Jackson v. Meinhardt

THOMPSON (R. L.), J.

This is an appeal from a judgment against plaintiffs for failure to amend a pleading after a general demurrer had been sustained to a third amended complaint. The suit was for fraud exercised in procuring a contract for the sale of a lot in Los Angeles, California.

The amended complaint to which a general demurrer was sustained with leave to amend, set up an action for damages based upon fraudulent representations regarding the location and boundaries of a lot which the assignors of plaintiffs were thereby induced to purchase.

The complaint alleged in substance that on November 14, 1924, the defendants who owned the land involved in this action, together with the tract surrounding it, executed a contract to sell the lot to George and Clara Jackson for $1200, payable in installments of $25 a month until the purchase price was fully paid, with seven per cent interest per annum on all deferred payments. The property was described as the “East 40 feet of the West 120 feet of the South 101 feet of lot One, Tract 1750, as per map recorded in Book 20, page 157 of Maps,” in the county of Los

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Angeles, California, that on February 7, 1925, for a valuable consideration, the above-named vendees sold and assigned to plaintiffs all their interest in said contract, together with the lot therein described; that upon the purchase of said contract the assignors informed plaintiffs that at the time of the original execution of the contract the defendants represented to them that (1) said land was a corner lot, (2) that a 20-foot public street adjoined the lot on the east, (3) that the lot abutted on a 50-foot street on the south, and (4) that defendants measured the lot in the presence of said assignors and pointed out the northern boundary thereof, stating that the lot extended 101 feet southerly from said point of commencement. The complaint further alleged that the defendants also personally made the foregoing representations to the plaintiffs while actually upon said premises, on February 7, 1925, and acquiesced in their purchase of the contract; that both the original vendees and plaintiffs were strangers in the vicinity and were ignorant as to the actual location of the lot or its dimensions or adjoining streets; that the streets did not appear laid out upon the tract; that neither the original purchasers nor the plaintiffs “had any means of investigation” and made no independent inquiry or examination as to the truth of said representations, and that they each believed them to be true, and relying upon them were thereby induced to purchase the lot when they would not have otherwise done so; that each of said representations was false, as the defendants well knew, and was made to deceive and defraud the purchasers; that in truth the lot was not a corner lot and it did not abut upon a street on either side, or at all, but was entirely surrounded on all sides by other lots, and that it did not commence at the point designated on the ground by the defendants, but did begin 25 feet southerly therefrom; that the plaintiffs did not discover these facts or that the defendants’ representations were false until May, 1926; that at the time of such discovery plaintiffs had paid the total sum of $450 on the purchase price, $348.50 of which was credited to the principal and the balance was applied to the account of interest; that subsequently the plaintiffs continued to make the payments due upon the contract and fulfilled upon their part all of the covenants thereof; that the actual value of