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114 Wis. 378

Winter v. Greiling

Wisconsin Supreme Court

Decided May 13, 1902

Wisconsin Supreme Court · decided 1902-05-13

Elliott, Circuit Judge. This is an action to recover the value of services. The action was commenced December 12, 1899, and the complaint alleges that from December 13, 1893, to October, 1898, the plaintiff worked for the defendant doing washing, laundry work, and cleaning, for a time amounting to 993 days, and that such services were reasonably worth the sum of $1 per day.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Affirmed · Decided 1902-05-13

How this case has been cited

Cited by 3 later decisions — most recently March 1953

3 state decisions

10190219101920193019401950decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Winslow, J.

¶1We find ample evidence in tRe record to sustain tRe findings of fact of tRe trial court; Renee tRe only question for serious consideration is wRetRer tRose findings and tRe undisputed facts sustain tRe judgment. It is claimed Ry tRe appellant tRat tRe facts Rring tRe case witRin tRe cases wRicR Rold tRat no contract will Re implied to pay for services rendered Ry one memfier of a family to anotRer, Rut tRat sucR services are presumed to Re gratuitous, and tRat an express contract to pay for tRe same must Re proven, in order to justify a recovery. TRe question as to wRen sucR a presumption will arise was so recently reviewed Ry tRis court in tRe ease of Williams v. Williams, ante, p. 79, 89 N. W. 835, tRat it is not deemed necessary to enlarge upon it Rere. It is not possible to state an exact rule wRicR can Re applied to every case, Rut tRe principles stated in that case are Relieved to Re suRstantially accurate and in accordance witR tRe decisions.

¶2Applying tRose principles Rere, we are inclined to agree witR tRe referee and tRe trial court tRat in tRe present case the facts proven are not sufficient to- raise tRe presumption tlrat tRe plaintiff’s services were rendered gratuitously and as acts of kindness, merely. TRe plaintiff was living in Rer own Rouse, and providing for Rer own support Ry Rard and continuous labor. SRe did not live in defendant’s RouseRold, nor eat at Ris table. WRile tRe defendant apparently rendered Rer some favors in tRe transaction of Rer business, *382they were only such occasional and incidental helpful acts as would he natural for a business man to render cheerfully to his wife’s mother, who was alone in the world and forced to earn her own living. Had he been furnishing her with her support, either wholly or in large part, the question would have been different, but he was not; nor was the plaintiffs condition one of dependence upon him. The plaintiff’s services were laborious, valuable, continuously rendered, and in the line of her regular occupation, and manifestly prevented her from laboring for others for pay. They saved the defendant the expenditure of large sums of money for necessary help in the operation of his saloon and the maintenance of his family. It is but just that he should pay what they were worth.

¶3By the Court. — Judgment affirmed.

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