Newcomb v. Imperial Life Ins.
U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Eastern Missouri
At Law. On demurrer to complaint. This was a suit brought by a general agent of a life insurance company against his principal to recover compensation for four years’ services, and for certain outlays and expenditures while conducting the agency, the whole claim amounting to $11,466.66. The-plaintiff asked judgment for the reasonable value of his services during the period in question, although its appeared from the complaint that the services had been rendered under a…
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At Law. On demurrer to complaint. This was a suit brought by a general agent of a life insurance company against his principal to recover compensation for four years’ services, and for certain outlays and expenditures while conducting the agency, the whole claim amounting to $11,466.66. The-plaintiff asked judgment for the reasonable value of his services during the period in question, although its appeared from the complaint that the services had been rendered under a contract existing between the parties, which provided that the plaintiff should receive as compensation for his services as…
1Opinion of the Court
Thayer, District Judge.
1. It cannot be admitted to be a sound proposition of law that in every case where a person engages to render services for another for a stipulated time and price, he may at any stage of- the work undertaken abandon it without legal excuse, and sue his employer upon a quantum meruit for the services actually rendered, leaving his employer to offset against a recovery such damages as he may have sustained by the nonfulfillment of the contract. In the leading case of Britton v. Turner, 6 N. H. 494, that rule was applied to an ordinary hiring contract. It has also been…
2Cases cited2 opinions
- Yeats v. BallentineSupreme Court of Missouri · 1874
- Eyerman v. Mount Sinai Cemetery Ass'nSupreme Court of Missouri · 1876
3Cited by17 opinions
- Moore v. Security Trust & Life Ins.Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit · 1909
- James R. Baker v. The Penn Mutual Life Insurance CompanyCourt of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit · 1986
- Wallace v. American Life InsuranceOregon Supreme Court · 1924
- Hollweg v. Schaefer Brokerage Co.Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit · 1912
- Merchants' Life Ins. Co. v. GriswoldCourt of Appeals of Texas · 1919
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