293 Mass. 117 | Mass. | 1936
This is an action of contract upon an account annexed to recover salary due and money lent.
It appears from the facts found by the auditor that the plaintiff had been employed by the defendant as manager of her farm, known as Carver Hill Farm, in Natick in this Commonwealth; that he hired the employees and paid them and the bills generally; that he kept a bank account under the name of “Carver Hill Orchard,” drew checks on the account, and made purchases of supplies for the farm, the checks being signed by him as manager; that at times he advanced his own money to pay bills, including the expense of spraying the orchards; that he rendered annually to the defendant a report which was “insufficient in detail”; that the funds were not sufficient to meet the expenses of carrying on the farm owing to the inability of the defendant to supply them, and the expenses were taken care of in part by the plaintiff and his son, who was one of the employees on the farm. The auditor further found as
As manager of the defendant’s farm the plaintiff was bound to exercise the utmost good faith in his dealings with her. “If the agent does not conduct himself with entire fidelity towards his principal, but is guilty of taking a secret profit or commission in regard to the matter in which he is employed, he loses his right to compensation on the ground that he has taken a position wholly inconsistent with that of agent for his employer, and which gives his employer, upon discovering it, the right to treat him so far as compensation, at least, is concerned, as if no agency had existed. This may operate to give the principal the benefit of valuable services rendered by the agent,
The items in the plaintiff’s account annexed for salary or wages are as follows: Item 1. Balance due for wages to January 1, 1933, $366.35; Item 9. Fourteen months’ salary from January, 1933, to March 1, 1934, $1,750; Item 10. Salary due March, 1934, $71. The total amount of these charges for salary and wages is $2,187.35. The other items charged in the plaintiff’s account are for money lent to pay bills of the farm and amount to $413.99. In reduction of these claims the plaintiff allows a credit of $820 consisting of $620 for cash received by the plaintiff on different dates and a check for $200 received from the defendant. The auditor found that the defendant should be allowed these credits and also an omitted credit of $90.77. He allowed all the items claimed by the plaintiff except item 2, which is $275 for money lent to pay the Farmers Co-operative Exchange; of this he allowed $100 and disallowed $175 as representing the secret profit received by the plaintiff as a bonus of seven shares of stock.
As the plaintiff’s claim for wages and salary amounted to $2,187.35, and apart from that amount he sought to recover only $413.99, being items 2 to 8 for money lent and he
No error of law appears in the rulings of the trial judge. The entry must be
Exceptions overruled.