Kenderdine Hydro-Carbon Fuel Co. v. Plumb

Citations

• 182 Pa. 463
• 38 A. 480
• 1897 Pa. LEXIS 831

Syllabus

<p>Contract — Agreement to manufacture patented article — Abandonment of contract.</p> <p>Where a person enters into an agreement with the owner of a patented article to manufacture it for the market, and no time is fixed for the duration of the contract, the person agreeing to manufacture the article, if he desires to withdraw from the contract, must give a reasonable notice to the other party of his intention to do so; and whether such notice has been given or not is a question of fact for the jury.</p> <p>In an action of assumpsit to recover damages for a breach of contract, it appeared that defendant agreed to manufacture a patented article owned by plaintiff, a corporation, and to expend at least $9,000 in manufacturing it. As compensation he was to receive two fifths of the corporate stock; be made treasurer of the company, and pay himself out of any profits remaining in his hands after paying other creditors. No time was fixed for the duration of the contract. The defendant manufactured the article for seven months, and expended thereon $3,000 in excess of the gross receipts from the sale of the article. He then offered to withdraw from the contract, losing the money which he had expended, and to go wholly out of the company and its business. This offer was not accepted, and soon after-wards defendant stopped manufacturing the article, and discharged from his employment the men whom he had employed in accordance with a px-ovision of the original agreement. The evidence for the defendant tended to show that tlxe manufacture and sale of the article could not be made a commercial success. Held, (1) that if plaintiff was entitled to recover at all, it could recover only nominal damages, unless it could show that profits were, or ought to have been, made out of the business, and then only to the extent of what should have been received by it after the payment of advances and expenses; (2) that it was error to charge that themeasure of damages was the unexpended ba