Rea v. Security Trust & Savings Bank

CONREY, P. J.

In the month of July, 1926, defendant Security Trust and Savings Bank was the owner of a tract of land described as Tract No. 9033 in the county of Los Angeles, including lots 135 and 136 thereof. The bank arranged for subdivision of the property into blocks and lots, and engaged defendant J. B. Ransom Corporation as ■its agent in selling the lots. At the time of the transactions referred to herein defendant D. Jamieson was a sales agent for the Ransom Corporation. On July 5, 1926, Jamie-son solicited the plaintiffs to purchase lot 135, and succeeded in persuading them to buy said lot. Plaintiffs in their complaint alleged that in this transaction Jamieson was agent both for the bank and the Ransom Corporation. The court found, upon sufficient evidence, that he was acting for only the Ransom Corporation. Pursuant to these negotiations a contract of sale of said lot, dated July 16, 1926, was entered into between the bank and the plaintiffs. The sale price was $2,375, of which plaintiffs at that time paid $593.75 and agreed to pay the balance of the principal sum at the rate of $47.50 per month, with interest as stated in the contract.

In like manner and through the same agency, in the following year, the plaintiffs purchased lot 136 of said tract, and a contract in writing therefor was entered into, dated May 28, 1927, between the bank and the plaintiffs, whereby the plaintiffs agreed to buy said lot 136 at the stated price of $2,708, of which the plaintiffs paid $679.50 and agreed to pay the balance of the principal sum in monthly installments of $54.16 with interest as stated in the contract.

[665]

By complaint filed May 8, 1929, the plaintiffs commenced this action. In their complaint they set forth certain alleged facts whereby they claimed that they were fraudulently induced to enter into these contracts, and also that a subsequent agreement was made whereby the original agreements were abandoned. It was alleged that the plaintiffs in order to save lot 136, and at the suggestion of Jamieson, assigned and set over to defendant Ransom Corporation said lot 135, to be resold by the defendants and the proceeds of the sale thereof applied on the purchase price of said lot 136; that on or about November 9, 1928, the defendants caused said lot 135 to be sold at a price greater than the price of the sale thereof to plaintiffs, but failed to apply the money so received to payments on lot 136, but appropriated the sum to their own use in violation of their said agreement; that at the same time the defendants proceeded to foreclose the rights of said plaintiffs to both lots and appropriated to their own use the money so received on the purchase price of each lot, and declared the contracts of the plaintiffs forfeited; that the plaintiffs demanded of the defendants that they perform their said agreements with the plaintiffs, but they refused so to do; that thereupon plaintiffs demanded of the defendants that they repay to the plaintiffs all of the moneys so paid by the plaintiffs on the purchase price of both of said lots, with which demand defendants refused to comply. By reason of the aforesaid alleged facts plaintiffs claim to be damaged in the total sum of $1274.91 with interest from the dates of payments as above set forth. Upon issues raised by the complaint and the answers thereto, the action was tried and judgment entered in favor of the defendants, including a judgment in favor of defendant Jamie-son upon his counterclaim in the sum of $175 and interest, based upon a promissory note of the plaintiffs to the defendant Jamieson.