De Angeles v. Roos Bros., Inc.

Plaintiff, John De Angeles (hereafter De Angeles), filed this action for breach of his contract of employment as the executive vice-president of defendants, Roos Bros., Inc. and Robert S. Atkins Company (hereafter Roos-Atkins). On this appeal from a judgment in his favor entered after a court trial, and from the order denying the motion for a new trial, the questions are: 1) the sufficiency of the evidence to support the findings on the issue of liability; 2) the trial court’s alleged abuse of discretion in denying defendants’ motion to vacate the submission; and 3) the sufficiency of the findings to support the judgment on the amount of damages awarded and the application for new evidence on appeal to mitigate damages.

Viewing the record in favor of the judgment, as we must, and disregarding the conflicts and contradictions in the evidence, the following appears: On January 9, 1959, the parties entered into a written agreement for the employment of De Angeles as executive vice-president of Roos-Atkins for a period of 10 years starting January 1, 1958, at a salary of $35,000 per year.

De Angeles and Edward H. Gauer, the chairman of the board of Roos-Atkins, had been associated…