Reed v. Cross

48 P. 491, 116 Cal. 473, 1897 Cal. LEXIS 576
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedApril 7, 1897
DocketL. A. Nos. 53; 70
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 48 P. 491 (Reed v. Cross) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Reed v. Cross, 48 P. 491, 116 Cal. 473, 1897 Cal. LEXIS 576 (Cal. 1897).

Opinion

Searls, C.

In this case a judgment was entered in the court below by which it was adjudged: 1. That plaintiff was not entitled to take anything upon the cause of action set forth in his complaint; 2. That defendant, John Cross, do have and recover nothing of and from F. C. Reed, upon the said defendant’s cross-complaint; 3. That defendant recover his costs, amounting to the sum of $19.95.

Plaintiff appeals from so much of the judgment as denies his right of recovery against the defendant, and awards costs against him. His appeal is supported by a bill of exceptions.

The defendant also prosecutes a separate appeal (No. 70) from so much of the same judgment as denies his right of recovery upon his cross-complaint, and his appeal comes upon the same judgment-roll, in a separate record, without any bill of exceptions.

As the facts, except as to the bill of exceptions, are precisely alike in the two cases, it will facilitate progress and avoid useless repetition of facts by considering this case and No. 70 together. We accordingly pursue that course.

The action was brought to recover $1,903.60, together with interest'thereon from July 25, 1891, for one-half of the money alleged to have been paid out by plaintiff [475]*475for the benefit of defendant, in a joint enterprise in which plaintiff and defendant were engaged, in which some eighty acres of land were purchased in San Luis Obispo county in 1887, for the sum of $23,700.

Defendant answered, denying most of the allegations of the complaint; set up fraud in the transaction on the part of plaintiff; pleaded the statute of limitations (section 339 and the first paragraph of section 342 of the Code of Civil Procedure) in bar of the cause of action.

Defendant also pleaded the bar of a judgment for the same cause of action in a former action in which the defendant herein was plaintiff and the plaintiff herein was defendant, instituted in the county of San Luis Obispo, in which action the plaintiff here had judgment for $677 and costs against the defendants here.

Defendant also filed a cross-complaint in an action to recover back from the plaintiff $8,000, paid by him on account of the investment mentioned in the complaint, on the ground of fraud practiced by said plaintiff in the transaction, setting out in apt terms the facts constituting the alleged fraud.

Plaintiff answered the cross- complaint of defendant, denying most of its allegations. He also sets up in bar of the cause of action set out in defendant’s cross-complaint an action brought by said defendant against him in the county of San Luis Obispo to recover the same sum of $8,000 here sought to be recovered by defendant; that plaintiff here, who was defendant there, interposed a counterclaim against the plaintiff there and defendant here, and that upon the issues made a trial was had and judgment rendered against the plaintiff in that suiti and in favor of the defendant therein, on his counterclaim for $677 and costs, which judgment was thereafter, upon appeal of said plaintiff John Cross to this court, duly affirmed. (See No. 14522, decided in 1892, affirming judgment and order, and not reported, 29 Pac. Rep. 244.) The cause was tried by the court without the intervention of a jury. It seems necessary to set forth the findings in full. They are as follows:

[476]*476“findings.
“ This cause came on for hearing before the court sitting without a jury, the same having been waived by the parties; Messrs. Variel & Davis appearing for plaintiff, and Anderson & Anderson and Hughes & Garrison appearing for defendant; and the court having heard the evidence and argument of counsel, and the cause being submitted, now finds as follows:
“1. That in April, 1887, plaintiff and defendant entered into an agreement whereby they were to purchase from one W. L. Beebee eighty acres of land situate in San Luis Obispo county, California, at and for the sum of $24,000, each to pay the one-half of such purchase price and to acquire an undivided one-half interest in said land. That in pursuance of such agreement plaintiff and defendant, on May'3, 1887, purchased of said Beebee said land, each acquiring an undivided one-half interest therein, for the sum of $23,700, defendant then paying of said purchase price $8,000 and plaintiff then paying of said purchase price $7,700, and by agreement between plaintiff and defendant said Beebee conveyed said land to plaintiff only, and plaintiff borrowed of the Bank of San Luis Obispo $8,000, executing to said bank his note therefor, and a mortgage upon said land, to secure its payment, and with said $8,000 so borrowed plaintiff paid to said Beebee the remainder of said sum of $23,700, the purchase price of said land. That thereafter, and on May 3, 1894, plaintiff conveyed to defendant an undivided one-half interest in and to said land subject to said mortgage. That thereafter plaintiff and defendant paid to said bank a part of said mortgage, and on July 25,1891, there remained unpaid of the said mortgage debt the sum of $3,807.21, plaintiff having up to that time paid upon said debt $300 more than defendant had paid thereon. That on July 25, 1891, plaintiff paid to said bank the remainder of said mortgage debt, to wit, the sum of $3,807.21, no part of which has ever been repaid to him.
2. “That for some years prior to the times in the [477]*477complaint referred to, the plaintiff and defendant had sustained toward each other confidential and friendly relations, and had frequently engaged in joint ventures and speculations.
“That during the months of April and May, 1887, the plaintiff invited and requested defendant to enter into a joint speculation with him, and offered to invest money for defendant in joint purchases with plaintiff.
“That defendant consented to unite with plaintiff in the purchase of a certain tract of sixty acres of land in the corporate limits of San Luis Obispo, for the sum of eighteen thousand dollars, and authorized plaintiff to draw on him for the amount necessary to pay for the interest of defendant so purchased jointly with the plaintiff.
“And on the fourteenth day of April, 1887, the plaintiff wrote and notified defendant that he had purchased said tract of land, and had drawn on defendant for ten thousand dollars to pay for defendant’s interest in such investment. That the defendant paid said draft upon presentation, relying entirely upon statements made by plaintiff that said land so to be purchased jointly with defendant was said sixty-acre tract within the corporate limits of San Luis Obispo for a total price of $18,000 as then represented, and that said sum of $10,000 should fully pay for such interest of defendant therein. That thereafter, on the twenty-seventh day of April, 1887, defendant went to the city of San Luis Obispo, and there met plaintiff, who showed him the land which plaintiff represented that he had purchased for $24,000, and had paid thereon the sum of $16,000, $10,000 of which was paid with the money of defendant. That defendant was dissatisfied with said purchase, and claimed to plaintiff that the purchase was not one such as had been represented when the draft of $10,000 was paid, and demanded that plaintiff pay back to him the money which he had obtained by draft on him as aforesaid.
3. “That plaintiff then represented to defendant that [478]

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
48 P. 491, 116 Cal. 473, 1897 Cal. LEXIS 576, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/reed-v-cross-cal-1897.