Hayward Lumber & Investment Co. v. Construction Products Corp.

VALLÉE, J.

Appeal by plaintiff from a judgment for defendant in an action for unlawful detainer.

The court found that: On November 1, 1948, plaintiff leased certain premises to defendant under the terms of a written lease; it is untrue that the lease expired on December 31, 1950, and it is untrue that defendant has unlawfully detained the property; on December 29, 1950, defendant “was entitled to exercise the option hereinafter mentioned and that on or about said date defendant gave to plaintiff a written notice of the exercise of defendant’s option to renew and extend the said lease agreement from and after December 31, 1950 and to and including December 31, 1951, said option having been given by plaintiff to defendant as one of the provisions of the said written lease”; the notice of the exercise of the option was a good and sufficient notice to renew and extend the lease, and by said written notice defendant did renew and extend the lease from January 1, 1951, to and including December 31, 1951, except as to the amount of monthly rental to be paid, which monthly rental was to be fixed and agreed upon by the parties as provided in the lease. Judgment was for defendant.

The sole question presented is whether the finding that defendant was “entitled to exercise the option” is a finding of fact or a conclusion of law. Appellant asserts it is a conclusion of law, that the court thus failed t'o make findings on a material issue presented by the evidence, to wit, whether defendant had performed the necessary conditions precedent prior to exercising the option, and, therefore, the findings do not support the judgment.

[3]

The distinction between an ultimate fact and a conclusion of fact on the one hand, and a conclusion of law on the other, is not, an easy one to draw. The finding of an ultimate fact usually, if not always, involves one or more conclusions. The rule which requires findings of facts does not require the finding of evidentiary facts but only that ultimate facts be found; it does not exclude conclusions of facts but only conclusions of law.

(Cf. Estate of Bixler,

194 Cal. 585, 589-590 [229 P. 704];

Lewis

v.