Lathrop v. Francis

MELVIN, J.

Defendant appeals from an order refusing to dissolve an attachment for fifteen thousand six hundred dollars.

Plaintiffs are trustees in liquidation of the West Virginia Oil Company. From the allegations of the complaint it appears that on June 10, 1911, defendant sold to one E. S. Good an option to purchase -certain described land in Kern County; that in the following month said Good agreed to sell said option to the West Virginia Oil Company; that on July 29, 1911, defendant and Good entered into a written contract whereby she agreed to sell and he promised to buy all of her right, title, and interest in and to said property for a certain sum, a part of which, namely, ten thousand dollars, was then and there paid; that on January 9,1912, E. S. Good executed and delivered to West Virginia Oil Company an assignment of all his interest in the last-named contract; that on January 29, 1912, a certain supplementary contract was executed by Mlary F. Francis and the West Virginia Oil Company modifying the contract of July 29,1911, by extending the time of payment of certain of the installments of the purchase price; and that thereupon the corporation paid to Mrs. Francis five thousand dollars principal and six hundred dollars interest on the purchase price of seventy thousand dollars. This sum, together with the ten thousand dollars previously paid, nominally by Good but really by the corporation, his assignee, makes up the sum of fifteen thousand six hundred dollars, for recovery of which the respondents insist was stated a cause of action justifying the issuance of the writ of attachment.

[184]

Under the contracts set forth in the complaint the Oil Company entered into possession of the property and expended seventy thousand dollars in an endeavor to develop oil. Both before and after the acquisition by the West Virginia Oil Company of Mr. Good’s interest, Mrs. 'Francis had represented to that corporation that her right, title, and interest in said land was unincumbered by any claims or contracts, whereas there was at all said times an outstanding contract executed by defendant’s predecessor in interest giving to one Fox a lease with an option to purchase, and the existence of said agreement was not known to the corporation before it had made the payments above described and had expended the seventy thousand dollars for development. Upon hearing of the defect of the title the officers of the corporation refused to make further payments and on October 1, 1912, Mrs. Francis notified the West Virginia Oil Company, in writing, that all of its right, title, and! interest to the land “had been forfeited. Thereafter she re-entered into possession of the property and held it at the time of the institution of the. action.