Rosenberg v. Raskin

McCOMB, J.

Prom a judgment in favor of plaintiffs after trial before the court without a jury in an action to recover damages for breach of a contract which defendant had entered into with his fellow members of the Hebrew Master Bakers Association to keep his bakery closed until the members had entered into a new contract with the bakers’ union, defendant appeals.

Defendant does not question the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the following findings of the trial court:

1. That plaintiffs and defendant are members of the Hebrew Master Bakers Association, a voluntary association for the protection of various bakeries in the city of Los Angeles.

2. That at a meeting of such association held on the 30th day of April, 1945, defendant falsely and fraudulently and with intent to deceive and defraud plaintiffs, among others, and with intent to gain possession of plaintiffs’ customers, represented to plaintiffs that he would, in conjunction with all of the members of the aforementioned association, keep his place of business closed until a new contract was made with the bakers’ union.

3. That plaintiffs believed and relied upon the representations made by defendant, and in consideration of the promise of defendant not to keep his bakery open were induced thereby not to open their place of business on the following day, and that they adhered strictly to the agreement entered into between defendant and plaintiffs with other members of the association and kept their place of business closed until a

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new contract was entered into with the bakers’ union some weeks later.

4. That defendant immediately after inducing plaintiffs and others to agree to the terms above mentioned did open his place of business and caused such place of business to remain open during all the time that plaintiffs kept their bakery closed.

5. That among plaintiffs’ customers were the Home for the Aged, Canter’s Delicatessen and Bernie’s Delicatessen, all of Los Angeles, and that as a result of defendant’s operating his bakery between May 1st and May 12th, 1945, with the intent to deprive plaintiffs of the regular trade of such customers, plaintiffs suffered a loss in the sum of $1,700.