Central Iron Works v. California Baking Co.

RICHARDS, J.

This action was instituted by the plaintiff to recover damages from the defendant for its ■ alleged breach of a contract by the terms of which the plaintiff was alleged to have had its aid for the steel work upon a certain structure in contemplation of erection by the defendant accepted, but performance thereunder prevented by the fact that the defendant did not construct the building for the steel work upon which the plaintiff’s bid had been made. The defendant by its answer denied that such a contract had ever been entered into by it, and the cause went to trial upon that issue, in the course of which a large amount of evidence was presented

pro

and

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by the respective parties; and the cause being submitted the court made general findings to the effect that those paragraphs of the plaintiff’s complaint wherein it was alleged that the contract had been entered into between the respective parties to the action in substance as above stated were untrue, and that the paragraph of the defendant’s answer wherein the existence of any such contract was denied was true. Judgment was accordingly rendered in the defendant’s favor, and from such judgment this appeal has been taken.

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We have carefully examined the somewhat voluminous record herein with a view to ascertaining whether any other question is presented than that of the insufficiency of the evidence to sustain the findings and judgment of the trial court; and we are not only unable to find that any other question is so presented, but we are able to find that upon the single issue of the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the findings and judgment of the trial court the evidence is so sharply and substantially conflicting upon every point in which the execution and validity of the contract in dispute is involved as to bring the case fully within the rule universally applied to such cases.

The appellant’s two contentions are, first, that the defendant’s secretary in indorsing upon the plaintiff’s bid the words, “Accepted on behalf of the California Baking Company, M. Wiessenhutter, Secretary, ’ ’ had power to bind, and hence had bound, the corporation; and, second, that its board of directors by their subsequent conduct, with knowl

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