is true that if, as the lower court seemed to think, it was proper to fix the value of plaintiffs’ services in carrying on the business for two years on the basis of what they would have been able to earn otherwise, then perhaps the evidence would have been prejudicial. But, as already suggested, the profits of the business as a basis for estimating future profits would not have been less on account of the value of plaintiffs’ services personally rendered being greater than required to conduct the business, nor would such profits have been greater by reason of the plaintiffs rendering their own services without proof of any value of such services whatever. Eor the purpose of estimating the profits, the reasonable expense of conducting the business alone was important, for it should not be assumed that during the remaining three years plaintiffs would conduct the business otherwise than for the purpose of making all the profits which it was capable of returning.
What we have said disposes of the case, with the result that no error was committed by the trial court in withdrawing from the jury the question of prospective
The judgment of the trial court is therefore affirmed.