Gandalfo v. Gandalfo

226 P. 960, 66 Cal. App. 726, 1924 Cal. App. LEXIS 475
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 25, 1924
DocketCiv. No. 2684.
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 226 P. 960 (Gandalfo v. Gandalfo) 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
Gandalfo v. Gandalfo, 226 P. 960, 66 Cal. App. 726, 1924 Cal. App. LEXIS 475 (Cal. Ct. App. 1924).

Opinion

YOUNG, J., pro tem.

This is an action for the dissolution of a partnership and for an accounting. The trial court made and filed findings of fact, and judgment was entered thereon. By the judgment it was, among other things, ordered that the plaintiff recover from the defendant the -sum of $3,728.17. Defendant appeals.

That portion of the judgment which orders such recovery from defendant is based upon finding 4 of the findings, which is as follows: “That during the existence of the said partnership of J. Gandalfo and Co. and from and after said October 8th, 1914, to the time of the trial of this action the said partnership became indebted to plaintiff for a balance on account of money paid out and contributed to and for the benefit of said partnership and for labor per *728 formed and for use of his motor vehicles in the sum of $5,308.08 to which the said partnership- is entitled to an offset on account of moneys of said partnership collected by plaintiff and for gasoline used amounting to the sum of $1,313.50, leaving a balance of $3,994.58 now due and payable and owing by the said partnership to the plaintiff on the said account. That during said time there was collected, received and retained by defendant money belonging to the said partnership to the amount and value of $4,191.97, and the said defendant paid out and contributed to the funds of said partnership the sum of $763.00, leaving a balance of $3,428.97, which is due and payable to the said partnership from the said defendant. That the sum of the said account owing from the said partnership to the said plaintiff, to-wit: $3,994.58 and the said amount owing by defendant to the said partnership, -to-wit: $3,428.97 equal the sum of $7,423.55, one-half of such -amount or the sum of $3,711,775 is due and owing from the said defendant to the plaintiff in settlement of their said partnership- accounts and defendant is also indebted to plaintiff for a balance of $17.00 on their individual accounts which by consent of the parties hereto has been determined in this action, making a total of $3,728,775 due and owing from the defendant to the plaintiff herein.”

The principal ground urged by defendant for a reversal of the judgment is that finding 4 is not supported by the evidence.

Plaintiff, a nephew of defendant, and defendant entered into articles of copartnership in February, 1913, and .their principal business consisted in conducting a hotel and a saloon in the city of Sonora. They also ran a grocery store for a while, and also occasionally engaged in farming. Plaintiff was called to serve in the United States army in August, 1917, and did not thereafter participate in the actual affairs of the partnership business.

The documentary evidence introduced at -the trial consisted of bank statements, checks, notes, letters and the account-books of the partnership. The parties to- the action relied upon oral testimony to establish many of their - respective claims. M'any witnesses were sworn and examined, and the testimony as to many items was extremely conflicting. Plaintiff gave testimony as to many items contributed by him for the benefit of the partnership (some of *729 which, testimony was corroborated by other witnesses), which had never been entered in the books of the partnership, and also offered oral testimony—his own and that of other witnesses—as to many sums of money collected for the partnership by defendant for which the partnership had not been credited. Defendant contested many of these items, and gave testimony in his own behalf as to items advanced by him for the benefit of the partnership- for which no credits had been given on the bool® of the partnership, and also as to amounts collected by plaintiff for the partnership and not accounted for. There is no finding as to the items which were included in the totals found in finding 4, hor is there anything in the record which shows authoritatively these items. In making up the totals found in finding 4, the trial court had before it many items for consideration, many of which were necessarily excluded by it. We reach this conclusion from an examination of the transcript on appeal, from which we gather that had the court accepted all the items claimed by plaintiff, plaintiff’s credit would have been much larger; and had it accepted as true the testimony offered by defendant, plaintiff’s recovery would have been much less. The only suggestions before us as to the items included in these totals are found in the respective briefs of plaintiff and defendant, and these do not agree.

Defendant, in his brief, calls our attention to certain items which he asserts the trial court erroneously included in the total sum found in favor of the plaintiff; also certain items which he asserts were erroneously included in the -total sum charged against defendant. He contends that the court included in the total charge made against defendant an item of $780.15, which was the total sum of other items also included in the total charge of finding 4. On page 120 of the partnership account-book introduced in evidence there appeared the following entry in defendant’s handwriting, “Apr. 23, 1918 Eecd. from Andy $738.15.” On the same page, 120, and on page 118 of the same book, were many other items set out as having been received, with date of receipt and the name of the person from whom received. Defendant testified that the item “$738.15” was the total of the other items found on pages 118 and 120, and that they were collected by one Andy Devoto and entered in the account-book as collected, and paid -over to him by Andy Devoto and that he, defendant, had added them up and *730 made the entry above specified. The allowance of this charge against defendant—if it was allowed—was entirely a question for the trial court. The original entries were before it, and it was for the court to say whether or not it would accept the record evidence contained in the account-book, or the oral statement of defendant. In this connection it may also be well to observe that we have examined the items which, defendant testified, made the total of $738.15, and find that the total of the items is a much larger sum. Defendant complains that the court credited plaintiff with an item of $626 upon plaintiff’s testimony that his father had paid a bill for the partnership to the Tacoma Bottling Company. Defendant denounces this as error, and argues that plaintiff did not pay it himself, and that his father not being a party to the action, the credit should not have been allowed. Defendant’s father was sworn as a witness and testified that he had made the payment for and in behalf of his son. If this credit was allowed by the court it was entirely proper. Defendant complains that the court credited the plaintiff with $676.08 for picking up and hauling 2,625 sacks of grain, and that this sum was an excessive charge and should not have exceeded $80. The plaintiff sets forth in his brief that the court gave plaintiff credit for only $76.08 in this behalf. The record does not show what credit the court allowed, and, therefore, we assume that it only allowed such sum as was shown by the evidence to be proper.

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Bluebook (online)
226 P. 960, 66 Cal. App. 726, 1924 Cal. App. LEXIS 475, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gandalfo-v-gandalfo-calctapp-1924.