Porter & McMillan v. Burkett, Murphy & Burns

Citations

• 65 Tex. 383
• 1886 Tex. LEXIS 673

Syllabus

<p>1. Contract—Measure of damages for breach by employer—A person who has been stopped in the performance of a contract by the default or by the direction of his employer, is entitled to compensation for the losses he sustains ; but he is entitled to compensation only, and not to the gross amount he would have received from his employer had the contract been fulfilled. (Citing Masterton v. Brooklyn, 7 Hill, 62.</p> <p>2. Same—Such person may recover the natural and probable profits his contract would have yielded him, when they are certain, and not contingent, speculative or remote; but he should not receive, when the work is not completed, the same amount of money he would have been entitled to, had the contract been fully executed.</p> <p>3. Pleadings—Petition not bound to negative everything that might defeat the action—Such, a matter of defense—In a suit by an employe against his employer for breach of contract, it is not necessary for plaintiff to allege that he could not have saved himself from the consequences of the default of the defendant, by obtaining work elsewhere. A plaintiff is not bound to negative everything that might defeat his action; but, if the loss which he shows he has sustained is to be reduced from any excuse not necessarily occurring, this must, in all such cases, be shown by the opposite party, in defense.</p> <p>4. Same—See this case for a petition in a suit for damages for breach of contract, held good on demurrer.</p>