Stowe

This action is one to recover the selling price of a crop of oranges alleged to have been sold to defendant, but which, for reasons which are shown by the evidence, was never delivered. Judgment went for plaintiff, and defendant appeals.

Appellant contends that several of the findings of the trial court were unsupported by the evidence. Whether some of them were supported depends upon a purely legal question: Was the contract for the sale of the fruit within the statute of frauds? Section 1624 of the Civil Code, subdivision 4, is pointed to as the enactment under which it is said that the agreement was invalid. The section provides what contracts must be in writing, and subdivision 4, so far as its language is material here, reads: “An agreement for the sale of goods, chattels, or things in action, at a price not less than two hundred dollars, unless the buyer accepts or receives part of such goods and chattels ... or pays at the time some part of the purchase-money ...”

The evidence in the present case plainly shows—in truth, it is conceded by counsel—that the selling price of the oranges was much more than $200, and it is equally certain that the contract was not in writing.…