California Milling Corp. v. White

229 Cal. App. 2d 469, 40 Cal. Rptr. 301, 1964 Cal. App. LEXIS 1007
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedAugust 31, 1964
DocketCiv. 355
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 229 Cal. App. 2d 469 (California Milling Corp. v. White) 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
California Milling Corp. v. White, 229 Cal. App. 2d 469, 40 Cal. Rptr. 301, 1964 Cal. App. LEXIS 1007 (Cal. Ct. App. 1964).

Opinion

CONLEY, P. J.

The plaintiff appeals from that portion of the judgment which, on the counterclaim, awards the defendant the sum of $5,619.56. On the complaint itself, irrespective of the counterclaim, the judgment is in favor of the plaintiff on a guaranty executed by Mr. White in connection with turkey raising by his son and daughter-in-law in the sum of $4,536.36, together with interest. No appeal was taken by either party from the judgment insofar as it relates to the complaint.

The defendant, Willis P. White, is a farmer who raised turkeys on three ranches located at Tipton, Porterville, and Springville. Since the early part of the 1950’s, he has had a business relationship with the plaintiff. The agreements were annual during the early part of this period and until the three-year agreement involved in the present litigation was entered into in 1960; this writing embraced two contracts, one of which related to turkey raising and the other provided for the loan of money by plaintiff to defendant for the purpose of building structures to house additional birds. These two contracts were separately signed but physically constituted one set of papers; the loan contract was secured by a trust deed on Mr. White’s real property.

The turkey growing agreement provided that in the year 1960, California Milling Corporation would deliver 48,000 turkeys to Mr. White at the three ranches operated by him. The evidence shows without conflict that California Milling Corporation failed to deliver a total of 7,354 poults during 1960, and this partial breach was the subject matter of the counterclaim in the present action. The items going to make up the judgment on the counterclaim are not objected to as such; in fact, there was a stipulation during trial that if any judgment were granted on the counterclaim, it should be for the sum mentioned in the findings and judgment.

The only reason for reversal urged by plaintiff’s counsel is that prior to the filing of the present suit there was an executed account stated between the parties and that, consequently, there was a final, complete and binding settlement of their total financial relationship prior to the present action, which precluded Mr. White from urging a counterclaim in this suit. The basic defense assumes several forms in the litigation; it is alleged that there was a previous accord and satisfaction, that there was a waiver which prevented Mr. *472 White from pleading the counterclaim in the present action and that he was estopped to urge his claim in the present suit. Essentially, the position taken by the plaintiff in opposition to any recovery on the counterclaim is that the financial relationship between the parties was previously brought to an end through a balancing of accounts and a mutual agreement concerning the total amount due from one to the other, and that payment of this sum constituted a complete and final settlement of their financial arrangements, which precluded any later claim such as that urged on the counterclaim.

The California Milling Corporation delivered to the defendant by mail a statement dated March 5, 1961, the basic provisions of which read as follows:

“We Have This Day Credited Your Account as Follows: “Total Profit from 1960 Operations including Guarantee Payments:

Porterville Eanch Flock #1 $1388.80
Porterville Eanch Flock #2 2338.79
Springville Eanch Flock 3552.30
Springville Eanch Flock #2 8097.65
Tipton Eanch Flock #1 6839.55
Tipton Eanch Flock #2 7146.03
$29,363.12
“Less Guarantee payments from 1960 operations: Porterville Eanch Flock #1 $ 906.20
Porterville Eanch Flock #2 790.10
Springville Eanch Flock #1 1999.85
Springville Eanch Flock #2 1775.66
Tipton Eanch Flock #1 2719.15
Tipton Eanch Flock #2 1797.01
$ 9,987.97
“Total Net Profit from 1960 turkey operations $19,375.15 “Distribution of Net Profit.“Seventy-Five percent (75%) to Grower,
W. P. White $14,531.36
“Twenty-Five percent (25%) to California Milling Corporation $ 4,843.79
$19,375.15”

On December 2,1961, another statement was sent by mail to the defendant:

*473 “Statement
California Milling Corporation
1861 Bast 55th Street
P. O. Box 3488, Terminal Annex
Los Angeles 54, California
LUdlow 5-0131
“W. P. White
Porterville, California
“December 2, 1961 “Interest 6% to 12/2/61
BALANCE
“DATE CHARGES CREDITS DATS AMOUNT
“12/2/61 Principal
from 1960 operations 19094.75
Interest
from 1960 operations 3491.43
“1961 operations:
12/15/60 Invoice 7542 5.06 352 .30
1/4/61 ft 8551 2000.00 322 107.32
1/18/61 ft 8722 91.90 318 4.87
12/20/60 ft 7508 8000.00 347 462.56
2/18/61 ft 9951 2000.00 287 95.64
4/6/61 tf 11625 94.64 240 3.78
tt 12302 56.06 222 2.07
ft 11699 1029.60 234 40.15
tt 12303 4.78 222 .17
6/5/61 tt 13951 86.86 180 2.61
6/26/61 tt 14675 6.85 159 .18
7/19/61 tt 15572 35.41 136 .81
8/16/61 tt 16803 5.78 108 .11
“Total Principal 32511.69
“Total Interest 4212.00
“Total Owing 36723.69
‘ ‘ This statement represents only the charges for money advanced for expenses and purchases outside the scope of our Turkey Growing Agreement "Interest at $5.42 per day after December 2,1961. ”

On January 2, 1962, Mr.

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Bluebook (online)
229 Cal. App. 2d 469, 40 Cal. Rptr. 301, 1964 Cal. App. LEXIS 1007, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/california-milling-corp-v-white-calctapp-1964.