Corvin

Respondents brought their action against appellants for $2,000 alleged to be due them as a real estate commission on an exchange of appellants’ property effected through their agency. The answer of appellants denied generally the allegations of the complaint. It contained a special defense of fraud on the part of respondents in the execution of an agreement whereby appellants promised to pay them a commission of $2,000, and a further defense of the statute of frauds. The trial court gave judgment in favor of respondents in the sum of $2,000, from which appellants have prosecuted this appeal.

The evidence shows that appellants were copartners doing business under the firm name of the Union Realty Company and as such had a broker’s license issued to them by the real estate commissioner of the state of California for the year 1927. They employed B. C. Adams as a salesman, who was licensed as such by the real estate commissioner.

Some weeks prior to August 23, 1927, Adams contacted C. R. Smead, and was employed by him to effect a sale or exchange of appellants’ property, for which services Smead orally agreed to pay a commission of $2,000. Adams brought Smead and William D. House…