Shuler v. Corl

JAMES, J.

Plaintiff sued to recover a sum of money in excess of five thousand dollars as compensation for services alleged to have been rendered to the defendant. A demurrer

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was sustained to the second amended complaint; plaintiff declined to amend further. Judgment followed in favor of the defendant, from which judgment this appeal is taken.

By the demurrer the defendant particularly urged that the alleged causes of action set out in the amended complaint were barred by both the two year and four year limitation. (Code Civ. Proc., secs. 337, 339.) It was further urged that the contract as claimed by the plaintiff was void under the statute of frauds as being one which was not to be performed within a year from the making thereof. It cannot be determined from the record presented when the original complaint was filed in the action, but it does appear that the second amended complaint was filed on the seventh day of November, 1914. In the absence of a different showing made by appellant, we must assume, for the purpose of considering the question relating to the statute of limitations, that this was the date of the commencement of the action. The amended complaint may not be exhibited as an example of concise

pleading;

its allegations extend to much detail, containing many matters of recital, and disjunctive assertions. After alleging the residence of the parties to be in the county of Los Angeles, paragraph 2 of said complaint proceeds as follows: “That, to-wit: within one (1) month before the first of May, 1900, the plaintiff, then working for a drug company at a salary of thirty ($30.00) dollars per month at the city of Amsterdam, state of New York, received through the United States mail a written offer from the defendant, then residing at Spencer, state of South Dakota, to engage the plaintiff’s labor and services in general house work for as long a period as the plaintiff should choose to work for defendant, whether a month or years, and in said letter defendant promised to pay plaintiff for said work a reasonable sum, and specifically promised to pay her in excess of what she was receiving at that time, to-wit: thirty ($30.00) dollars per month, exclusive of 'her lodging and board, which reasonable value for said work, throughout all times mentioned in this complaint, the plaintiff has claimed and still alleges to be forty ($40.00) dollars per month, exclusive of her said room and board. ’ ’ The next allegation recites that the plaintiff accepted the offer of the defendant and went, on the first day of May, 1900, to the place of residence of the defendant, then in South Dakota, and entered upon the performance of the services, and that she