Hess v. McAleer

Citations

• 268 Pa. 239
• 110 A. 735
• 1920 Pa. LEXIS 665

Syllabus

<p>Master and servant, — Compensation for domestic services — Receipt in full — Executors and administrators — Decedents’ estates — • Case for jury.</p> <p>1. In an action by a woman against an administrator to recover compensation for domestic services rendered to decedent, where defendant offers in evidence a receipt for $32 “in full” and plaintiff testifies that the receipt was merely in payment for services rendered during four weeks immediately preceding decedent’s death, the case is for the jury.</p> <p>Master and servant — Domestic services — Periodic payments— Presumption — Rebuttal—Engagement of pwrties to marry.</p> <p>2. Where an employer and his domestic servant become engaged to be married, the presumption, on the death of the former, of regular weekly, biweekly, or monthly payments of wages, in accordance with the custom of the locality, is rebutted during the period of engagement and of the intimacy between them which led up to the engagement.</p> <p>3. If the engagement had been broken off before the master’s death, it seems the presumption of payment would arise again.</p> <p>4. Where, in such case, the domestic sues the administrator of her employer for wages, and it appears that at the time of decedent’s death, and for a few months prior thereto, he and plaintiff were engaged to be married, an instruction to the effect that the presumption of periodical payments was rebutted, is erroneous, where it is not limited to the period of engagement and intimacy, and the jury is given to understand that it covered the entire period of six years prior to decedent’s death.</p>