16 Iowa 214 | Iowa | 1864
The bill of exceptions states that the contract for the minor’s services was made by the defendant directly with the minor, and not with the plaintiff, and that it was made with the knowledge of the plaintiff. That by the terms of the contract, the minor was to live with the defendant until he should arrive at the age of twenty-one years, and should receive for his services his
The appellee now maintains, that settlement with and payment to her minor son after she had exercised her parental right over him, by causing him to leave the defendant’s service, would constitute no bar to her action for the value of his services. The statute is as follows: “Where a contract for the personal services of the minor is made with him alone, and those services are afterwards performed, payment made therefor to such minor, in accordancé with the terms of the contract, is a full satisfaction for those services, and the parent or guardian cannot recover therefor a seeond time.” Rev., § 2542.
It does not appear that the plaintiff, who had knowledge of the minor’s contract with the defendant, objected thereto, or that any advantage was taken of, or fraud practiced upon, the minor in making the original contract or the settlement; but on the contrary, it does appear that the minor left the defendant without cause and by the plaintiff’s order. The record does not even show that the plaintiff forbid the defendant from making the settle
If the contract had been made with the parent, or if the parent was, by the terms of the contract, to receive payment, the question would be different. It is sufficient to decide the exact case which the record presents, and looking at the case upon the record before us, we are of opinion, that the proposed proof was improperly rejected. The testimony excluded tended to show payment in full to the minor. It is true that the defendant did not propose to show that this payment was made in accordance with the terms of the contract, but he had a right, in the first place, to prove the payment, and afterwards to follow this with other evidence to show that the settlement and payment were made under such circumstances as would discharge him from further liability. The charge to the jury, so far as the same view of the law was expressed by the court, was likewise erroneous. The motion for a new trial should have been sustained.
Reversed.