Williams v. Belling

245 P. 455, 76 Cal. App. 610, 1926 Cal. App. LEXIS 495
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 24, 1926
DocketDocket No. 5213.
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 245 P. 455 (Williams v. Belling) 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
Williams v. Belling, 245 P. 455, 76 Cal. App. 610, 1926 Cal. App. LEXIS 495 (Cal. Ct. App. 1926).

Opinion

*613 CASHIN, J.

An appeal from a judgment denying the right of appellant to recover commissions and special damages.

Respondent, who was the owner of certain real property in the city of Stockton, signed and delivered to appellant, a real estate broker, a memorandum in writing in terms authorizing the latter to effect an exchange thereof for property of like character in the city of Oakland. Both properties were described in the memorandum, which further provided for the payment to appellant of a commission in the sum of $1,000.

The major portion of the building upon the Oakland property was then being used for hotel purposes, the lower floor thereof being divided into two storerooms. The memorandum contained the following provisions, the effect of which is here in question: “It is hereby understood and agreed that there exists a lease on said hotel extending over a period of seven (7) years from July, 1922, for a monthly rental of $700, secured by a chattel mortgage on furniture. . . . This agreement shall not be binding upon the undersigned until he has inspected and approved said leases’’-—the leases referred to being that of the hotel, a lease of one of the storerooms then in force, and a lease to be procured of the other storeroom mentioned. It was further stipulated therein that appellant should complete the exchange within thirty days from its date.

It appears from the evidence that appellant thereafter procured from one R. D. Cashatt, who held a contract for the purchase of the Oakland property, an agreement in writing authorizing the former to effect an exchange thereof for that owned by respondent, and providing for the payment of a commission for the service in the sum of $6,000, it being alleged that the agreement to pay the latter commission had been made before the delivery of the memorandum by respondent and that the latter had knowledge thereof. Appellant’s claim for special damages was based upon the loss of this commission. .

It appears that the lease of the hotel, with the chattel mortgage securing payment of the rents as therein provided, was submitted by respondent to his attorney, on whose advice he refused to approve or accept the mortgage and the *614 lease upon the ground of the invalidity of the mortgage as against the creditors, if any, of the mortgagors.

The trial court found that the refusal to approve was in good faith and, without expressly finding the mortgage to be invalid, found that the memorandum was signed and delivered to appellant in reliance upon his representations that the mortgage was good and sufficient and in proper legal form; that, although such representations were not made for the purpose of deceiving or misleading respondent, they were not warranted by the information possessed by appellant, were false and fraudulent and were believed by respondent, who was thereby induced to sign and deliver the instrument; that such delivery was made and accepted upon the condition and express understanding that, if the leases were unsatisfactory to the latter, they should in nowise be bound thereby; that at the time of the delivery of the memorandum he had no knowledge of any agreement by Cashatt to pay a commission to appellant; that he had not failed to perform or repudiated the agreement as alleged, and that appellant had not performed.

It is contended by appellant that there existed no valid objection to the sufficiency of the mortgage, and that respondent was legally bound to be satisfied therewith; and, by the latter, that the period which elapsed between the presumptive date of the instrument and its recordation rendered it invalid as to creditors of the mortgagors and justified his refusal to approve.

The lease mentioned was not introduced in evidence. The mortgage bears date January 23, 1922, which was also the date of the acknowledgment of the mortgagors and of their affidavits attached thereto. The affidavit of the mortgagee named therein was dated January 31, 1922, and the instrument recorded February 6, 1922. Therein was recited its concurrent execution with the lease for the purpose of securing the payment of the rents to become due thereunder aggregating the sum of $63,000, payable in installments of $700 each on the first day of each month of the term commencing on February 1, 1922, and the further purpose of securing performance by the mortgagors of each and every term, covenant, agreement, and condition in favor of the mortgagee, including the mortgagors’ agreement to perform the conditions and terms of the lease.

*615 These instruments constituted one contract (Civ. Code, sec. 1642), and a valid objection to the mortgage was in effect an objection to the lease within the terms of the memorandum. It was assumed by the parties to the action that both were delivered, and no evidence as to the fact or time of such delivery was offered at the trial. It may be reasonably inferred from the recitals and provisions of the mortgage that the mortgagors were the lessees named in the lease and had agreed to pay the rent therein reserved. •

It is to be presumed—although the presumptions are disputable—that the instruments were truly dated (sec. 1963, subd. 23, Code Civ. Proc.), and were executed and delivered on the day they bear date (22 Cor. Jur. 105, 106; 11 Cor. Jur. 488, 489; Chamberlayne on Evidence, sec. 1055; Wigmore on Evidence, sec. 2520; Lauder v. Peoria Agricultural etc. Soc., 71 Ill. App. 475; Gibson v. Norway Sav. Bank, 69 Me. 579). The fact that the term was to commence on a future date, to wit, February 1, 1922, did not prevent the lease from operating as a present demise (35 Cor. Jur. 1198, 1199; Seibert .v. Grace, 138 Ill. App. 361); and it may fairly be inferred from the circumstances mentioned and the ■ recitals of the mortgage that it was the intention of the parties that the latter instrument should take immediate effect as security for the performance of the promise to pay the rent, including the installment to become due on the first day of the term.

By section 2957 of the Civil Code it is provided that a mortgage of personal property is void as against creditors of the mortgagor and subsequent purchasers and encumbrancers of the property in good faith and for value unless it is acknowledged or proved, certified, and recorded in like manner as grants of real property; and in Ruggles v. Cannedy, 127 Cal. 290 [46 L. R. A. 371, 53 Pac. 911, 59 Pac. 827], it is held that the recordation of a chattel mortgage, having been designed by the statute as a substitute for and the equivalent of the immediate delivery and continued change of possession formerly required in this state, should be had immediately or as soon thereafter as practical upon the execution thereof in order to give notice to and bind third parties.

In the instant case it might fairly have been inferred that fourteen days had elapsed between the delivery of the *616 mortgage and its recordation. Such delay, although not affecting its validity between the parties (Summerville v. Kelliher, 144 Cal. 155 [77 Pac.

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Bluebook (online)
245 P. 455, 76 Cal. App. 610, 1926 Cal. App. LEXIS 495, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/williams-v-belling-calctapp-1926.