Langan

This is an appeal by plaintiff from a judgment entered pursuant to an order granting defendant’s motion for a nonsuit. Among the grounds of the motion was that of failure to show either a sufficient offer to perform the contract which was the basis of the action, or readiness or ability to perform the conditions thereof. The contract declared upon related to the purchase by William H. Cook and S. Webber Parker, through their agent, Gen. William IT. H. Hart, of certain property of the defendant known as the “Mariposa Grant” and situated in Mariposa County, California. The proposed deal fell through and Cook and Webber assigned their rights under the contract to the plaintiff Langan, who began this action for damages for breach of the contract.

The main reliance of the plaintiff was upon an allegation that Cook and Parker having performed all the conditions of the contract binding upon them, the defendant repudiated the contract and refused to perform. The record is voluminous, the evidence consisting of innumerable letters, lengthy documents, and considerable oral testimony. Much space is devoted in the briefs to arguments upon nice questions of technical pleading, mainly directed…