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4 Ohio C.C. 397

Turner v. McDonald

Ohio Circuit Courts

Decided November 15, 1889

Ohio Circuit Courts · decided 1889-11-15

<p>Contract — Offer made and actually acted on, and work done under it without expressly notifying other party of acceptance, who however accepts the work done — Compensation for work performed — Value of wages and expenses, but not amount actually paid, is measure of damages for breach of such contract.</p>

Decided 1889-11-15

Cox, J.

¶1Plaintiff in error was the Cincinnati agent, and defendant in error the Chicago agent, of a mercantile reporting company. Defendant in error, having signified that he could do some of plaintiff in error’s “ writing up ” for him, plaintiff in error forwarded him a proposition to the effect that he would pay him a dollar a page for such work for a period of ten months. To this letter the defendant in error did not reply. He did the work, however, as it was sent, and, when plaintiff in error ceased to forward work to him before the ten months had expired, he sued for loss sustained thereby, and in the trial below recovered a verdict of $250. The defense was that there was no contract. The trial judge charged the jury that “ If you find McDonald was justified in relying on his construction of the letter, under the rules I have given you, then he is entitled to damages in the amount he has' paid for wages and expenses.”

¶2Held: The giving of this charge was error; the charge should have been not what he paid for wages and expenses, but what were they worth, as' was also the refusal to give special charges 3, 4 and,5, asked for by the defendant below. These charges related particularly to the law governing contracts.

¶3Judgment reversed.

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