after stating the case as above, delivered the opinion of the court.
In the Circuit Court of the United States, a verdict and judgment were rendered for the plaintiff for - a less amount of damages than he claimed; and each.party alleged exceptions to.rulings and instructions of the judge, and sued out a writ of error from the' Circuit Court of Appeals. That court, héld that the defendant’s demurrer to the complaint should have been sustained, and therefore reversed the judgment of the Circuit Court, and remanded the case for further proceedings. A writ of certiorari to review the judgment of the Circuit Court of Appeals was thereupon applied for by the plaintiff, and Was granted by this court.
The fundamental question in this case is whether the contract in suit, made by the parties on June 4,1890, is a contract intended to last during the plaintiff’s life, or is a mere contract of hiring from month to month, terminable at the pleasure of-either party at the end of any month.
The facts bearing upon this question, as appearing upon the face of this contract, are as follows: In May, 1888, the plaintiff, while employed as a machinist in the defendant’s coal mine in Alabama, was seriously hurt by a trip of tram cars on the main slope of the mine, under circumstances which the plaintiff claimed, and the defendant denied, rendered it liable to him in damages. The parties were desirous of settling and *8 compromising the plaintiff’s claim for damages for the injuries, and had repeated negotiations with that object. In November, 1888, they made an agreement (which does not appear to have been reduced to writing) by which the defendant was to pay the plaintiff regular wages while he was disabled, and also to furnish him vvith such supplies as he might choose to get from a commissary, and to give him coal and wood for fuel at his dwelling house, and the benefit of a garden belonging to the defendant. The agreement was carried out by the defendant until May, 1889, and was then, after the plaintiff had resumed work, modified by stipulating that the defendant should give the plaintiff such work as he could do, should pay him therefor wages of $60 a month, as before the accident, and should give„him the rent of his house, or, in lieu of house rent, an .equivalent amount of supplies, from the commissary ; and the agreement, as so modified, was faithfully kept by both parties until June 4, 1890. Finally, on that day, the parties entered into the written contract sued on, by which,” after reciting the plaintiff’s claim for damages and the earlier agreements, it was agreed “ in view [evidently' a misprint for “ in lieu ”] of the above propositions, which have been faithfully carried out,” that the plaintiff’s “ wages- from this date are to be $65 a month,” (the increase of wages being apparently intended as an equivalent for the provision, now omitted, for house rent or supplies from the commissary,) and that he was to have, free of charge, his fuel and the benefit of the garden; and the plaintiff, on his part, agreed to release the defendant from any and all liability for the accident, or for the injuries resulting to him from it or from the effects of it, and that this should be a full and satisfactory settlement of all claims which he might have against the defendant.
The effect of the provisions and recitals of the contract sued on may be summed up thus: The successive agreements between the parties were all made with a view to* settle and compromise the plaintiff’s claim against the defendant for personal injuries, caused to him by the defendant’s cars while he was in its service as a machinist, and seriously impairing his ability to work. By each agreement, the defendant was *9 to pay him certain wages, and to furnish him with certain supplies. The supplies to be furnished were evidently a minor consideration, and require no particular discussion. The more important matter is the wages. The defendant, at first, agreed to pay the plaintiff “ regular wages while he was disabled:” The agreement, in that form, would clearly last so long as he continued to be disabled, and could not have been put an end to by the defendant without the plaintiff’s consent. By the next succeeding agreement, made after the plaintiff had resumed work, the defendant was “ to give him work, such as he could do, paying hifn therefor the wages paid before said accident, that is, $60 a month.” That agreement must be considered as a mere modification of the first, requiring the plaintiff to do such work as he could do, but showing that he was still much disabled by liis injuries. By the final agreement in writing of June 4, 1890, after reciting the plaintiff’s claim for damages for these injuries, as well as the earlier agreements, his 'wages were increased by a stipulation that his “wages from this date are to be $65 a month,” and he expressly released the defendant from all liability for the injuries resulting to him from the accident or from the effects thereof, and agreed that this should be a full and satisfactory settlement of all his claims against the defendant.
The only reasonable interpretation of this contract is that the defendant promised to pay the plaintiff wages at the rate of $65 a month, and to allow him his fuel and the benefit of the garden so long as his disability to do full work continued; and that, in consideration of these promises of the defendant, the plaintiff agreed to do such work as he could, and to release the defendant from all liability upon his claim for damages for his personal injuries. An intention of the parties that, while the plaintiff absolutely released the defendant from that- claim the defendant might at its own will and pleasure cease to perform all the obligations which were the consideration of that.release, finds no support in the terms of the contract, and is too unlikely to be presumed.
Carnig
v.
