Citizens National Trust & Savings Bank of Los Angeles v. Bessolo & Gualano, Inc.

HOUSER, J. From the record herein it appears that on January 9, 1929, Bessolo & Gualano, Inc., a corporation, executed a promissory note in favor of itself for the sum of $13,500, payable six months after date, with interest thereon at the rate of eight per cent per annum, payable quarterly. Contemporaneously therewith, on the reverse side of said note, the corporation indorsed the same, and Angelo Bessolo, Y. A. Gualano and M. Angelo Bessolo [36]executed a guaranty thereof. Two days thereafter, through the instrumentality of an investment broker, the plaintiff purchased said note at its full face value, and in payment of the purchase price issued and delivered to Bessolo & Gualano, Inc., one cashier’s check for the sum of $12,150, and another cashier’s check for the sum of $1350; — which latter check Bessolo & Gualano, Inc., indorsed in blank and thereupon delivered it to an agent of the investment broker by whom it was subsequently cashed. Following the maturity of the note, no part of either the principal or the accrued interest thereon having been paid, the plaintiff brought an action against the defendants to recover judgment on said note.

Defendants denied that the plaintiff was the owner of the note. They also interposed several separate defenses to the action, among which were that prior to the execution of the note an agent of the investment broker had stated to the president and the secretary of Bessolo & Gualano, Inc., that said agent would lend to it the sum of $12,200 “in consideration of the making, execution and delivery to him of the note described in plaintiff’s complaint”; also that for its execution no consideration was received by Bessolo & Gualano, Inc., or by one of the guarantors of the note. Furthermore, that the execution of the note was induced by certain alleged fraudulent acts .of the said agent. On all the issues raised by the pleadings of the respective parties to the action, the court found in favor of the plaintiff. It is from the ensuing judgment that the instant appeal is •taken.

Prejudicial error, alleged to have been committed by the trial court, is predicated upon its refusal to permit the vice-president of the plaintiff corporation to answer certain questions asked of him as a witness by the attorney who represented the defendants. In substance, those questions related to a time immediately preceding the purchase by the plaintiff of the note and were: (1) as to what conversation, if any, had occurred between the witness and the agent of the investment broker relative to the manner or means whereby he was acquiring the note in question, or what he was paying for it; (2) whether the witness had made any investigation to determine what the relationship was between said agent and the maker of the note “with