Kuffel v. Seaside Oil Co.

11 Cal. App. 3d 354, 90 Cal. Rptr. 209, 1970 Cal. App. LEXIS 1739
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedSeptember 18, 1970
DocketCiv. 1178
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 11 Cal. App. 3d 354 (Kuffel v. Seaside Oil Co.) 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
Kuffel v. Seaside Oil Co., 11 Cal. App. 3d 354, 90 Cal. Rptr. 209, 1970 Cal. App. LEXIS 1739 (Cal. Ct. App. 1970).

Opinions

[358]*358Opinion

GARGANO, J.

This action for general and punitive damages is based on fraud arising out of a contract. It was instituted by plaintiffs Lorren J. Kuffel and Ellen M. Kuffel against the Seaside Oil Company and Forrest LaVeme McCauley, Seaside distributor for the Modesto area. Subsequently, the action was dismissed as against McCauley and, after issue was joined on the complaint and Seaside’s counterclaim, the cause proceeded to trial before the court sitting without a jury. At the conclusion of the trial the court awarded plaintiffs $212,269.48 in general damages; it fixed punitive damages at $10,000. The court also entered judgment in favor of Seaside on the counterclaim for $23,264.63. Seaside has appealed.

Plaintiffs, since May of 1946, have been engaged in the business of selling gasoline and related products from a service station located in Riverbank, California; -for almost 20 years plaintiffs sold Seaside gasoline exclusively; initially, the gasoline was sold pursuant to a written agreement with a fixed term; in 1954 the agreement was re-negotiated, and Seaside was given the right to terminate upon giving plaintiffs 15 days’ written notice; Lorren Kuffel was told that the termination clause would not be invoked unless he did something “badly.”

In 1960 plaintiffs improved their service station with the proceeds of a $47,000 loan acquired from the Crocker-Anglo National Bank after plaintiffs and Seaside had entered into the following transactions: On April 8, 1960, plaintiffs leased their gasoline station to Seaside for a period of 10 years, commencing June 1, 1960, and ending May 31,' 1970, at a monthly rental of $525.38. The term of that lease, hereafter referred to as the Kuffel-Seaside lease, was the same as the loan term, and the monthly installments were equal to the loan payments. Then, the rental payable by Seaside was assigned to the bank as security for its loan. On April 9, 1960, Seaside leased the service station back to the plaintiffs for essentially the same term, June 1, 1960, to May 26, 1970, and at the same monthly rental; plaintiffs agreed to sell Seaside products exclusively from the leased premises. Thus, simultaneously with the execution of the second lease, hereafter referred to as the Seaside-Kuffel lease, the parties entered into a new written “sales contract” in which Seaside agreed to sell and deliver to plaintiffs all of plaintiffs’ requirements for Seaside petroleum products for resale from the leased property. The term of the contract, like the second lease, was for 10 years, from June 1, 1960, to May 26, 1970. Seaside, however, reserved the right to terminate the contract by giving plaintiffs 15 days’ prior written notice of its intention to do so. It also reserved the option to refuse to sell plaintiffs more than [359]*35920,000 gallons of gasoline during any calendar month. On the same day Seaside signed a letter agreement, agreeing to give plaintiffs an allowance of 20 a gallon on all purchases of gasoline in “truck and/or trailer” quantities to be applied by plaintiffs on the rental owed by them to Seaside; also, it was orally agreed that plaintiffs could pay for the gasoline delivered by Seaside at the end of the month next following the month of delivery.

In 1963 plaintiffs refinanced the service station through another bank, without relying on any security from Seaside. Then, they paid off the first loan. Afterward, the parties agreed to discontinue paying each other offsetting rentals. However, Seaside, by mistake, made two more rental payments amounting to $1,050.76, and Lorren Kuffel retained the money to offset certain subsidies he claimed he was entitled to receive from Seaside from reduced retail selling prices during depressed market periods. Kuffel’s claim was disputed by Seaside. Nevertheless, Seaside and plaintiffs continued with their lease-leaseback arrangement until May 18, 1966. In the interim, Seaside continued to pay plaintiffs the 20 per gallon rental allowance, and with one minor revision the credit arrangement remained unchanged; in late 1966 plaintiffs, at Seaside’s request, agreed to make the gasoline payments on the 25th day of the month next following the month of purchase.

On May 18, 1966, Mr. Forrest LaVerne McCauley, Seaside’s vice president and sales manager, Mr. Al Von Rott, Seaside’s district sales manager for the Sacramento District, and Mr. William G. McDowell, Seaside’s distributor for the Modesto area, met with plaintiffs at plaintiffs’ place of business, to discuss the leases and sales contract which the parties signed in 1960 and the disputed claim over the subsidies. The claim was settled first; the parties executed a settlement agreement in which plaintiffs were allowed to retain the two rental payments mistakenly made by Seaside in return for plaintiffs’ release of all claims they may have had against Seaside for unpaid subsidies. Then, McCauley asked plaintiffs to sign the termination forms which Seaside had prepared for the termination of the leases and sales contract. He told the Kuffels that if they signed the forms, Seaside would, continue to serve them on the same basis as before and promised a new sales contract containing the same terms and conditions as were contained in the old agreement. When a question was raised as to the whereabouts of the contract, McCauley said he had left it on his desk in Santa Barbara and would send it when he returned to that city. Plaintiffs signed the termination forms, but the new sales contract was never sent.

On May 19, 1966, a surprised Mr. Von Rott told plaintiffs that he had been notified by the Santa Barbara office that plaintiffs could not have [360]*360on credit the load of gasoline which was coming to take care of plaintiffs’ weekend trade. The following morning Lorren Kuffel procured a cashier’s check from the bank to pay for the gasoline and brought it to McDowell’s office. McDowell said that he had orders not to take the check and informed Kuffel that plaintiffs were not going to get any fuel. Mr. Kuffel was desperate; he finally got a load of Goodrich Rocket brand gasoline to sell. Thereafter, plaintiffs continued to sell Goodrich gasoline, selling 654,624 gallons for the 12-month period from June 1, 1966, to May 31, 1967.

Contrary to Seaside’s first contention, there is ample substantial evidence to support the trial court’s finding that Seaside fraudulently induced plaintiffs to terminate the leases and sales contract the parties signed in 1960. Plaintiffs signed the termination forms which McCauley presented in reliance upon his promise that Seaside would continue to serve them on the same basis as before, and that they would receive a new sales contract containing the same terms and conditions as were contained in the old contract. This promise was never kept. It is the rule that a promise made with intent to deceive or to induce a person to enter into a contract, without any intention of performing, is actual fraud (Civ. Code, § 1572, subd. 4). And, it has been repeatedly stated that “[w]ithout the consideration of other evidence, the subsequent failure to perform [a promise] warrants the inference that [the promisor] did not intend to perform when [he] promised.” (Wilson v. Rigali & Veselich, 138 Cal.App. 760, 765 [33 P.2d 455]; Boyd v. Bevilacqua, 247 Cal.App.2d 272, 292 [55 Cal.Rptr. 610]; Wilkenson v. Linnecke, 251 Cal.App.2d 291, 293 [59 Cal.Rptr. 290].)

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Bluebook (online)
11 Cal. App. 3d 354, 90 Cal. Rptr. 209, 1970 Cal. App. LEXIS 1739, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kuffel-v-seaside-oil-co-calctapp-1970.