Newberry v. Nozu

BARNARD, P. J. This is an action for the recovery of money had and received. The plaintiffs’ theory was and is that they paid $2,000 to the defendant for the conveyance of an undivided fractional interest in certain land, that the deed they received was issued in violation of the Corporate Securities Act as amended in 1933 and void, and that the defendant, having been unjustly enriched, holds the money for their benefit.

The facts are practically undisputed and may be briefly stated as follows: The defendant owned 160 acres of [362]land in Kern County which she had leased for the purpose of exploring for oil, reserving to herself a one-eighth interest in any oil that might be recovered. She listed forty acres of this land with a real estate agent for sale subject to the oil lease as it affected that part of the land. This real estate agent interested a lawyer named Black in purchasing the forty acres for the price of $13,500. An escrow was opened but the deal fell through. Thereafter, Black again approached the defendant with reference to purchasing the forty acres. She told him that since “you fooled me already” she would sell to him only if and when he put up the money, and sent him to see her lawyer. She then gave Black two weeks in which to put up the money and said she would sell to him if he did so. About two weeks later Black went to the lawyer’s office with $13,500 and offered to deposit it and close the deal. The defendant was called to the office and upon being told that the money was ready indicated that she was ready to sign the necessary papers. Some nine deeds were presented for her signature, which together covered the forty acres, one of them being a deed to the plaintiffs for an 8/100ths interest in the forty acres subject to the oil lease which has been mentioned. The defendant said to Black “Are you going to let me sign all those papers? I thought you were going to buy it”, to which Black replied that he was going to buy it but was selling part of it. She signed the deeds and instructed her attorney to close the deal. Her attorney went to Bakersfield with Black and an escrow was opened with an abstract company. Black signed escrow instructions reciting that he had ■ handed the escrow holder $13,500 which was to be delivered to the defendant when the deeds signed by her were recorded and when title could be shown subject to the previous oil lease. The defendant’s attorney signed an approval of the escrow instructions for her, each paid half of the escrow charges, Black put up. the $13,500, the escrow was closed, the money was paid to the defendant and the deeds were recorded.