Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. v. Commodore Productions & Artists Inc.

334 P.2d 922, 167 Cal. App. 2d 463, 1959 Cal. App. LEXIS 2358
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 30, 1959
DocketCiv. 22975
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 334 P.2d 922 (Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. v. Commodore Productions & Artists Inc.) 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
Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. v. Commodore Productions & Artists Inc., 334 P.2d 922, 167 Cal. App. 2d 463, 1959 Cal. App. LEXIS 2358 (Cal. Ct. App. 1959).

Opinion

WHITE, P. J.

This is an appeal by plaintiff from an adverse judgment in an action for declaratory relief, and in *466 which defendant counterclaimed against plaintiff for the sum of $1,215.75.

On December 21, 1950, the parties hereto entered into a written contract wherein plaintiff granted to defendant the rights to use certain material featuring the character Tarzan “in live and/or transcribed radio broadcasts.”

Included in the agreement was a provision that “In the event Commodore (defendant) shall for any continuous period of six (6) months during the term of this Agreement or any renewals thereof fail to broadcast a radio program released over three or more stations simultaneously then Burroughs (plaintiff) shall have the right to terminate this Agreement. ...”

It was in reliance upon this provision that plaintiff attempted to terminate the foregoing agreement. Plaintiff also alleged that the contract had been breached because of defendant’s dealing with an organization known as S. W. Caldwell, Ltd., with relation to defendant’s Canadian sales of the radio broadcasts, and because defendant allegedly had not fully accounted to plaintiff and paid to the latter the percentage required by the contract. By its amended complaint plaintiff set forth the additional allegation that the aforesaid contract of December 21, 1950, “is void for want of a sufficient cause and is void for want.of consideration.”

By its answer defendant denied the material allegations of plaintiff’s pleadings, pleaded res ad judicata, and also counterclaimed for certain monies it had allegedly failed to deduct through mistake and inadvertence, as deductible costs under the aforesaid contract, and which resulted in overpayments to plaintiff.

The cause proceeded to trial before the court resulting in a judgment denying plaintiff any relief upon its pleadings and that defendant recover on its counterclaim from plaintiff the sum of $1,215.75. From such judgment plaintiff prosecutes this appeal.

Appellant’s main contention is that the agreement here in question contemplated network broadcasts of the Tarzan program. That since respondent did not have network broadcasts on the air appellant was entitled to terminate the agreement, and that the findings of the trial court to the contrary are unsupported by the evidence. With this contention we cannot agree. What the contract required was that “In the event Commodore (respondent) shall for any continuous *467 period of six (6) months during the term of this agreement . . . fail to broadcast a radio program released over three or more stations simultaneously then Burroughs (appellant) shall have the right to terminate this agreement. ...”

It is true, as urged by appellant, that an expert witness produced by it testified that the phrase “a radio program released over three or more stations simultaneously” meant in the radio industry, “the draftsman of this document (the contract) was describing a network broadcast, three or more stations connected together by way of a network.” But there was also testimony that at no time during the negotiations leading up to the contract was reference made to a network, or to instantaneous broadcasts, and respondent’s expert witness testified that with reference to transcriptions the word “simultaneous” meant the same broadcast within the week or within the month, and that the term “simultaneous” broadcasting over three or more stations” means in effect that there were three or more stations under contract to broadcast at one time. There was also testimony that from approximately October, 1953 on, all radio stations broadcasting the Tarzan programs were located in Canada, and that the stations in Canada are not on a network. All of the Tarzan radio programs in Canada were transcribed on tapes. In its reply brief, appellant disavows respondent’s claim that the former’s position is that the language “released over three or more stations simultaneously” requires network broadcasts where there is an instantaneous release from three or more stations and asserts that its contention is that the contract requires network broadcasts. On the issue now under consideration, the court below was confronted with conflicting evidence. The trier of fact weighed this evidence and resolved the conflict in favor of respondent. Under well established rules we cannot reweigh the evidence favorable to respondent and if that evidence is sufficient as a matter of law, the conclusion arrived at by the trial court cannot be rejected by us (Scott v. Nevis, 120 Cal.App.2d 619, 621 [261 P.2d 797] ; 4 Cal.Jur.2d 487, Appeal and Error, §606).

It is next contended by appellant that since the agreement does not obligate respondent to do anything, it is lacking in mutuality of obligation and void for want of consideration. In this claim appellant cannot be sustained. It is well recognized that a written agreement should receive such an interpretation as will make it operative, reasonable *468 and capable of being carried into effect, if that can be done without contravening the intention of the parties, and interpretation which gives effect to a contract is preferred to one which makes it void (Long Beach Drug Co. v. United Drug Co., 13 Cal.2d 158, 166 [88 P.2d 698, 89 P.2d 386]). We believe that taking the agreement now before us in its entirety, it was properly construed by the court as one in which appellant granted to respondent the exclusive right to use the Tarzan material with the provision that if respondent failed to broadcast over three or more stations simultaneously for any consecutive six-month period and did not give a written notice of election, not here pertinent, appellant could terminate the agreement. The evidence undisputably shows that upon execution of the contract, respondent proceeded to make and produce 75 Tarzan episodes at a cost to respondent of approximately $1,000.00 each (Ross v. Frank W. Dunne Co., 119 Cal.App.2d 690, 697, 698 [260 P.2d 104]). What the contract in fact did was simply to give respondent the sole right to use the word “Tarzan” in stories to be broadcasted. We are not here confronted with any evidence to support appellant’s theory that consideration was lacking for there was no such evidence. One of the disputable presumptions is that “there was a good and sufficient consideration for a written contract” (Code Civ. Proc., § 1963, subd. 39). And on appeal, supporting evidence may consist merely of a presumption (Estate of Brimhall, 62 Cal.App.2d 30, 34 [143 P.2d 981]; Williams v. Reed, 48 Cal.2d 57, 62 [307 P.2d 353]; Thom v. Stewart, 162 Cal. 413, 421 [122 P. 1069]).

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Bluebook (online)
334 P.2d 922, 167 Cal. App. 2d 463, 1959 Cal. App. LEXIS 2358, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/edgar-rice-burroughs-inc-v-commodore-productions-artists-inc-calctapp-1959.