Ferrara

The present appeals were consolidated upon request of the parties. In No. 24443, plaintiff Nicolas Ferrara, a Los Angeles attorney, and his wife sought recovery of the unpaid balance on a promissory note for $6,776.77 (payable in $250 monthly installments) executed by defendants La Sala and Poole Truck Lines, a corporation, of which company the La Salas and Ferrara were stockholders and officers; a second count against Poole Truck Lines only, was for sums assertedly due under a lease of certain realty owned by Mrs. Ferrara. The corporation defaulted. The answer of the La Salas admitted delivery of the note and payment of $1,250 thereunder but denied the complaint’s allegations concerning defendants’ execution of the note, their promise to pay and their default in payment. Various affirmative defenses were interposed; thus, in addition to the bare claim that the La Salas signed the instrument solely as representatives of the corporation, it was alleged that Ferrara and the La Salas came to an oral agreement whereby the former would sell them his stock and receive payment therefor out of available company funds only, that Ferrara would forego payment in the absence of such funds and…