Healy v Law Book Company of Australasia Pty Ltd [1942] HCA 28

252 HIGH COURT (1942.

[HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA.]

HEALY . E ; ' : A : A . APPELLANT ; PLAINTIFF,

AND

THE LAW BOOK COMPANY OF AUSTRAL-) p ASIA PTY LIMITED i Goo Lenenae DEFENDANT,

ON APPEAL FROM THE SUPREME COURT OF VICTORIA.

H.C. or A, Master and Servant—Contract of employment—T 'ermination—Engagement for two

1942. years and thereafter until engagement terminated—Provision for six months' Nee notice of delermination—Sufficiency of notice not ending with year of service. Armee By an agreement set out in correspondence between the parties the appellant Citi ag 15, was employed by the respondent company as editor of a publication "for a

P year from the first of this month " (October 1933) " at £400 and for the ensuing

a ae year at £500, and thereafter at the latter salary until the engagement is deter- Sa ae mined " —" this arrangement to be continued subject to six months' notice by either party of their intention to determine the same." In May 1941 the

respondent gave to the appellant notice of its intention to determine the agreement ; this notice expired on 30th November 1941.

Held that the agreement was duly determined by the notice given. The employment was for two years certain, and thereafter determinable by six months' notice expiring at any time; it was not an engagement from year to year determinable only by six months' notice expiring at the end of some year of the engagement.

'on of the Supreme Court of Victoria (Full Court) : Healy v. The Law

De Book Co. of Australasia Ply Lid., (1942) V.L.R. 203, affirmed.

Apenat from the Supreme Court of Victoria.

Eugene Francis Healy was employed by The Law Book Co. of Australasia Pty Ltd. first as co-editor and then as editor of the Commonwealth Law Reports on terms set out in correspondence between the parties. The material passages of the relevant letters