Carr v. Lauritson

[32]

SPENCE, J.

Plaintiffs sought by this action to recover damages from defendant for the alleged breach of a contract for the purchase of real property. The cause was tried by the court sitting without a jury and from a judgment entered in favor of defendant, plaintiffs appeal.

The material facts for the purpose of this discussion are not in dispute. The negotiations leading up to the controversy were had between defendant on the one hand and Mr. Baird, a real estate broker in Salinas, and Mr. Hilliard, his salesman, on the other hand. Plaintiffs and defendant never met or communicated with each other until after the commencement of this action.

The uneontradicted testimony shows that Mr. Hilliard talked to defendant endeavoring to interest defendant in the purchase of a large tract of land which was represented to defendant as having approximately 900 feet frontage on the main highway leading north out of Salinas. At that time, plaintiffs were the owners of a large tract with a frontage on the east side of said highway between the main business district of Salinas and the California Rodeo Grounds. The land in that vicinity was apparently known as Can’ Flats or Buell Field and portions of said land had been previously sold by plaintiffs. Plaintiff Carr testified that plaintiffs were interested in selling whatever they had left in what was known as Buell Field, but it does not appear that plaintiffs themselves knew how many acres remained unsold or how much frontage the remaining property had on the main highway. On the other hand, it does not appear that defendant knew who were the owners of any of the property which the real estate brokers were endeavoring to sell to him.

Throughout the negotiations with defendant, the brokers stressed the amount of frontage on the highway and the value of such frontage. Several conversations were had and defendant was taken out to the property on two occasions. Typical of the brokers’ numerous representations concerning the frontage of the property to be sold was the following uncontradicted statement: “Look here, here is the main thing, you have 900 feet, approximately 900 feet on the highway, and this is very valuable property. ’ ’ They stated to defendant that he would have 18 fifty-foot lots on the main highway frontage and about 600 feet frontage on another road.