1700 Ocean Avenue Corporation, a California Corporation v. Gbr Associates, a Foreign Corporation

The judgment appealed from is affirmed.

Below, GBR Associates, a Canadian corporation, sued 1700 Ocean Avenue Corporation, a California company, on an express written contract dated October 31, 1960. The case ended up in a judgment for the former against the latter on quantum meruit, the reasonable value of the services.

On October 31,1960, the date of the execution of the contract which became the root of the case, the 1700 Corporation was in a Chapter XI bankruptcy proceeding with a receiver, Irving Sulmeyer, authorized by the court “to continue and carry on the business.” Neither the receiver nor the court actually expressly authorized the signing of the contract by one Mugleston who had purchased all of 1700’s stock which remained in escrow. It was Mugleston who put the corporation into the Chapter XI proceeding. During the receivership, it seems to be conceded, Mugleston was everywhere helping the receiver run the corporation. The officers and directors had not been enjoined from doing such things.

The main asset of the corporation is the Surf Rider Inn Motel in Santa Monica, California. Counsel at argument in this court said that since the inn was built, there have always…