Glindemann v. Ehrenpfort

LENNON, P. J.

This action was brought to recover damages alleged to have been suffered by plaintiff, William Glindemann, by reason of certain alleged false and fraudulent representations made by defendant concerning the value of certain shares of corporate stock, and the interest or dividends that such stock paid, whereby plaintiff was induced to purchase said stock from the defendant. The case was tried with a jury, which rendered a verdict in favor of the plaintiff for the sum of $420, and this appeal is from the judgment rendered thereon and from the order denying the defendant a new trial.

It is insisted by the appellant that there is no evidence upon which the verdict and judgment can be sustained.

The facts-leading up to the transaction, briefly stated, are these: In February, 1906, the defendant purchased ten shares of the capital stock of the Central Trust Company for the sum

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of one thousand one hundred dollars. One month thereafter he received a semi-annual dividend of twenty-five dollars from profits earned by the stock prior to his purchase, the rate of dividend being approximately five per cent per annum. Shortly thereafter the fire of 1906 occurred in the city and county of San Francisco, causing a suspension of the dividends upon the stock. On January 3, 1907, ten months after defendant had received the dividends referred to, he sold said ten shares of stock to the plaintiff herein for the sum of one thousand one hundred dollars, said sum being the exact amount that defendant had paid for the stock eleven months previously. The following day plaintiff resold the stock to his sister-in-law, a Mrs. Schweitzer. No dividends were declared on said stock during the succeeding years of 1907 or 1908, or until July 1, 1909, when a dividend of three dollars per share was paid, followed semi-annually by similar dividends up to the time of the trial in March, 1914. In February, 1911, at a point of time four years and over subsequent to the date of the sale and transfer of the stock to Mrs. Schweitzer, the Central Trust Company and the Anglo-California Trust Company became merged. At the time of the merger Mrs. Schweitzer delivered up her shares, and received in exchange therefor six shares of Anglo-California Trust Company stock, and the sum of $80, which sum was the equivalent of a fractional two-thirds share of said stock. On February 1, 1913, six years after the sale of the stock to the plaintiff, he was informed that his sister-in-law, Mrs. Schweitzer, felt bitter toward him on account of his having sold her the stock, and upon interviewing her upon the subject she informed him that she had not received any dividends on the stock until July, 1909, and also that he had misrepresented the value of the stock to her, and that it was not worth the sum of $110 per share at the time of her purchase. Thereafter plaintiff claims he paid to Mrs." Schweitzer the sum of $420. This sum, it appears, was the difference between eight hundred dollars, which was the value that the plaintiff and Mrs. Schweitzer determined the stock to be worth, and the sum of one thousand one hundred dollars, the price paid to plaintiff by Mrs. Schweitzer for the stock; and it seems this sum was sufficient to include interest from the date of the investment. On May 16, 1913, six years and four months after the sale by defendant to the plaintiff of the stock, and four years