Ehlers v. Wannack Bros.

MeFAELAND, J. This action was brought to recover from the defendants the reasonable value of plaintiffs alleged services rendered as an architect in drawing and preparing certain plans and specifications for buildings proposed to be erected by the defendants. Judgment was rendered for plaintiff in the sum of seven hundred and fifty-one dollars and forty-five cents; and from the judgment and an order denying a new trial the defendants appeal.

The evidence as to the value having been entirely that of expert witnesses, who differed in their estimates of the value, the defendants asked one of the witnesses how long it would take to draw the plans and specifications; to this question the plaintiff objected upon general grounds, and also upon the ground that it was not the proper method of proving the value of plaintiff’s services; and the court sustained the objection, saying that architecture is a science, and that the value of an architect’s labor is not to be measured by the time consumed. Defendant excepted to this ruling, and the question thus presented is the most important one in the case, although the arguments of counsel upon the point are very meager. The ruling was erroneous. It is settled law that a jury, or a judge sitting as a jury, is not concluded by the testimony of experts or their estimates of value. [312]The province of such testimony is only to aid a jury in coming to a conclusion; and it does not exclude the consideration of any other evidence which is pertinent to the issue involved. In McLean v. Crow, 88 Cal. 649, this court approved a charge by which the jury were instructed that “when they have all the facts and circumstances attending and surrounding the transaction the opinion of experts as to. value, based upon the same evidence, is not conclusive; their opinions are not to be substituted for the common sense and judgment of the jury. The purpose of their introduction is to supplement the general knowledge and experience of the jury in relation to the matters before them, and thereby to aid them in the exercise of their own judgment, to the end that a more just and accurate conclusion as to the value may be drawn from the evidence.” In Estate of Dorland, 63 Cal. 281, it was held that the lower court was not bound by the opinions of professional witnesses as to the value of an attorney’s services. The general authorities are to the same effect. (See 8 Ency. of Pl. and Pr. 776, and quotations from judicial opinions in notes on that and the succeeding page.) Under these authorities the jury should have before them “all the facts and circumstances attending and surrounding the transaction”; and the time reasonably necessary to be occupied in performing the services in question is certainly one of “the facts and circumstances” which the jury should have before them when called upon to determine the value of such services. Of course, in certain cases, evidence of the time occupied in performing services would not be of any very great weight. For instance, in a suit brought by a physician to recover for his services in performing a difficult surgical operation, the time occupied in the performance of such operation would not be of much importance, although even in that case evidence of the time taken would be admissible. That also would be so with respect to certain kinds of services rendered by attorneys, although in many such cases the time occupied by an attorney in conducting litigation would be quite material. In a case like the one at bar, where a jury drawn from the general mass of citizens might not have much general knowledge of the value of the services of architects, it is entirely proper that in reaching a conclusion as to the value of such services