258 N.W. 17 | Minn. | 1934
July 15, 1931, plaintiff entered into a contract of employment with the defendant company whereby plaintiff, as salesman for the defendant, was to receive $300 per month from that date to January 1, 1932. December 5, 1931, defendant discharged plaintiff, paying him salary to December 15, 1931. Plaintiff asked that his salary be paid to December 31, the termination date of the contract, and under date of December 8 defendant, through its sales manager, wrote plaintiff in effect offering him reëmployment to December 31 in the same capacity and at the same salary specified in the contract. Plaintiff refused to accept the reëmployment and subsequently *161 commenced this action for damages. Plaintiff would have received $150 as salary under the contract for the last half of December and asserts that he is entitled to that amount as damage because of what defendant now concedes to be a wrongful breach.
As a general rule, where, under an employment contract, the employer discharges the employe without cause, the employe is bound to accept an offer made in good faith by the employer to reëmploy him in the same or a similar capacity at the same salary. Damages in consequence of the breach are mitigated by the employe's refusal to accept the offer, and the burden upon defendant to show that plaintiff could have secured like employment at the same salary is sustained by proof of such good faith offer and its refusal. Flickema v. Henry Kraker Co.
An exception to this rule is noted in 72 A.L.R. 1057. It is there stated, and we think correctly, that where further association between the parties would be offensive or degrading to the employe because of the wrongful act of the employer, the offer to reëmploy is ineffectual to diminish damage. Price v. Davis,
Plaintiff contends that defendant has not sustained the burden of proving the good faith of the offer. We think the record compels a finding of good faith in that respect.
Affirmed. *162