Zeimet v. Phillips
Zeimet v. Phillips
Opinion of the Court
Respondent was plaintiff below. In his complaint he alleges that defendants employed him to quarry stone for them in the Odell stone quarry, and agreed to pay him therefor “a reasonable price for the said work and labor”; that he worked 52 days, and that his work was reasonably worth $156. The answer was a general denial. For the amount claimed he recovered judgment, from which defendants appeal.
The evidence does not show, nor tend to show, such a contract as was alleged, but, if it shows any privity at all between plaintiff and defendants, it shows that what was to be paid was to be measured by a contract previously made between defendants and the Odell Stone Company, by which that company was to quarry the stone. We have carefully read the evidence offered by plaintiff, and it nowhere appears that defendants promised to pay the reasonable value of plaintiff’s services, but, on the contrary, it runs all through the evidence of both sides that the stone which were to be quarried and furnished under a contract with the Odell Stone Company would be paid for by defendants when delivered, and that they would see that what was due on the Odell contract should go to the men who did the work ratably, if it was not sufficient to pay them in full. Plain
Reference
- Status
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- Syllabus
- The complaint alleged that defendants agreed to pay plaintiff the reasonable value of his services in quarrying stone. The evidence showed that what defendants agreed to pay was to be measured by amount due upon a contract for the stone, made with the proprietor of the quarry. Held, that plaintiff could not recover on the theory of his complaint, bat if, without objection, the case was being tried on the theory of the evidence it was error to exclude defendants’ evidence of what the contract was, and how much was due upon it. (Syllabus by the Court.