Carter v. Carr

33 P.2d 852, 139 Cal. App. 15, 1934 Cal. App. LEXIS 582
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 29, 1934
DocketCiv. No. 1295
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 33 P.2d 852 (Carter v. Carr) 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
Carter v. Carr, 33 P.2d 852, 139 Cal. App. 15, 1934 Cal. App. LEXIS 582 (Cal. Ct. App. 1934).

Opinion

JENNINGS, J.

Plaintiff: instituted this action to recover from defendants certain sums of money alleged to have been paid by them in compliance with the provisions of a written contract for the sale of cattle entered into between plaintiff and the defendant, S. G. Carr, which contract was alleged to have been rescinded by plaintiff because of certain false and fraudulent representations made to plaintiff by Carr and by Carr’s employee and agent, one Rutledge. The complaint alleged that plaintiff gave notice of rescission and offered to surrender possession of the cattle purchased and demanded return of the money paid by him under the contract together with incidental damages within a few days after he had discovered the fraud which had been practiced upon him by Carr. The complaint further alleged that Carr in making the sale of the cattle to plaintiff and' in executing the- contract acted as the agent for the defendant Seaboard [18]*18Dairy Credit Corporation. The prayer of the complaint was for a judgment for the various sums of money paid by plaintiff under the contract and interest thereon from the dates of payment and for specified sums of money which plaintiff claimed as compensation for damages alleged to have been sustained by him by reason of the sale and delivery of the cattle to him. When the action was called for trial the defendants objected to the impanelment of a jury on the ground that the action was strictly equitable in character, being one for rescission of a written contract. The trial court overruled the objection and ordered that a jury be impaneled for the purpose of determining the amount of damages which plaintiff might be entitled to receive if the court should decide that plaintiff was entitled to the remedy of rescission. Upon the conclusion of the trial the issue of damages was submitted to a jury, which returned a verdict in favor of plaintiff against both defendants and assessed damages in the amount of $6,325.25. The trial court subsequently made findings of fact which adopted this figure as the amount which plaintiff was entitled to receive as compensation for the false and fraudulent representations which the court found the defendants had made to plaintiff. Judgment was .accordingly rendered by which it was decreed that the contract be rescinded and canceled and that plaintiff should have and recover from defendants the said sum of $6,325.25. From the judgment thus rendered the two defendants have prosecuted separate appeals.

The record herein, which is presented in the form of a bill of exceptions, shows that the following facts were developed by the evidence adduced during the trial: On March 6, 1930, plaintiff took possession of a forty-acre ranch near the town of Clovis in Fresno County. It was his intention to operate a dairy on the property and he thereupon made certain improvements with this purpose in view. At some time during the month of March, 1930, plaintiff called upon C. C. Brewer, who was then the manager of the Seaboard Dairy Credit Corporation for the Fresno district, and stated to Brewer that he wished to purchase some Guernsey cows. Brewer referred plaintiff to two men near Bakersfield. On April 10, 1930, one Boy Rutledge called at plaintiff’s ranch. Rutledge stated that he was a cattle buyer for S. G. Carr and that Carr represented the Seaboard Dairy Credit Cor[19]*19poration. Rutledge told plaintiff that he had heard from Brewer that plaintiff was in the market for some Guernsey cows. Rutledge again visited plaintiff’s ranch about one week subsequent to his first visit and on this second occasion stated to plaintiff that he had received a letter from a man in Oregon who had a herd of choice Guernsey cows for sale. At the conclusion of this conversation it was agreed' that Rutledge would endeavor to purchase this herd of cows for plaintiff. On May 20, 1930, the defendant S. G. Carr came to plaintiff’s ranch and stated that he was the man for whom Rutledge was buying cows, that he expected to hear from Rutledge in a few days and would advise plaintiff when he heard from him. On May 26, 1930, Carr again visited plaintiff’s ranch and stated that he had received a wire from Rutledge advising him that the cattle which Rutledge had purchased in Oregon would arrive in Roseville, California, on the following day. It was then arranged that plaintiff and his wife would accompany Carr to Roseville on the next day for the purpose of inspecting the cattle. The trip was made as planned and plaintiff and his wife testified that during the journey the defendant Carr made certain representations with respect to the particular locality in Oregon from which the cattle they expected to inspect had come and the freedom of this locality from such cattle diseases as tuberculosis and infectious abortion. The cattle arrived in Roseville on May 28, 1930. At the time of their arrival plaintiff again saw and talked with Rutledge who arrived on the same train which transported the cattle. Rutledge told plaintiff that he had been unable to buy the herd of Guernsey cattle which he had previously described to him but that he had procured some very choice Guernsey cows. Plaintiff and his wife then inspected' the cattle and milked a number of them. It was finally agreed that plaintiff would purchase from Carr fifty-four Guernsey and Jersey cows and one bull. Pursuant to this arrangement the cattle were shipped to plaintiff’s ranch. Two days after the ea.ttle arrived at the ranch plaintiff signed a contract in writing whereby he agreed to buy the cattle from Carr for the sum of $8,791.80. At the time the contract was signed plaintiff gave Carr a check for $1,000 and on O’ctober 15, 1930, he delivered to the Seaboard Corporation a promissory note payable to Carr for the same amount and as security for its [20]*20payment assigned to the corporation a certain contract for the sale of real estate, whereby plaintiff as seller had agreed to sell and the purchaser had agreed to buy certain land for a stated consideration. The contract for the sale and purchase of the cattle provided that plaintiff should pay the balance of the purchase price amounting to $6,791.80 at the rate of ¡$290 per month beginning on July 15, 1930. It subsequently developed that a number of the cattle thus purchased by plaintiff from the defendant Carr were affected with infectious abortion. Plaintiff made a number of payments on his contract but the returns from the dairy did not meet his expectations and he fell behind in his payments, with the result that the Seaboard Dairy Credit Corporation, assignee of the contract, took possession of the cattle. Prior to the corporation taking possession of the cattle plaintiff gave to S. G. Carr and the Seaboard Dairy Credit Corporation written notice that he rescinded the contract between Carr and himself by which he had agreed to purchase the cattle, tendered delivery of the cattle, and demanded payment of the money which he had paid under the contract, together with interest and the sum of $6,100 as compensation for the loss sustained by him by reason of diminished production of dairy products and the infection of his property and dairy equipment due to the presence of the disease among the cattle.

Appellant S. G. Carr maintains on his appeal that no evidence was submitted during the trial of the action which tended to show that he or his agent Rutledge had made any false or fraudulent representation with respect to the cattle. This contention is adopted by the appellant Seaboard Dairy Credit Corporation. It may properly be first considered herein. Obviously, if it is correct the judgment must be reversed without consideration of the various other contentions advanced by appellant Seaboard Dairy Credit Corporation.

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Bluebook (online)
33 P.2d 852, 139 Cal. App. 15, 1934 Cal. App. LEXIS 582, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/carter-v-carr-calctapp-1934.