Carr,
*10
The Supreme Court of Alabama,' when the. case at bar was before it on appeal from the county court, and before the removal of the case into the'Circuit Court of the United States, expressed the opinion that “the contract is sufficiently •definite as to time, and bound the defendant to its performance, so long as the plaintiff should be disabled by reason of the injuries he received, which, under the averment that he was permanently disabled, will be for life; ” and upon that ground reversed the judgment of the county court sustaining the demurrer to the complaint, and remanded the case to that court. 110 Alabama, 533, 536. As we concur in that opinion, it is unnecessary to consider how far it should be considered as binding upon us in this case. See
Williams
v. Conger, 125 U. S.. 397, 418;
Gardner
v.
Michigan Central
Railroad,
It follows that the judgment of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals in this case was erroneous, and must b6 reversed.
It "appears to us to be equally clear that the Circuit Court of the United States erred in.excluding the evidence offered by the plaintiff, in restricting his damages to the wages due and unpaid at the time of the trial, and in declining to instruct the jury as he requested.
Upon this point, the authorities are somewhat conflicting; and there is little to be found in the decisions of this court, having any bearing upon it, beyond the affirmance of the general propositions that “in an action for a personal'injury the plaintiff is entitled to recover compensation, so far as it is susceptible of an estimate in money, for the loss and damage caused to him by the defendant’s negligence, including not only expenses incurred for medical attendance, and a reasonable sum for his pain and suffering, but also a fair recompense for the loss of what he would otherwise have earned in his trade or profession, and has been deprived of the capacity of earning, by the wrongful act of the defendant,” and, “ in order to assist the jury in making such an estimate, standard life and annuity tables, showing at any age the
*11
probable duration of life, and the present value of a life annuity, are competent evidence;”
Vicksburg &c. Railroad
v.
Putnam,
But the recent tendency of judicial decisions in this country, in actions of contract, as well' as in actions of tort, has been towards allowing entire damages to be recovered, once for all, in a single action, and thus avoiding the embarrassment and annoyance of repeated litigation. This especially appears by well considered opinions in cases of agreements to furnish support or to pay wages, a few only of which need be referred to.
In
Parker
v.
Russell,
*13
So in
Schell
v. Plumb,
In
Eastern Tennessee &c. Railroad
v.
Staub,
These cases appear to this court to rest upon sound principles, and to afford correct rules for the assessment of the plaintiff’s damages in the case at bar.
The legal effect of the contract sued on, as has been seen, was that the defendant promised to pay the plaintiff certain wages, and to furnish him with certain supplies, so long, at least, as his disability to work should continue; and the consideration of these promises of the defendant was the plaintiff’s agreement to do for the defendant such work as he was able to do, and his release of the defendant from all liability i,n damages for the personal injuries which had caused his disability.
The complaint alleged, and the plaintiff at the trial introduced evidence tending to prove, that by those injuries he was permanently disabled; that he was always ready and offered to do for the defendant such work as he was able to do, and labored at that work for such reasonable time as he was able to work and bound to work under the contract; and that the defendant, without any reasonable ground therefor, denied its obligation to pay the plaintiff the stipulated wages longer than suited its pleasure, and, for six months before the commencement of the action, disregarded the contract, and refused to abide by it, and entirely abandoned the contract, and dismissed the plaintiff from its services.
*16 If these facts were proved to the satisfaction of the jury, the case would stand thus: The defendant' committed an absolute breach of the contract, at a time when the plaintiff was entitled to require performance. The plaintiff was not bound to wait to see if the defendant would change its decision, and take him back into its service; or to resort to successive actions for damages. from time to time; or to leave the whole qí his damages to be recovered by his personal representative after his death. But he had the right to elect to treat the contract as absolutely and finally broken by the defendant; to maintain this action, once for all, as for a total breach of the entire contract; and to recover all that he would have received in the future, as well as in the past, if the contract had been kept. In so doing, he would^ simply recover the value of the contract to him at the time of the breach, including all the damages, past or future, resulting from the total breach of the contract. The difficulty and uncertainty of estimating damages that the plaintiff may suffer in the future is no greater in this action of contract, than they would have been if he had sued the defendant, in an action of tort, to recover damages for the personal injuries sustained ’in its service, instead of settling and releasing those damages by the contract now sued on. • ■
In assessing the plaintiff’s damages, deduction should, of course, be made of any sum that the plaintiff might have earned in the past or might earn in the future, as well as the amount of any loss that the defendant had sustained by the loss of the plaintiff’s services without the defendant’s fault. And such deduction was provided for in the instruction asked by the plaintiff and refused by the judge.
The questions of law presented by the defendant’s bill of exceptions, allowed by the Circuit Court of the United States, are substantially like those above considered, .and require no further notice.
The result is, that the judgment of the Circuit Court of Appeals, sustaining the demurrer to the complaint, and reversing the judgment of the Circuit Court of the United States, must be reversed; that the judgment of the Circuit Court of the *17 United States must also be reversed, because of the ruling excepted to by the plaintiff; and that the case must be remanded to that court, with directions to set aside the verdict and to order a new trial.
Judgments of the Circuit Court of Appeals and of the Circuit Court of the United States reversed, and case remanded to said Circuit Court for further proceedings in conformity with the opinion of this court.