Bearwald v. Mortimer

151 P.2d 541, 65 Cal. App. 2d 713, 1944 Cal. App. LEXIS 767
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedSeptember 13, 1944
DocketCiv. No. 12607
StatusPublished

This text of 151 P.2d 541 (Bearwald v. Mortimer) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bearwald v. Mortimer, 151 P.2d 541, 65 Cal. App. 2d 713, 1944 Cal. App. LEXIS 767 (Cal. Ct. App. 1944).

Opinion

SPENCE, J.

Defendant appeals from a judgment awarding plaintiffs $200,000 as compensation for services rendered by plaintiffs and their employees as accountants and tax experts in connection with the affairs of the Pacific States Savings and Loan Company, a corporation, hereinafter called the association.

The services of plaintiffs and their employees extended over a period of approximately four and one-half years, commencing in the early part of 1938 and ending in the latter part of 1942. The enormity and complexity of the task undertaken, the amount and quality of the work, and the very gratifying results obtained by plaintiffs were all conceded. [715]*715The parties were unable, however, to agree upon the amount of compensation to which plaintiffs were entitled and plaintiffs therefore brought this action.

Before considering the facts and defendant’s contentions on this appeal, it may be stated preliminarily that the positions taken by defendant and his predecessors in the office of Building and Loan Commissioner have not been entirely consistent with respect to plaintiffs’ claim. There have been changes in that office and changes in counsel representing that office during the time that plaintiffs performed their services and during the course of this controversy. We will discuss defendant’s contentions as they appear in the briefs on appeal referring in some instances to the shifts in the positions taken.

The main contention on this appeal is that the amount awarded is excessive. There are other contentions which will be hereinafter discussed but the consideration of this main contention requires a summary of the evidence concerning the agreement under which plaintiffs’ services were performed, the nature and extent of the services, the results accomplished and also a summary of the expert evidence regarding the value of said services.

The original agreement for plaintiffs’ services was made in January, 1938, between plaintiffs and the association. It was evidenced by letters exchanged between the parties and it was thereby agreed that the association would pay plaintiffs a “reasonable fee” for their services to be performed in connection with the association’s federal income tax matters for the years 1934 and 1935. These letters show that such “reasonable fee” was to be calculated not “on a per diem basis, nor upon a fee wholly contingent on results” but was to be calculated by taking into consideration “the amount of work, sum of money involved, plaintiffs’ knowledge of their profession, results obtained and other circumstances.”

Plaintiffs started upon their work of compiling information and of studying the problems connected with the federal income tax matters for the years 1934 and 1935 and were still engaged in that work when, on March 4, 1939, Ralph Evans, the then Building and Loan Commissioner, took possession of the association. Since that date, the affairs of said association have been administered by said Ralph Evans and [716]*716his successors in office. Shortly after the take-over and on April 27, 1939, plaintiffs proposed to the commissioner that they continue their employment “upon the same basis as evidenced by letters exchanged” between plaintiffs and the association. On May 8, 1939, the commissioner agreed to that proposal with respect to the income tax matters for 1934 and 1935, but asked plaintiffs to hold in abeyance a proposal to proceed with the income tax matters for 1936 and 1937, which matters had not been included in the original agreement between plaintiffs and the association. On May 10, 1939, the commissioner executed certain “forms of power of attorney” at the request of plaintiffs and he further evidenced by letter his ratification and adoption of the original agreement by reciting generally the terms of the employment and stating that the agreement “has not been terminated or in any way altered by me and in executing the power of attorney form I am not making any new or different contract but simply making it possible for you to continue under your former employment and complete that agreement referred to. ’ ’ In July, 1940, the commissioner was advised that a jeopardy assessment would be levied on income taxes for the years 1936,1937, 1938. It was then agreed between plaintiffs and the commissioner that plaintiffs would handle this matter and that the compensation would be “a reasonable fee based upon the extent of the services necessary to conclude the matter.”

Proceeding to a consideration of the nature and extent of plaintiffs’ services, we find it difficult to give any adequate description thereof without unduly prolonging tins discussion. We believe it will suffice to set forth certain facts which will give some indication of the complexity of the problems presented and some indication of the necessary time and skill required in solving those problems and in effecting the final settlement in June, 1942, of all federal tax matters and the final settlement thereafter of all state tax matters. These facts, when considered with the expert testimony and certain concessions of defendant’s counsel in the trial court and in the briefs, should be adequate for our purposes.

The association had been built up into a concern claiming assets of over $100,000,000. Its average annual gross income had been approximately $15,000,000 and the income involved in the tax questions exceeded $17,000,000. The handling of [717]*717the association’s accounting system had been complicated by the fact that in 1931 the association had taken over, under an unusual type of agreement, the Fidelity Savings and Loan Association and had similarly taken over at about the same time the United States Building and Loan Association. There had been conflicting court decisions as to whether the agreement with Fidelity constituted a sale to the association or a trust. Foreclosures had been numerous during the so-called depression era and approximately 8,000 separate parcels of real property had been acquired as the result of such foreclosures. Under a policy pursued by the association of acquiring large property holdings to replace the numerous small property holdings previously acquired on foreclosure, the number of separate properties owned had been reduced to about five hundred. These transactions had been handled largely through subsidiary corporations and the question of whether such transactions constituted exchanges or constituted sales and purchases still remains in dispute.

The association had apparently pursued no consistent policy with respect to its accounting system unless perhaps it was the policy of making the most favorable showing for certain purposes with respect to income and solvency. To this end, as we understand the record, the books of the association had been kept partly on a cash basis and partly on an accrual basis. Property acquired on foreclosure had been entered on the books at a value equal to the prior loan together with interest and taxes due at the time of the foreclosure and all costs of foreclosure, and without regard to the value of the property at the time of foreclosure. After setting up such values on the books, no depreciation had been taken for the tax years in dispute upon any of these properties acquired on foreclosure. The Fidelity agreement had been treated as one creating a trust and a management fee had been taken by the association and had been treated as income on the books but not in the federal and state returns.

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Bluebook (online)
151 P.2d 541, 65 Cal. App. 2d 713, 1944 Cal. App. LEXIS 767, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bearwald-v-mortimer-calctapp-1944.