DISTRICT NEWS.
DARLASTON.
ACTION FOR DAMAGES FOR DISCHARGE WITHOUT NOTICE. – Page v. Ransome and Latham. – This case was heard yesterday, at the Walsall County Court, before his Honour, Mr. A. M. Skinner, Q.C., Judge. The plaintiff, Frederick Sutton Page, recently an assistant to Messrs. Ransome and Latham, surgeons, sought to recover from his late employers the sum of £7. 4s. 3d., for five days’ service and salary, in lieu of notice. Mr. Dicken appeared for the plaintiff, and Mr. Slater for the defendants. The plaintiff’s case was that in May last, he entered the defendants’ service, at a salary of £80. per annum, with board and lodgings, and about a month afterwards, was asked to sign a binding bond himself, under a penalty of £500., not to practice, either as principal or assistant, within three miles of Darlaston, in case of his leaving Messrs. Ransome and Latham. He declined to sign any undertaking of this sort, and the matter was not pressed. On the 9th of October, he gave a month’s notice that he should not remain with his employers unless at an advance of salary, and on the 28th of the same month one of the partners re-engaged him at an advance of 4s. 4d. per week. On the 4th of November, Mr. Latham paid him the amount of salary then due, according to the old scale, and, although he felt disappointed at his salary not being computed according to the new scale, he did not allude to the matter, thinking that the re-engagement would take effect from the 9th of the month. On this day, however, he was told that he might now leave, as his notice had expired, and he was offered the sum of £1. 1s. 10d., which was due for the services rendered since the preceding Saturday. He refused the money, and instituted the present proceedings. The defence was virtually that the plaintiff was discharged because he declined to sign the bond, which he had at first consented to do. The defendants paid £1. 1s. 10d. into Court; and his Honour gave a verdict for the defendants in respect of the balance of the sum claimed. The defendants did not ask for costs.
(Birmingham Daily Post, 7th December 1865)
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