Payne v. Clow

LAMBERSON, J.,

pro

tem.

Appellants, who are the plaintiffs, seek to foreclose two mortgages, each for the principal sum of $2,250 with interest, together with some small amounts paid by them on street improvements bonds. The mortgages were executed by the defendants and respondents as part of a transaction wherein the latter exchanged twenty acres of vineyard land near Orosi, in Tulare •County, where they had resided for about nine years prior to April 1, 1925, for a lot sixty (60) feet in width near Broadway and One Hundred and Fifth Streets in the county of Los Angeles, the property being at the time of the transaction outside of the city of Los Angeles. Each of the mortgages was dated April 1, 3925, and one of them covered the east thirty (30) feet of the lot mentioned, and the other covered the west thirty (30) feet of said lot.

By their answer respondents alleged that they knew nothing of conditions • or values in the city of Los Angeles; that appellant Jesse B. Payne, for the purpose of inducing them to exchange their property, fraudulently represented that the two half lots were of the value of $9,000; whereas, their actual value was not in excess of $5,000. That said appellant represented that a lot at the corner of One Plundrcd and Fifth Street and Broadway, and adjacent to the parcels which were exchanged, was of the value of $15,000, whereas, said lot was of a value of not more than

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$3,000; also that the houses and parcels which were conveyed to respondents by the appellants, had a total rental value of $90 per month, whereas said rental did not exceed $40 per month; that appellants represented that the houses were connected with the sewer system,' while in fact they were connected only with inadequate cesspools; that they were free and clear of encumbrances and would be free from assessments, whereas the property was subject to several street improvement liens; that each of the houses upon the property were well constructed and had each cost the sum of $2,500 to construct; whereas, on the other hand, they were very cheaply constructed and had cost only $1300. The respondents prayed for damages in the sum of $4,500.

The court found that about April 1, 1925, the parties to the action entered into an agreement for the exchange of their respective properties, which agreement was secured by the fraudulent representations of the appellant Jesse B. Payne; that the value of the property delivered by appellant was $5,000 and no more; that the rental value of 'the property was $50 per month; that the houses, were not connected with the sewer, were not well constructed, did not cost $2,500 each to build, but on the other hand, cost only $1475 apiece; that the representations were made with the intent to deceive the respondents and that the value of the Tulare County property at the time of the agreement was $6,750; that said property was subject to a mortgage of $2,250.