Schrader v. Beatty
Schrader v. Beatty
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
This is an action at common law against a decedent’s estate for compensation for services performed by the plaintiff for the decedent. The trial resulted in a verdict for the plaintiff. The charge of the court was elaborate and protected every right to which the decedent’s estate was entitled. The court, however, reserved the question: “ Whether there is any evidence in this
The decedent was the proprietor of a small hotel and bar. The plaintiff was a young girl when she entered his employ as a servant, receiving as wages 12.50 per week. Subsequently, the decedent’s housekeeper retired, and the plaintiff was promoted to that vacated position. She performed all the duties connected with such an employment, and in addition tended the bar, entertained the decedent’s patrons, did all the buying for the household, and had access to the decedent’s cash drawer. She was on terms of some intimacy with the decedent, who, on several occasions took her driving in the park. He paid a large doctor’s bill for her, and, as intimated by some of the testimony, contemplated marrying her. There was testimony that when she became housekeeper no specific amount of wages was agreed upon. One witness testifies that the decedent told the plaintiff, “Now take charge of the house and I will do what is right. I will see that everything is all right.” Another witness says, “ When the former housekeeper left, the decedent took Lizzie as housekeeper to have full control of the house. She attended to everything, bought everything.” The decedent became a supervisor. It was testified that after he “ got a public office he could not be at home as much as he had been. His business would not allow it. Then Lizzie had general charge.” Another witness says that the decedent several times declared to him that the plaintiff “ was very valuable to him and that in case of her death he would not know how to replace
The language of Mr. Justice Clark, in Ranninger’s Appeal, 118 Pa. 20, is peculiarly applicable to this case: “ Although the promise to pay is clearly established, there was no agreement to pay at any particular time or at any designated rate. Her personal relations to Ranninger, the nature of her services and the character of the contract under which they were rendered, were peculiar and exceptional, and the presumption of payment which might ordinarily arise in the case of a domestic servant would not, we think, be applicable in such a case.” The references to the testimony above made, however, we think show further that, even accepting the burden put upon the plaintiff by the trial judge, the verdict of the jury should stand. There was proof of the rendition of the services; of the employment and promise to pay. It was also shown that in a conversation in which the decedent commended the plaintiff, he
It may be were the whole case to be determined by a discriminating, trained, professional mind, the result would be as the learned court below made it. But we think the learned court was led, in passing upon the motion for judgment non obstante, into a review of all the testimony irrespective of the ■finding of the jury, and into giving to the defendant a judgment which, were the court finding facts, might have been justifiable.
The judgment of the court below is reversed, and judgment is now entered for the plaintiff on the verdict for $1,316.60.
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- Master and servant — Presumption of payment. In an action against the estate of a decedent to recover for services, the presumption of payment which ordinarily arises in the case of a domestic servant does not apply where the evidence tends to show that the plaintiff although originally employed as a servant, at fixed wages, was promoted to the position of housekeeper, that she performed all the duties connected with such a position, and in addition tended decedent’s bar, entertained his patrons, did all the buying for the household, and had access to his cash drawer; that no fixed amount of wages had been settled upon, but that the decedent had declared that her services were very valuable to him; that he could not get any one to do as she did for $15.00 or $20.00 per week; that she would be all right when he was gone; that she would be all right some day anyhow, as she would be his.