Thompson

This is an appeal from a judgment declaring the rescission in fact of a contract whereby the predecessor in interest of plaintiff-respondent agreed to sell to Henry Thompson and Jack Edsell the merchantable timber upon land in Mendocino County.

The contract made August 15, 1949, read as follows:

Thompson and Edsell immediately entered the land and began what is referred to as a “split stuff” operation, which consists of felling trees sufficiently clear and choice that the logs may be split into such products as pickets, stakes and shakes. The two men worked together about four weeks and made approximately 5,000 grape stakes. Edsell then became ill and left. He never returned. He testified that when he left he turned everything over to Thompson, saying to him, “Henry, you take over. It’s your[s.” Thompson assented to the arrangement and Edsell left. He does not appear in the picture again until six years later when he was located by appellant Lewis who obtained from him for $250 a quitclaim deed to his interest in the timber. From the testimony of Thompson and Edsell as to Edsell’s abandonment of the enterprise and his statement that he was turning his interest over to Thompson…