Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

46 Minn. 378

Cole v. Aune

Supreme Court of Minnesota

Decided June 23, 1891

Supreme Court of Minnesota · decided 1891-06-23

On January 28, 1885, one A. L. Cole and the defendant entered', into a written contract, by the terms of which the defendant was to-sell goods for Cole in the latter’s store in Fergus Falls, and to receive as compensation one-half the net profits of the business, it being provided that until such net profits should be finally determined the defendant should receive from the proceeds of the business but $60-per month, and that he should be chargeable with all credits given,…

Decided 1891-06-23

By the Court.

¶11. In this action, which was tried by the court-without a jury, it was incumbent upon the plaintiff to establish, by a preponderance of proof, that the defendant received an amount of money in excess of that stipulated in the contract set up in the complaint, as compensation for his services. This seems to have been conceded below as a proper construction of the pleadings and of the contract. Although it was admitted that defendant had received and retained more than he was authorized to draw out from month to month, the plaintiff wholly failed to show that the amount was greater than that which actually became due to him as compensation, and which was to be determined by the amount of the profits of the business. Plaintiff ought not to expect the trial court to surmise or conjecture as to what the profits were, or, in the absence of proof, to declare that there were none; in other words, to determine defendant’s compensation, without evidence as to the profits of the business on which it was made to depend.

¶2*3802. It. clearly appears that no list of the names of persons to whom credit might be given by plaintiff and defendant without incurring individual liability was ever made, as contemplated hy the agreement. Without the making of such a list, that part of the contract was of no effect.

¶3Order affirmed.

/46/minn/378 · .json · Public domain