Porter v. Miller

PRESTON, J.

Plaintiff seeks by this action to rescind an agreement made by him with defendants for the purchase and sale of an apartment house located in Los Angeles, California, the amended complaint alleging that he was induced to enter into said contract by false and untrue representations about material matters made to him both by defendants and their agents, Kells & Grant, the real estate firm through whom the deal was consummated, said alleged material misrepresentations mainly relating to the income, gross and net, derived from said apartment house, the number of vacancies therein during 1924, the year preceding the purchase, and failure to accord plaintiff an opportunity to inspect the books of said apartment house as to income and expenditures prior to consummation of the transaction.

The trial court found in substance that the books and records of said apartment house, particularly the monthly record sheets and expense sheets for the year 1924, were voluntarily exhibited to plaintiff in the presence of C. L. Edwards, a representative of Kells

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Grant, and that plaintiff did, on that occasion and on a number of occasions thereafter prior to consummation of the deal, inspect same and make such memoranda therefrom as he desired; that there were only the usual vacancies in said apartment house during the year 1924, such vacancies not exceeding 12.75 per cent of the entire available time; that plaintiff in entering into said contract did not rely upon representations alleged to have been made by defendants and their agents that the annual gross rentals received from said, property were $26,000, or any other representations relative to income therefrom, but that prior to consummating the

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transaction on a number of occasions while the matter was in escrow, plaintiff had access to and saw certain documents showing the gross income from said premises for 1924 to be $25,377.52, which documents upon careful recheeking showed gross receipts for the year to be $25,716.55, and the gross income from rentals to be $21,847.70; that the representations made by defendants were not untrue and were not made with the intent to induce plaintiff to enter into said contract, escrow, or transaction. The court accordingly gave judgment for defendants, from which plaintiff has prosecuted this appeal.