Lynds v. Los Angeles-Denair Farms Co.

[59]

KING, J.,

pro

tem.

The action is for the cancellation of a contract and deeds, with damages, plaintiffs alleging that the contract of purchase of real estate was obtained from plaintiffs by means of fraudulent representations.

Judgment was given to plaintiffs for damages and for the annulment of the deeds of conveyance. A .nonsuit was granted as to defendants Hattie K. Conway and Belle L. Moir, and judgment in favor of defendants A. C. Conway and W. H. Moir. The defendant corporation appeals.

The defendant corporation owned several hundred acres of land near Denair, California. Up to the time of the contract the land had never been irrigated and had been used for raising grain only.

The land in question, as stated in appellant’s brief, “as all land in San Joaquin valley, is underlaid with hardpan at varying depths”.

The defendant A. C. Conway, the president,. and W. H. Moir, the secretary of the corporation, are alleged to have made the misrepresentations complained of.

The defendant corporation planned to divide its tract of 320 acres into eight tracts of 40 acres each, of which six were to be sold, and Conway and Moir were each to buy one tract. It was proposed that the purchasers were to put the land into grapes which were to be raised without irrigation, the setting and care of which to be upon a community or co-operative basis.

The plaintiff Edward W. Lynds was introduced to defendant A. C. Conway by one Pyle who had been attorney for each. Conway met Lynds about December, 1925, or January, 1926, and in April, 1926, they went to view the place. It appears that neither Lynds, Conway nor Moir had experience with farming or the raising of grapes. At the first conversation Conway gave Lynds a paper, of which the following is a partial copy:

“The owner has been advised by good competent authority that when the land is planted, as is proposed, to good, well rooted cuttings, the vines will produce in the two years in the neighborhood of 1 ton or better per acre, which would net the grower $50.00 per acre, that the third year would produce between two and three tons per acre, which would net the grower better than $100.00 per acre, and that during