Blinn v. Ritchie

HAHN, J.,

pro tem.

In the action which gives rise to this appeal, which was originally filed in the Municipal Court of the City of Los Angeles, the complaint is cast in the form of a common count alleging that the plaintiff! had performed certain services “for and at the request of the defendants” and the reasonable value thereof. The title of the action, as it appears in the caption of the complaint, reads as follows: “Irving L. Blinn, Plaintiff, vs. James Bitchie and Joseph F. Knopf, individually, James Bitchie and Joseph F. Knopf, copartners doing business under the fictitious name and style of Walnut Park Lumber Company. ’

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Judgment for four hundred dollars was ordered “in favor of the plaintiff Irving L. Blinn, and against the defendants, James Bitchie and Joseph F. Knopf, individually, and James Bitchie and Joseph F. Knopf, copartners, doing business under the fictitious name and style of Walnut Park Lumber Company.”

Upon an appeal taken by the defendants to the Superior Court in and for the County of Los Angeles, the judgment of the Municipal Court was affirmed. From this judgment of affirmation by the Superior Court this appeal is taken by “Joseph F. Knopf, James Bitchie and Joseph F. Knopf, copartners doing business under the fictitious name and style of Walnut Park Lumber Company.”

Appellants in their brief present and argue several reasons for reversal of the judgment, but, in view of the conclusions we have arrived at, we deem it necessary to discuss but one proposition.

The judgment must be sustained, if at all, upon the basis of the existence of a copartnership between the defendants Bitchie and Knopf. There is no finding that such a copartnership existed, nor is there competent evidence in the record to sustain such a finding, if one had been made. It is not contended that the defendant Knopf had anything to do personally with the hiring of the plaintiff, or even that he had any knowledge of such a hiring, or of any services rendered by the plaintiff to the Walnut

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Park Lumber Company. The defendant Knopf can be held for plaintiff’s claim only upon a showing that Ritchie, who admitted the hiring of .the plaintiff, was a partner of Knopf at the time. The only evidence in the record touching upon the question of copartnership is the testimony of the plaintiff that, prior to his employment by Ritchie, Ritchie had told him that “Knopf was a silent partner in the business, and was not actively engaged in the conduct of the business,” and the testimony of the defendant Ritchie: “that he and defendant Joseph P. Knopf were the owners of the Walnut Park Lumber Company; that he was in active charge of said business, and that Mr. Knopf acted as a silent partner.”