Court Opinion

ID: 9445094
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 21:19:25.832427+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:30:07.198291
License: Public Domain

CHAMBERS, Circuit Judge
(concurring and dissenting).
Mostly, I concur in the foregoing opinion. But I disagree with the majority’s holding that Lerche should be allowed to recover the extra $25.00 per week which came about due to the raise of his salary from $175.00 to $200.00 per week.
The record, as I read it, indicates beyond doubt that the increase in pay above the original contract was the employer’s unilateral act. There is no showing of a bargaining for it or of an intent to change the contract. I would not question that a new contract could have been made.
The Arizona case of Perry v. Farmer, 47 Ariz. 185, 54 P.2d 999, is not new to me. In that case there was bargaining and consequent agreement for lower rent than the first lease agreement. There the agreement was both unmistakable and fully executed. The Arizona Supreme Court held that the lessor could not return to the original lease and get the higher rent agreed upon. Perry may stand for the proposition that if the Fisher Company had paid the increased compensation voluntarily to the end of the contract then Fisher could not get the increase back. I do not read Perry as endorsing what the majority does here on this small item. Cf. Alaska Packers’ Ass’n v. Domenico, 9 Cir., 117 F. 99.
Here the district court found no new contract. Its finding says, “Fisher increased the compensation of plaintiff under the contract.” That is no finding, if there were competent evidence to support one, that “the parties agreed to modify the original agreement and increase the weekly rate of pay.” Under such a finding, the act of raising the pay was solely that of the contractor.