Donegan

This is an action to recover for grading and excavating done by plaintiff for defendants on fifteen acres of land in the city of Los Angeles. Judgment was for plaintiff and defendants appeal from the judgment and order denying a new trial.

The complaint alleges the cause of action in the following language: “Now comes the plaintiff and says that within the last two years past, he did grading and excavating for the defendants, for which they agreed to pay him the sum of six thousand one hundred seventy-three dollars. ’ ’

By answer, counterclaim and cross-complaint defendants set out a special contract in writing between plaintiff and defendants, under which, it is alleged, all the grading and excavating involved in this action was done by plaintiff. By the terms of this contract the grading was to be done to the satisfaction of one S. 0. Wood, civil engineer, and be testified to by his certificate in writing. It is alleged that plaintiff failed to perform his part of the contract in time, or at all, was unable to procure the certificate of the engineer, and abandoned the Avork and failed to complete it; that defendants were compelled to expend certain sums in finishing portions…