Sherwood

This appeal is from a judgment in favor of the defendant in an action instituted by the plaintiffs for the purpose of having their promissory note and mortgage, in the hands of the defendant, so reformed as to express the amount actually due upon said note and to secure that amount.

The defendant was the holder of said note and mortgage by virtue of an assignment to her of the same from the original payee thereof. The facts attending the execution of these instruments by the plaintiffs are undisputed and may be summarized as follows: On August 1, 1917, the plaintiffs executed and delivered to one Joseph M. Gore their promissory note for the sum of $2,300 and interest, due three years after date, giving as security for said note their mortgage upon a certain piece of real estate in Los Angeles County, which mortgage was recorded upon the date of its execution. The transaction upon the face of these instruments appeared to be a straight loan of $2,300 to the plaintiffs, but it appeared at the trial that the money for which said note and mortgage were given was to be used by said plaintiffs in erecting two buildings upon the mortgaged premises, and was to be advanced from time to…