Gandalfo v. Gandalfo

226 P. 960, 66 Cal. App. 726, 1924 Cal. App. LEXIS 475
California Court of Appeal·Decided April 25, 1924·No. Civ. No. 2684.·Published·Cited by 1 cases

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.

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

226 P. 960 (Gandalfo v. Gandalfo) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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