Shanklin v. Scribner

FINCH, P. J.

Plaintiff was given judgment against defendants Scribner and Diamond Ridge Water Company and such defendants have appealed.

The third amended complaint, on which the action was tried, alleges that in August, 1911, defendants Scribner, Bills, and Patton ‘1 owned and were copartners in the Cosumnes water rights and Diamond Ridge Water Ditches in El Dorado County, California, which said water rights and ditches furnished water for irrigation and mining purposes”; that the Diamond Ridge Water Company was incorporated March 5, 1916, and in that month acquired the property described, and has thereafter operated and controlled the same; that in August, 1911, Scribner, Bills, and Patton employed plaintiff as an office employee and that plaintiff performed services as such from September 1,

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1911, to the time when the corporation defendant took over the properties and that at that time the corporation assumed and promised to pay plaintiff the balance due for his services under such employment by the individual defendants and has since paid him all, or nearly all, thereof; that at that time the corporation employed plaintiff in the same capacity and that plaintiff continued in such employment from March 6, 1916, to January 1, 1920; that plaintiff’s agreed salary was $150 a month up to January 1, 1912; $50 a month thereafter until January 1, 1918, and $25 a month after that date; and that there remained a balance of $1,738.50 due plaintiff January 1, 1920. The original complaint was filed January 7, 1920, and the third amended complaint was filed June 30, 1920.

Scribner and the corporation demurred to the complaint on the grounds, among others, of misjoinder of parties defendant, misjoinder of causes of action, and that any sum in excess of $600 was barred by section 339 of the Code of Civil Procedure. Their demurrer was overruled and they thereupon filed separate answers, each denying the existence at any time of the alleged copartnership, the employment of plaintiff, the performance by him of the alleged services or that defendants were indebted to him and alleging that he had been fully paid and pleading the statute of limitations. The corporation filed a counterclaim of $1,125, alleged to be due defendant corporation from plaintiff for office rent.