Shepherd v. Jones

Belcher, C. C. This is an action upon a promissory note given for the purchase of stock in a mining company, and the appeal is from a judgment entered against the defendant, and from an order denying his motion for a new trial.

The appeal from the judgment cannot be considered, for the reason that it was taken more than a year after the judgment was entered.

The motion for a new trial was properly denied.

The case was tried before a jury upon special issues, and the court then, after argument, found certain other facts, and upon the verdict and findings rendered the judgment. Conceding that this method of procedure was irregular, still no objection appears to have been taken to it by either side, and we must presume it was adopted by consent.

The defendant requested the court to instruct the jury in effect that fraudulent representations may be made by acts as well as by words, and that if the note was obtained from defendant by false and fraudulent representations, then the verdict should be in favor of defendant.

The court refused to instruct as requested, and the refusal is assigned as error.

The instructions stated correct propositions of law, and were refused doubtless because there was no evidence to support them. If so, the refusal was proper. (Mecham v. McKay, 37 Cal. 154; Mendelsohn v. Anaheim L. Co., 40 Cal. 657.)

The jury found that the defendant was not induced to execute the note by any false and fraudulent representations; and after carefully going over the record, we are unable to find any testimony tending to show that he was. It is true that shortly before the giving of the note [225]the defendant, with the secretary and two of the directors of the company, went to the mine, and while they were standing on the surface of it the secretary picked up a small piece of gold, and one of the directors picked up another piece, and at another time the secretary showed the defendant some gold filings which, as he represented, had been washed out of the mine, and that defendant was thereby so impressed with the value of the mine that he concluded to take the stock and give his note. But there is no testimony to show that the small pieces of gold were not honestly found and picked up, or that the gold filings did not come from the mine as represented.