EMPLOYMENT OF AN ENGINEEK 21 



would never be able to perform a substantial part of the un- 

 expired period of the agreement. It is well to notice that in 

 the above case no method of determining the contract was 

 prescribed by the contract. Had there been some provision 

 for notice the employers would doubtless have availed 

 themselves of it. 



9. How the service may be determined. A contract of 

 service is usually determined by notice, but it is necessary to 

 consider in what other way it may be determined. The 

 bankruptcy of the master is not a dissolution of the contract 

 of hiring (Thomas v. Williams, 1834, 1 Ad. & E. 685). 

 Again, dissolution of partnership between two employers is 

 not necessarily a breach of a contract of employment by the 

 firm. At any rate, if the person employed enters the service 

 of the altered firm, this is evidence which will support a 

 defence of voluntary exoneration from the first contract before 

 breach (Hobson v. Cowley, 27 L. J., Ex. 205). If there is an 

 agreement for service with two partners, the death of one of 

 the partners puts an end to the contract, though the service 

 was for a time certain ; and no action can be maintained 

 against the survivor for not employing the servant (Tasker v. 

 Shepherd, 1861, 6 H. & N. 575). 



In the case of a limited company, the passing of a resolution 

 to wind up the company operates as a notice of dismissal to 

 the company's servants (Ex parte Schumann, In re Forster d 

 Co., 1887, 19 L. R. Jr., 240). 



10. Length of notice. When the hiring is a yearly hiring, 

 it cannot in general be put an end to by either party before 

 the end of the year. If, therefore, on the one hand, a master 

 wrongfully dismiss his servant during the year, the servant 

 may maintain an action against him for such wrongful dismissal, 

 and a jury would in some cases be justified in assessing his 

 damages at the amount which he would have earned had he 

 been allowed to serve to the end of the year. (See 13, 

 infra). Care should be taken that whatever notice to deter- 

 mine the service is provided for, it shall be reciprocal that 

 is to say, an employee should see that he, as well as the 

 employer, may give notice to determine the service. 



A hiring at a salary of so much a year is primd facie, and 

 in the absence of any custom to the contrary, a hiring for a 



