Court Opinion

ID: 9734816
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 17:47:00.230511+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:51.466618
License: Public Domain

*511Dissenting Opinion by
Flood, J.:
In this case the oral contract, as testified to by the defendant’s witness, was that the plaintiff should receive a commission on all business coming from the prescribed territory, payable on the tenth of the month following the payment of the invoices by the customers. To me, this means only one thing, that the plaintiff was to receive commissions on all sales made in the territory during his employment, but that he was not entitled to have these commissions paid over to him by the defendant until the tenth day of the month following the receipt of payment from the customers. The only condition was that payment should be made by the customers, not that it should be made while he was still in the defendant’s employ or at any particular time. This being so, the verdict to the contrary in favor of the defendant and against the plaintiff on this issue, should not be allowed to stand.
The jury’s verdict might well have been founded upon the defendant’s testimony that when the plaintiff first entered upon his employment with it, he was to receive, and presumably did receive, commissions on all sales in his territory from the date of his employment, even though they had been made by his predecessor, so long as the goods were shipped after the plaintiff entered upon the employment. Even if it might be permissible for the jury to draw from this an inference that plaintiff would not be paid commissions on goods shipped after the termination of his employment, this does not justify a verdict against the plaintiff as to all business for which payment was not made before he left, irrespective of the shipment date.
However, both the parties and the court submitted the case as though, in the words of the court’s charge, Mr. Strauss, the defendant’s president, when hiring the plaintiff told him that “what business is on the books from the past in this territory will be to your credit.” *512The court’s charge indicated that the plaintiff was paid for all prior sales in his territory for which payment was not made until plaintiff entered defendant’s employ.. This was not the testimony and it was misleading.
What Mr. Strauss really testified was “I told him that . . . whatever business is now on the books . . . that will be, of course, future shipments after you start with us that is to your credit.” The court instructed the jury that Mr. Strauss testified “that Mr. Levan had been paid commissions on sales made earlier in this territory by salesmen who were no longer salesmen for the company.” The court did not mention shipment date. As a matter of fact Mr. Strauss also testified: “That portion on which delivery was made was credited to Levan and commissions paid” and he later said that “Ritteman [plaintiff’s predecessor] received his commission for every portion that was shipped until he left”. This obviously means that the plaintiff’s predecessor received commissions on sales on which payment was made after he left the defendant’s employ provided delivery was made before he left. Therefore there was no basis in the evidence for the verdict actually rendered.
The authorities cited by the majority do not reach the point at issue. In Newhall v. Victor Box Mfg. Co., 269 Pa. 545, 113 A. 59 (1921), the court held that no commissions were due upon sales made when no payment was ever made by the customers. There would be none due here in such case. Commissions are being sought here only as to goods upon which payment was made. Section 445 of the Restatement (2d), Agency, refers to payment conditional upon the performance by the agent of specified services, or the accomplishment of a specified result. Here the agent performed the services called for—he made the sales. He accomplished the only result the defendant was interested in—payment *513was made by tbe customers. The plaintiff has fully performed. The condition of payment by the customer has been met. The fact that payment was made after termination of the employment conditions only the time when payment of commissions is due, not the obligation to pay them.
In my opinion judgment should be entered for the plaintiff for the amount of commissions on business coming in from his territory until his employment terminated, except for those sales on which payment was never made by the purchasers. At the least there should be a new trial at which the jury should be instructed to find for the plaintiff as to all goods shipped before he left, and the balance of the claim submitted to them with proper instructions.