Fortune v. National Cash Register Co.

Orville Fortune (plaintiff), an at-will salesman for National Cash Register (NCR) (defendant), was entitled to bonus credits on machines sold, delivered, and installed within his territory, with a $5 million order secured in his territory shortly before NCR terminated him -- though NCR kept him on in a support role and continued paying him partial bonus credits for machines later delivered under that same order, before terminating him entirely over a year later. Fortune sued to recover the remaining unpaid commissions or, alternatively, for the reasonable value of his services under quantum meruit; a jury found for Fortune, but the appeals court reversed.