Schuppenhauer v. Peoples Gas Light & Coke Co.

In 1963 William Schuppenhauer filed an action for an accounting against the People Gas Light & Coke Company, for the company’s use of cost-saving ideas allegedly disclosed by him in confidence 30 years earlier to company officers pursuant to an understanding that if his suggestions were employed by the company he would be paid an agreed proportion of the resulting savings. The cause was assigned to a master in chancery to determine the truth of the allegations of the complaint and whether they gave rise to an enforceable obligation by the defendant. In 1966 the master heard the plaintiff’s…