Heard

The plaintiff commenced an action against the defendant to recover the amount due on a promissory note. The defendant appeared and answered; a trial was had before the judge sitting without a jury, and from a judgment in favor "of the plaintiff the defendant has appealed under section 953a of the Code of Civil Procedure.

As stated by the appellant the record presents two points: First, was fraud proved or shown with respect to appellant; second, were certain findings supported by the evidence. Prior to the first day of June, 1921, C. R. Tate and J. E. Nichols were real estate agents. At that time Edith M. Heard, the mother of the plaintiff, was the owner of lands in the city of Santa Cruz of an alleged value of $45,000, mortgaged in the sum of $6,000: At the same time the defendant was the owner of lands in San Joaquin County of an alleged value of $20,000, mortgaged in the sum of $18,000. Thereafter J.-E. Nichols asked Mrs. Heard to employ him as agent to negotiate an exchange, which she did, and as a result of the employment her lands were exchanged for the defendant’s lands and a part of the payment was the promissory note for the face value of $1,000 which is involved in this…