114 Ala. 277 | Ala. | 1896
Ordinarily, contingent rights and interests are not assignable at law; yet, if coupled with some present interest, they are capable of legal assignment. — 2 Story Eq., § 1049; Patapsco Guano Co. v. Ballard, 107 Ala. 710. An example is, that wages to be earned in the future under an existing contract for their rendition, providing the rate or measure of compensation, are capable of assignment. The principle, as it
The case of Lamar v. Smith, 7 Gray (Mass.) 150, to which we are referred by the counsel for the appellee, bears a close resemblance to the present case. There was a contract of hiring not for any specified time, either party, as here, being at liberty to' terminate it at any time, at the rate or price of $1.25 per. day for the time services were rendered. To obtain advances and supplies, the workman gave an order to the person'from whom they were to be obtained on the employer for the payment of the wages as earned for a period of three months, of which the employer had notice, aiid of its acceptance there was evidence which was submitted to the jury. The order was held, a valid, operative assignment of the wages as earned, and that after notice and acceptance, the employer was legally liable to the assignee for the wages, and that his rights could not be intercepted by a garnishment against the employer while the wages were being earned. The order in favor of the appellee was presented and accepted on the day it-was drawn; and thereafter, even under the common law, when actions ex contractu could be supported only in the name of the party having the legal title, would have entitled him to maintain, in his own name, an action against the employer. — Payne v. Mayor & Alderman, 4 Ala. 333.
The cases of Purcell v. Mather, 35 Ala. 570 ; Skipper v. Stokes, 42 Ala. 255, are not opposed to the principle we have stated. The rights or interest assigned, or proposed to he assigned in each case, were strictly contingent — they were not coupled with a present interest;
The rulings of the circuit court were in accordance ■with this view, and the judgment must be affirmed.
Affirmed.