Fairchild v. Van De Nor Lumber Co.

California Court of Appeal Jan 24, 1958 No. Civ. No. 9266Published

Before: Dyke

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Holding. The court held that when a contract is ambiguous, the trial court's reasonable construction of the agreement based on extrinsic evidence will be upheld on appeal, particularly when the record is limited to the judgment roll.

Issues

Whether the trial court's construction of an ambiguous assignment contract regarding weekly payment obligations was reasonable.
Whether a judgment roll appeal requires the appellate court to assume the existence of evidence supporting the trial court's findings.

Disposition. affirmed

Quotations verified verbatim against the opinion

“A reading of the basic document discloses that it is uncertain and ambiguous in its meaning as to how much money becoming due to Ronfeldt and Frazier for logs delivered to Van De Nor Lumber Company should be paid under the assignment.”

“On this judgment roll appeal we must assume that there was evidence warranting the court’s construction of the contract as reflected in its findings.”

“Therefore, since the construction adopted is reasonable and does no necessary violence to the written words, we must accept that construction as proper and must, therefore, affirm the judgment.”

VAN DYKE, P. J. It appears herein that plaintiff-appellant’s assignor, Fairchild and Black, rented a tractor to Ronfeldt and Frazier for a rental of $300 per week; that Fairchild and Black owed money to Howard-Cooper Corporation; that Ronfeldt and Frazier were delivering logs to Van De Nor Lumber Company. Under these circumstances, and under date of October 28, 1954, Ronfeldt. and Frazier ad[165]dressed a communication to Van De Nor Lumber Company, reading as follows:

“Van De Nor Lumber Company

Areata, California

Gentlemen :

“We, the undersigned, have made an agreement with Fair-child and Black, Areata, California, to pay to Howard-Cooper Corporation of California, Eureka, California the sum of $300.00 each week for three months.

“This payment is to be made from logs delivered by us to your company and should be deducted from our account and paid to Howard-Cooper Corporation of California before any payment is made to us. This should be made each week and mailed to Howard-Cooper Corporation of California, Box 161, Eureka, California.

“You may use this as your authorization to proceed as outlined above.

Signed,

Van De Nor Lumber Company

D. S. Norris_

Ernie Ronfeldt

Harold Frazier

Harold Frazier”

Van De Nor Lumber Company accepted the order on October 30th. Thereafter and as logs were delivered Van De Nor Lumber Company made a number of payments to Howard-Cooper Corporation. Then Howard-Cooper Corporation instructed Van De Nor Lumber Company to make all further payments to Fairchild and Black and within the unexpired period of the order Van De Nor Lumber Company did make payments to Fairchild and Black. Fairchild and Black, claiming that they had not received all the money accruing to them, assigned their claim to plaintiff-appellant herein who brought this action against Van De Nor Lumber Company.

The trial court found that on October 22, 1954, Fairchild and Black, as lessors, had leased to Ronfeldt and Frazier a tractor at a weekly rental of $300 per week; that thereafter Fairchild and Black assigned to Howard-Cooper Corporation their right for three months to receive the sum of $300 a week and that the assignment was accepted by Ronfeldt and

Fairchild v. Van De Nor Lumber Co.

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