King v. San Jose Keystone Mining Co.

THE COURT. Plaintiff and respondent recovered a judgment for a balance due for services performed for defendants and appellants herein, and the sole question raised on this appeal is as to the sufficiency of the evidence to support the findings.

Plaintiff alleged that ‘ ‘ commencing on the 6th day of May, 1936, and continuing to and including the 24th day of January, 1938, in the County of Placer, State of California, at the special instance and request of the defendants San Jose Keystone Mining Company, H. Bert Walton and C. B. Wooster, and each of them, and upon the promise of the said last-named defendants, as hereinafter set forth, the plaintiff performed work and labor for the defendants in and about that certain mining property known as the San Jose Keystone Mine, which said work consisted of surveying above and underground, drawing plans and working maps of said mine, and the real property upon which it is situate, drawing plans for compressor house and ore bin, felling trees, installing air and water pipeline, installing electric motors, telephone system and wire lines, buying supplies, and like services required in the preparation of said property for mining-operations and the commencement of mining operations; that all of said work and labor was done and performed on said San Jose Keystone Mining property.” It was further alleged that defendants promised, at the time of the commencement of the work, to pay therefor at the rate of $180 a month, and that after allowing deductions for time off, plaintiff was entitled to compensation for worldng eighteen months and nine days. Plaintiff admitted receipt of $250 in cash, stock worth $250, and board and lodging- valued at $120.

Defendant denied the existence of an agreement to pay plaintiff a fixed salary; admitted that plaintiff worked on the mine but alleged that he had been paid in full. A counterclaim for $149.50 for the use of a tractor was set up and allowed by the court.

The court found that all the facts alleged in the complaint were true, except that the work was not done at the special instance and request of H. Bert Walton and C. B. Wooster, individually. Judgment was given for $1,063.

We have, then, the simple question: How much, if anything, was plaintiff entitled to recover for the services rendered ?

[42]Considering the total credits admitted by plaintiff, the amount of the judgment and the counterclaim allowed, and the finding that plaintiff was entitled to compensation at the rate of $180 a month, it appears that the court determined the total value of the services rendered to be $1,840.50. To have earned this amount, at the foregoing rate, plaintiff must have worked a little more than ten months and six days.