Roberts v. Eastland Food Products Co.

82 N.E.2d 798, 323 Mass. 466, 1948 Mass. LEXIS 631
CourtMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
DecidedDecember 7, 1948
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 82 N.E.2d 798 (Roberts v. Eastland Food Products Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Roberts v. Eastland Food Products Co., 82 N.E.2d 798, 323 Mass. 466, 1948 Mass. LEXIS 631 (Mass. 1948).

Opinion

Ronan, J.

The plaintiff, who had many years, experience in processing and canning fish in various countriés in Europe, came to America in 1940 where, in search of employment, he met the defendant Waley, who since 1906 had been identified with the fish canning industry in which he had become a successful producer having an active and large interest in several fish processing companies. The plaintiff claimed to have over one hundred secret formulas for processing fish. Waley caused the defendant Eastland Food Products Co. Inc. to be organized in October, 1941, selected and equipped a factory for the processing and canning of fish, and with the plaintiff and the defendant Orr began the corporate business which has since been successfully continued. Waley has always owned all the capital stock of the Eastland Food Products Co. Inc., hereinafter called the corporation. He became its president and a director. The plaintiff was the treasurer and a director, and Orr its vice president and a director. The corporation entered into a written contract of employment with the plaintiff, which was dated August 13, 1942, but was made retroactive to January 1, 1942. The plaintiff in the present suit seeks an accounting of the profits claimed to be due him under this contract for the period from January 1, 1942, to August 31, 1946, when he alleges he severed his employment with the corporation. The suit was referred to a master whose report has been confirmed. There were entered a final decree dismissing the bill against all defendants except the corporation, and a second decree ordering the corporation to pay a certain sum to the plaintiff.

The written contract provided for the employment of the plaintiff for the period ending one year after the signing of an armistice between the United States and her then enemies at weekly wages of $25 plus twelve and one half per cent of the net profits before the deduction of the Federal income tax. The profits for each year were to be computed separately from the profits of every other year. The plaintiff was receiving $50 a week when the contract was executed, and it was stipulated that he would be paid at this rate so long as the corporation continued to earn a monthly net [468]*468profit of not less than $2,000. The agreement further provided that Waley should receive $50 a week and $50 for expenses and Orr should receive $75 a week plus actual expenses, and “that these figures are to be maintained irrespective of whether you are receiving $25 or $50 per week and the decision as to this is agreed to rest exclusively with the president of the company." The fifth paragraph of the agreement reads as follows: “It is furthermore agreed and understood that in the operation of the company and in. deciding what expenses are to be made before the net profit is arrived at 1 [sic], what price our merchandise is to be sold, are all matters in which the judgment of the president of the company is final, but it is understood he shall use his best judgment and good faith in arriving at a determination of these matters."

The corporation now objects to the allowance of four items in the accounting by which the corporation was charged with $55.25, $125, $495.94 and $2,327.62 respectively. The corporation in 1945 paid to the lessor of its factory premises $442 to be applied to the rent account after January 1, 1947. The corporation had on hand at the end of the previous accounting period $1,000 worth of supplies out of the total expended for supplies in that year. The difference between the travelling expenses of Orr amounting to $6,592.49, as shown by the books of the corporation, and $2,625, the fair and reasonable amount of those expenses as computed by the master, is $3,967.49. He found as the corporation contended that Orr had travelled thirty-five thousand miles on the corporation’s business and reckoned that seven 'and one half cents a mile would be reasonable and that this amount included meals, hotel accommodations and all other incidental expenses. The master credited the plaintiff with twelve and one half per cent of the total rental advance or $55.25, the value of the supplies on hand or $125, and the difference in the travelling expenses of Orr or $495.94. The master found that the rental advance should have been included in the profits but was charged to expenses through error or inadvertence and by good accounting practice should have been set up in the reserve, and that [469]*469the item on supplies was charged off as an expense in accordance with Waley’s instructions; but he stated that he did not agree with Waley’s allocation of the item and that he did not agree with Waley’s approval of the amount of Orr’s travelling expenses as they appeared upon the books and approved by Waley because, although these expenses were paid to Orr in weekly payments of $65, the evidence did not disclose a single memorandum or item identifying any payment with any particular expense. All the three items now in question appeared upon the books as expenses of the corporation, and all of them were so regarded and approved by Waley who the master found "at all times acted in good faith and in the best judgment of which he was capable, (which I find to be good judgment) in the interests of the corporation.”

The corporation’s contention that the determination by Waley that these items were properly chargeable as expenses and consequently were deductible in the computation of profits was final as provided in the fifth paragraph of the written contract of August 13, 1942, would have to be sustained if that was the proper interpretation of the contract. Clark v. New England Telephone & Telegraph Co. 229 Mass. 1, 7. Charlton v. Library Bureau, 260 Mass. 1, 6-7. The contract simply provided that, in conducting the business, Waley was authorized to decide what expenses should be incurred before the profits were computed and the prices at which the corporation should sell its products. It was merely the necessity and advisability for the occurrence of an expense including the amount thereof that he was to determine. The contract gave him the right to approve the advance payment of rent and the payment for supplies, but the contract gave him no right to decide that payment of this rent and the supplies on hand were not assets of the corporation. The plaintiff received no benefit from the payment of rent for a period subsequent to the accounting period nor from the value of' the supplies on hand. The master was right in crediting the plaintiff with the amounts stated in his report. Deferred charges and the value of current assets were not to be ignored in computing the profit. Thurston v. Hamblin, 199 Mass. 153, 158. Stein v. Strath[470]*470more Worsted Mills, 221 Mass. 86, 89. Daly v. Chapman Manuf. Co. 246 Mass. 118, 125. Stewart v. John R. Lankenau Co. 259 Mass. 242, 252-253. Fletcher, Cyclopedia of the Law of Private Corporations (Per. ed.) § 9260.

The corporation paid Orr’s travelling expenses amounting to $6,592.49 and, these expenses having been approved by Waley acting in good faith and in the exercise of his best judgment in accordance with the contract, his decision was final. Furthermore, the contract recited that Orr was receiving a salary of $75 a week plus actual expenses, and that these payments to be made to Orr rested exclusively with the president of the corporation. The master could not substitute his judgment for that of Waley. There was error in crediting the plaintiff with $495.94.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
82 N.E.2d 798, 323 Mass. 466, 1948 Mass. LEXIS 631, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/roberts-v-eastland-food-products-co-mass-1948.