Hunsaker v. Sturgis

By the Court, Shafter, J. Hunsaker, Tyler, Wittenmyer and the defendant, all residents of the Town of Martinez, were stockholders in the “ Black Diamond Coal Mining Company,” the first three owning one sixteenth each of the capital stock, and Sturgis holding a still larger interest. The stock belonging to Hunsaker was held by Sturgis in pledge to secure a debt of two thousand five hundred dollars which Hunsaker was owing him. The evidence tended to prove that the' plaintiff, in April, 1863, sold [144]his stock to Marziou & Co., of San Francisco, for the sum of four thousand five hundred dollars, and Tyler and Wittenmyer soon after sold out in like manner to the same parties for the same money. The evidence further tended to prove that the plaintiff, some months before his sale to Marziou & Co., authorized the defendant to sell his, the plaintiff’s, stock “ for the most he could get,” and that the defendant under professions of friendship for the plaintiff, undertook to aid him in finding a purchaser and without pay for his services. That he also volunteered to aid Tyler and Wittenmyer in selling their stock, at the best price, to Marziou & Co.; and undertook and was instructed by them to find out and report what was the best that could be done with that firm. That Sturgis on applying to Marziou & Co., was informed that they considered a sixteenth part of the stock cheap at six thousand dollars, and that they were ready to take the three sixteenths in question at that rate. The evidence further tended to prove that Sturgis thereupon informed Marziou & Co. of the confidential relations in which he stood to the owners of the stock, and that he told them further, or gave them to understand, that through him and “ by reason of his situation with respect to those parties,” their interests could be bought at less than the sum which the firm was ready and willing to pay, and that it was thereupon arranged between Sturgis and Marziou & Co. that he (Sturgis) should be and become the secret agent of the company for the purpose of buying the three sixteenths at the lowest possible figure, and if a sale of the stock to Marziou & Co. should be effected through the defendant’s procurement, at less than six thousand dollars per sixteenth, that the said purchasers would pay to defendant for his services one half the difference between six thousand dollars and the sum at which the purchase should be made. The evidence further tended to prove that the defendant in pursuance of this arrangement, represented to the owners of the stock that he had seen Marziou & Co., and that they would give four thousand five hundred dollars for each of their sixteenths and no more; and advised them to call upon Marziou & Co. in person. The parties afterward acted on this advice,