His Honour Judge Lobingier has delivered judgement in the United States Court for China in an action at the instance of Fred R. Hanish against Fearon, Daniel & Ca, Inc. The judgement, which deals with a claim for damages accruing through wrongful discharge, is of considerable Jength and is summarized below.
Mr. Sterling Fessenden appeared for the plaintiff and Mr. R. T. Bryan, gR., for defendants. In giving judgement his Honour said:
Defendant is o New Jersey corporation with its home office in New York, where plaintiff had been employed by it for nearly five years when, on September J, 1919, he entered into a written contract with defendant to serve "in the ca-pacify of assistant, general manager of the corporation's business at Shanghai." The contract was drawn by the secretary of defendant but is extremely liberal in the privileges and powers it concedes to plaintiff. Under Paragraph 3 he is given full charge and control of all the export of China produce by the corporation from both its Shanghai and Hankow offices, said business being conducted under the department designation of "export department.'!. Mr, Hanish shall be responsible for the exclusive management of the said department, the staff, records and any and all other features connected therewith. Mr. Hanish shall have full power to engage and discharge any and all assistants necessary to the proper and necessary maintenance-of the said department, which said department shall ist of and cover each and every article exported from Shanghai and Hankow by the corporation to the U_§, A.. Europe, Australia, and to any and all other parts of the World.
His salary is fixed at Ts. 12,000 per annum and he is further granted a bonus of '10 per cent. of the net profits derived annually from the aforementioned export department." The employment was for three years with privilege of renewal at plaintiff's option for two years more and even provided for further renewal but it specified no ground for termination except in case plaintiff should be totally incapacitated for a period of three consecutive months,"
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.