Bonnarjee v. Pike

KERRIGAN, J.

This action was brought by the plaintiffs, who are husband and wife, to recover from the defendants, also husband and wife, the sum of three thousand dollars as damages resulting from an exchange of properties by the respective parties, brought about by the aid of false representations on the part of the agent who negotiated the transaction. Judgment went for plaintiffs in the sum demanded, and the defendants appeal.

The appellants make several contentions in support of their appeal, among them being that the evidence is insufficient to show that the agent in the transaction was in fact the defendants’ agent; that it is also insufficient to show the values of the respective properties upon the difference in which the court based the amount of damages allowed; and furthermore, that the appellants are not responsible for the fraudulent representations of the agent, even conceding that he acted for them.

The facts are substantially these: Basanta C. Bonnarjee (hereinafter referred to as the plaintiff), a native of India and a convert to the Christian religion, was living with his wife in Chicago, and there owned a brick building. Desiring by reason of his wife’s illness to go to Los Angeles and there reside, he sought the services of one Wendell, a real estate broker, and a member of a church which the plaintiff sometimes attended. Stating his desire to Wendell, the latter immediately informed him, “I know a person over there [Southern California] and he wanted me to exchange his property, and he wants to come here and we all want him to come. He is a good man and belongs to our church. He is a Sunday-school superintendent, a sanctified man, and I will write him and see if he has the property still left and will exchange that with you.” Wendell accordingly wrote to the defendants, with whom he had a previous acquaintanceship, having visited them at their home in Los Angeles. They also were members of a church of the same or an allied denomination, and Wendell addressed them as “Dear brother

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and sister,” and in signing his letters seldom omitted an allusion to the founder of the Christian religion. This also was the practice of the defendant George W. Pike, who, in his correspondence both with Wendell and the plaintiff, also invariably preceded his signature with the words “Your brother in Christ.” In his first letter to Pike, Wendell gave full particulars of the plaintiffs’ property, including the price, which was put at five thousand five hundred dollars, and stated that they would trade with the defendants for their cottage “if the price was right.” The correspondence which ensued resulted in an exchange of properties, the plaintiffs transferring to the defendants their said house at a valuation of five thousand five hundred dollars, subject to a mortgage of one thousand five hundred dollars, and receiving from the defendants their cottage at a valuation of four thousand five hundred dollars, subject to a mortgage of one thousand three hundred dollars; and a vacant lot, situate on a hillside, over a mile from transportation facilities, barren of street improvements of any kind, and the taxes on which were five dollars per annum, at a valuation of two thousand five hundred dollars, and subject to a mortgage of one thousand dollars; the agreement of exchange also provided that the plaintiffs should pay to Wendell, not only a commission on their own account, but also one agreed to be due to him from the defendants upon this transaction.