— Plaintiff filed this suit in assumpsit for an accounting of defendant’s net profits from February 1,'1947, to October 13, 1947, and for the recovery of 10 percent of the net profits
Defendant’s answer containing new matter denied that the employment was terminated by defendant on October 13,1947, but averred that defendant terminated plaintiff’s employment on August 1, 1947, because of plaintiff’s refusal to heed instructions, his careless and negligent performance of his duties, his failure to work exclusively in the interest of defendant, and his breach of trust as an employe, all of which was in violation of the written agreement of employment and all of which had occurred from the very inception of the employment.
Defendant alleged additionally that plaintiff had instituted suit on November 20,1947, in the Municipal Court upon the very same contract and averments to recover for salary allegedly due from October 13,1947, to November 20, 1947, and that defendant’s answer thereto contained the same denials and averments as those contained in the answer to the present complaint; that this prior litigation was tried on February 10, 1948, and resulted in a verdict for defendant upon which judgment was subsequently entered and no appeal taken, and the said prior litigation was incorporated by reference with copies of all pleadings attached.
Plaintiff’s reply admits these allegations and defendant thereupon filed preliminary objections and a motion for judgment upon the pleadings. The pleadings and the testimony of the former case in the Municipal Court were incorporated by reference in the pleadings of the present case, under Rule 1018 (g) of the Penn
The contention of plaintiff that the contract here is severable is untenable. It is a simple contract of employment for a term at a weekly wage and a share of profits to be calculated at the end of the term. This does not make the contract severable. It is clearly an entire contract. The fact that part of the consideration was not to be paid until the end of the term does not affect its character as an entire contract: Quigley v. DeHaas, 82 Pa. 267; nor does the fact that periodical wages were payable throughout the term of service affect it: Garman et al. v. Hoover et ux., 95 Pa. Superior Ct. 203, 207. Plaintiff was not to render certain services for the salary and other services for the share
The judgment in the Municipal Court in favor of defendant, judicially establishing the fact that plaintiff was properly discharged for breach of his contract of employment, is res judicata of that fact. There is no merit in the contention of plaintiff that because in the prior case plaintiff sought to recover weekly wages, and in the present case he seeks to recover a share of profits, the doctrine of res judicata cannot be applied. Where the right to recover is predicated upon the same question of fact, and that has been determined, it is res judicata: Bales v. Latta, 102 Pa. Superior Ct. 66, 72.
In Bowers’ Estate, 240 Pa. 388, 390, the court stated: “The rule (res judicata) applies with the same strictness where the cause of action, while not technically the same, is nevertheless so related to the cause in the prior litigation that some matter, the establishment of which is essential to the recovery in the second, was determined in the first.”
The profits of defendant’s business, a portion of which plaintiff now seeks to recover, up to the time of his discharge were not under the contract apportion-able in any such way. Indeed, as pointed out, they were not to be calculated until the end of the term of employment. If, prior to that, plaintiff gave up his employment or was discharged for legal cause, he cannot claim that part of his compensation which would have been payable to him under the contract had he fulfilled his part of it. Even in a case where plaintiff, employed as
Plaintiff there was employed as manager for defendant for a stated period. His compensation was a one-third share of the net profits, settlements to be made every three months, and “one third of the accrued net profits as shown by such settlements shall be paid over to (the plaintiff) ”. The contract also provided that at its expiration plaintiff was to receive in money one third of the value of certain stock of the employer, copyrights and plates. Plaintiff was discharged from his employment, and thereafter filed suit to recover the one-third share of net profits for the period of the contract, and the one-third value of the stock, etc. In the court below the trial judge permitted the jury to determine whether plaintiff had been discharged for cause, charging the jury that if he had not been so discharged, plaintiff would be entitled to recover the full amount granted by the contract, but if he had been discharged for cause, then his recovery would be limited to his share of the net profits for the first three months, at the end of which, approximately, he had been discharged. The Supreme Court reversed, holding as a matter of law that plaintiff had been properly discharged, and sent the case back for the determination of the one third of the “accrued net profits” up to the time of his discharge. The reason for this is found in the statement
As already pointed out, supra, the contract of employment in the case before us does not provide for any such apportionment or accrual of profits as appeared in the case cited. The limited recovery was there allowed evidently because the contract specifically provided that method of computation of compensation to the employe at the end of every three-month period, and because of the concurrence of the employe’s discharge at that time, emphasized as it was by the court. It is not to be supposed that the court would have allowed any recovery had the discharge for cause occurred sometime during the three-month period. We must state in passing, however, that the right granted plaintiff in that case to recover within the limited amount there stated (a point evidently not litigated as we have heretofore suggested) is at variance with the basic principle that one who breaches a contract ought
The case is inapplicable here because, as stated, plaintiff received his salary up to the time that he was discharged. That he was not entitled to any wages subsequent thereto was judicially determined in the Municipal Court case, in which it was adjudicated that plaintiff had been properly discharged. We know of no basis upon which he can now recover in this action a portion of profits up to the time of his discharge; the contract between the parties did not provide for any such apportionment of profits, and by the terms of the contract profits were not to be determined until the end of the year, which was long after plaintiff had been properly discharged.
Defendant’s motion for judgment is granted. Judgment is entered for defendant.
