Prescott v. Buffalo Fire Appliance Corp.

The plaintiff had been employed by the defendant as a salesman for a term of two years, but he was discharged while the term had about three and one-half months to run. The defendant seeks to justify this breach of the contract by a provision therein which reads: “ The terms of this contract shall be for a period of two years and is predicated upon the sale of at least ten pieces of apparatus per year.”

The plaintiff had not sold that number up to the date of his discharge. The word “ predicated ” is a meaningless term without legal significance, and may express an assertion or the basis of a…