Mannion

Plaintiff Mannion, a doctor of medicine, sues Campbell Soup Company for breach of an oral contract of employment as medical director at Campbell’s Sacramento plant. The company had been represented by Blaine Ebert, personnel manager of the Sacramento plant, in fashioning the oral arrangement in suit. The trial court rejected the company’s contention that Dr. Mannion had been employed on a month-to-month basis, terminable at will, and found (as Dr. Mannion testified) that he had an oral contract to continue as plant medical director so long as he could physically perform the work. The company appeals from a judgment awarding Dr. Mannion $38,700 damages for a groundless discharge.

Plaintiff had the burden of proving agency of suffi cient scope, actual or ostensible, to charge the company with the acts of its personnel manager. (Original M. & M. Co. v. San Joaquin etc. Corp., 220 Cal. 152, 162-163 [ 30 P.2d 47 ] ; J. M. Wildman, Inc. v. Stults, 176 Cal.App.2d 670, 674 [ 1 Cal. Rptr. 651 ]; Aspen Pictures, Inc. v. Oceanic S.S. Co., 148 Cal.App.2d 238, 253 [ 306 P.2d 933 ].) The company asserts absence of substantial evidence of the personnel manager’s authority. The power of the…