Callahan v. Danziger

JAMES, J.

Plaintiff, the respondent here, sued appellant Danziger, E. A. Wiltsee, J. M. Kent, and the Lost Hills Syndicate, the latter being alleged to be, upon the information and belief of the plaintiff, a corporation. The suit was to recover $1,170.73 for services performed and money paid out on account of the defendants. Service was made upon this appellant and Kent, who answered in the case, and upon trial being had before a jury a verdict was rendered in favor of the

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plaintiff for the amount prayed for, upon which verdict judgment was thereafter entered. This appeal is taken by Danziger from the judgment and from an order denying his motion for a new trial.

It is urged, under the contention principally argued on behalf of the appellant, that the evidence was insufficient to support the judgment. A recovery was had under the claim that the individual defendants were copartners. The business in which it appears they were engaged was that of exploring prospective oil territory. The plaintiff did not show that the Lost Hills Syndicate was a corporation, but the evidence offered went principally in the direction of establishing a co-partnership existing between Kent, Danziger, and Wiltsee. Defendants Kent and Danziger, being the only two who appeared at the trial, were not very specific in defining the relations existing between the three, which fact may be accounted for by the loose method of doing business which was followed in the handling of their enterprise. At the outset it may be said that, in our opinion, the facts and circumstances shown in evidence were amply sufficient to authorize a conclusion to he drawn that the relation of general partners did exist between Kent, Wiltsee, and Danziger. Plaintiff testified that Wiltsee, Danziger, and Kent composed the Lost Hills Syndicate; that he, the plaintiff, went into the Lost Hills for the persons named in October, 1910; that he was to receive $5 a day and board as superintendent for all their work in that locality; that he continued in that employment until December 18, 1911, at which time he was informed by Kent that Danziger would he no longer responsible for' any debts of the concern, and that Kent was going to cease activities also. He testified to the different amounts of money which he had paid out, which, together with balance of wages claimed to he due, made up the total sum sued for. Kent appeared to be the man most accessible to Callahan, and it was mainly through Kent that Callahan received remittances. He also received remittances through Wiltsee, and in some of the letters written by Wiltsee along in the year 1911, when money appeared to be short, Wiltsee assured Callahan that he would be personally responsible for the reimbursement and payment of the plaintiff. Callahan also testified that just after he started work in 1910 Danziger was on the ground, and that he (Callahan) told Danziger that it was a little tedious working there,