Paige v. Reinecke

WEYAND, J., pro tem. The plaintiffs and respondents are husband and wife, and prior to the occurrences hereinafter related were the owners of 160 acres of land in the Gila Valley, in the state of Arizona, which land they desired to sell. Plaintiffs were laboring under great financial embarrassments, which fact they made known to the defendants Reineeke and Burger.

Defendant Reineeke was a licensed real estate dealer and held a license as such from the California real estate division, and had filed with that department the usual bond required by law, with the defendant Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company, as surety for his good conduct as such real estate agent.

The defendant Burger was a real estate operative, and as far as herein revealed worked with and through the real estate office of defendant Reineeke in Glendale, California. [226]In tbe suit as originally brought, other defendants were named, but they were dismissed from the action.

The plaintiffs sued for moneys they claimed were fraudulently concealed and retained by Reinecke and Burger out of moneys paid for the Arizona lands owned by plaintiffs. They obtained a judgment in the trial court against the last-named defendants for the sum of $2,592, and as against the Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company for $2,000, on the said bond given by Reinecke to the real estate department.

Plaintiffs inserted an advertisement of their lands in a Los Angeles newspaper. A party not now connected with these transactions here involved made contact with the plaintiffs, and brought them to the office of Reinecke and Burger, where plaintiffs began negotiations with said last-named defendants. After several talks with these defendants the plaintiffs gave the said defendants two separate options; one being for $10 per acre and one being for the price of $22',50 per acre. According to plaintiffs’ version the $10 was given first, but a sale thereunder fell through, and then, according to plaintiffs Reinecke and Burger suggested the giving of another option at the price of $22.50 per acre, and they suggested that plaintiffs would receive more for their land and the agents would get a larger commission. Reinecke and Burger at all times made it plain to plaintiffs that they had no money and could not buy the plaintiffs’ lands.

After obtaining the $22.50 option, Reinecke and Burger, through another real estate dealer named Brown, obtained one B. F. Roof as a buyer for the lands at $22.50 per acre. This agent Brown had no interest, financial or otherwise, in the deal, but was acting gratuitously for Reinecke and Burger, and at the request of the latter.