## Facts

- Stark agreed to work on Parker’s farm for one year for a lump sum of $120.
- Parker made partial payments to Stark during the year totaling about $36.
- Before the year ended, Stark voluntarily left Parker’s employment without legal excuse, without any fault by Parker, and against Parker’s consent.
- Stark sued in indebitatus assumpsit seeking additional compensation for the portion of the year he worked, framed as recovery for the value of services (quantum meruit) rather than the full contract price.
- At trial, the jury was instructed that Stark could recover proportionate wages for time served minus any damages to Parker caused by Stark’s early departure; the jury found for Stark.
- Parker challenged the instruction and sought review.

## Issues

1. Whether a worker who willfully and without excuse abandons an entire fixed-term employment contract may recover compensation for partial performance.
2. Whether the worker may avoid the express contract by suing in quantum meruit for the reasonable value of services rendered when the employer is not at fault and did not accept partial performance in lieu of full performance.

## Decision

- The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts reversed the judgment for Stark.
- The court held the one-year hiring for a single sum was an entire contract requiring full performance as a condition precedent to any recovery under the agreement.
- Because Stark voluntarily left without excuse and without employer fault, he could not renounce the contract and recover on a quantum meruit theory for partial performance.
- The trial instruction allowing proportional recovery minus damages was erroneous.

## Legal Principles

- A fixed-term personal-services agreement for a single lump sum is ordinarily an entire contract, not divisible, when the consideration is the completed term of service.
- For an entire contract, full performance by the claimant may be a condition precedent to any right to payment.
- A party who willfully breaches an entire contract without legal excuse generally cannot recover either on the contract or in quasi-contract (quantum meruit) for partial performance when the other party is without fault and has not agreed to accept the partial performance.
- Courts will not use quantum meruit to reallocate contract risk by allowing a breaching party to convert an entire agreement into a set of shorter compensable periods.

## Conclusion

The court denied recovery because the employment agreement was an entire one-year contract and the worker’s voluntary, unexcused abandonment barred any claim for additional payment, including restitution-based recovery for the value of the work performed.


Stark v. Parker, 19 Mass. (2 Pick.) 267 (Mass. 1824)