McAtee v. McAtee

BURROUGHS, J., pro tem.

Plaintiff prosecutes this action for an accounting of partnership assets and for a decree that the partnership out of which the accounting arose was dissolved on or about March 22, 1922. The plaintiff was awarded a judgment and the defendant appeals.

The first point advanced for a reversal of the judgment is the insufficiency of the evidence to support the findings. The court found that, on July 7, 1919, the defendant was the owner in fee simple of one acre of land in the city of San Gabriel, California, together with the improvements thereon, consisting of a dwelling-house, a wooden frame chicken-house, two small paper chicken-houses and other minor improvements; that at said time and located on said property defendant owned and was raising approximately 400 chickens; that there were also a number of household furnishings and fixtures in the dwelling-house on said property; that on said date defendant was financially involved and in need of money to maintain himself and said property; that on said date defendant made a proposition to the plaintiff that, if plaintiff would go into partnership with him, give him some money in cash, secure employment and turn his wages over to the defendant, work on said premises after the regular hours of plaintiff’s employment elsewhere by assisting defendant in and about the premises, in particular, feeding the chickens, washing and cleaning eggs, cleaning hen-houses and doing other incidental duties and chores about said place, attend to these matters on Sundays and holidays, and assist defendant in paying for groceries and household

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commodities, defendant would transfer to the said partnership or hold for the benefit of said partnership the said acre of ground and its appurtenances and would divide the profits and losses of the entire partnership adventure; that the plaintiff accepted said offer, but that said offer was not in writing; that pursuant to the -said agreement, and on the same day, plaintiff paid defendant $80 in cash and plaintiff immediately secured a job as a day laborer for a lumber company and commenced work on July 10, 1919, and, with the exception of four months in 1920, he worked continuously for said lumber company until on or about March 22, 1922, the date said partnership was dissolved; that he received a salary of $30 per week; that during said period of time he paid to the defendant from his salary the sum of $20 per week and retained therefrom the sum of $10 per week, out of which plaintiff paid for approximately ninety per cent of the groceries and foodstuffs used by the plaintiff and defendant; that during the existence of said partnership there had been accumulated as partnership property an additional one-half acre of ground, one water pipe-line, a fence around the said one-half acre of ground, and approximately 800 chickens in addition to those owned by the defendant at the time of the formation of the partnership; that the value of the said one-half acre at the time of the termination of the partnership was $1,000; that the total value of the other additional property aggregated $2,335. The court further found that on the twenty-second day of March, 1922, the defendant, without advising with the plaintiff in any manner whatsoever, sold and disposed of the entire assets of said partnership for the sum of $10,000, all of which sum has been paid to the defendant; that after paying the debts of said partnership there remained in the hands of the defendant the sum of $8,500 partnership property. It is further found that the defendant failed, refused and neglected to account to the above-named plaintiff for the proceeds of said sale except to the extent of $475 in cash and certain articles of furniture of the reasonable value of $200. The court further found that said plaintiff was entitled to receive one-half of the proceeds of the said sale less the sum of $675, paid him by the defendant as aforesaid, and that there is now due to said plaintiff from the defendant the sum of $3,575, together with interest.