65 P. 689 | Kan. | 1901
The opinion of the court was delivered by
This was an action brought by plaintiffs below to enjoin the plaintiff in error from working at the barber trade in the town of Russell, in violation of the terms of a contract made by him with the plaintiffs. It is alleged in the amended petition that the parties entered into a written contract, a copy of which is set out, in which plaintiff in error, for adequate consideration, agreed as follows :
‘•I, H. C. Pohlman, do hereby sell and assign all my right, title and interest to the building now used by me as a barber shop, together with all'furniture, tools and materials in said shop, to G. F. Dawson. I also agi’ee not to engage in the barber business in any manner in Russell, Kan., while said G. F., E. E. or H. A. Dawson shall conduct the same.”
The principal contention is that the plaintiff in error was not violating the terms of the contract in working for the proprietor of another shop. We disagree with counsel in this claim. The contract is that Pohlman should not engage in the barber business in any manner in Russell, Kan. This means that he would not carry on said business' after the manner of either a proprietor or an employee. We think that by the comprehensive language used he contracted not to work as a barber for any other person in that town so long as defendants in error were in business. Engaging himself as an employee in a rival shop would result in greater harm to the defendants in error than if the parties had been carrying on a purely commercial business. The barber sustains personal relations with his customers, which are at least' quasi professional. Formerly by statute, 32 Henry VIII, C. 42 (5 Eng. Stat. at L., 58), in England, barbers were united with a company of surgeons, it being enacted that they should confine themselves to the operations of bloodletting and drawing teeth. While a barber no longer practices surgery or extracts teeth, his vocation de
The claim that the amended petition did not relate back to the time the action was commenced cannot be sustained. There 'is an express averment that it does so, and the verification states that the 'facts set out were true when the original petition was filed.
The judgment of the court below will be affirmed.