Greening v. Commercial Tribune Co.

Citations

• 126 F. 939
• 14 Ohio F. Dec. 216
• 1904 U.S. App. LEXIS 3777

Syllabus

<p>1. Contract of Employment — Construction.</p> <p>Defendant employed plaintiff to take charge of its advertising department from April 2, 1900, to January 1, 1902. The contract provided that defendant should be paid for his services, for the year 1900, “a sum equal to 50 per cent, of the excess of the net cash paid” to defendant for advertising during the months of April to December, 1900, both included, over and above the net amount paid to it for the corresponding months of the year 1899, which was $103,000; that defendant should receive, for the year 1901, 40 per cent, of the net cash paid to defendant for advertising during that year in excess of $136,000; that the compensation paid plaintiff in any year should not exceed $10,000 “until the net cash receipts of the company for advertising in said year” should be at the rate of $160,000 a year; and that if the net cash receipts for advertising during the nine months of 1900, and during the year 1901, should be $20,000 or more in excess of $239,000, then plaintiff should have the option of extending the contract for four years, or. until and including 1905. Defendant’s contracts for advertising were mostly cash, and receipts were credited to the month in which the advertising was done, though not collected until the succeeding month. Held, that whether plaintiff was entitled to an extension of the contract depended on whether or not the amount of the net cash defendant received for advertising done during his term of service exceeded the amount specified, and did not depend on the amount of net cash received during plaintiff’s term of service for advertising done, without regard to time.</p>