Cowan

This action was brought to recover damages for the alleged breach of a contract. The jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff in the sum of $3,000. Defendants’ motion for a new trial was denied, and they have appealed from the judgment entered on the verdict.

The defendants, who are copartners, were conducting a transfer business between Los Angeles and neighboring cities under the name of Service Motor Express Company. In January, 1923, Carl I. Jacobson—who, as the evidence shows, was the agent of plaintiff—commenced negotiations with defendant Tremble, who was in charge of the partners’ Los Angeles office, for the purchase of the business. An offer of $23,000 was made which, after Tremble had communicated with his partner at Riverside, was accepted. The latter, however, suggested to Tremble that as a condition to the sale the buyer should agree to purchase any additional motor equipment needed in the business which the partners might purchase before the transfer, and also that the sale should not include an adding machine and typewriter owned by the partnership. Subsequently on January 27, .1923, two documents, called escrow instructions, were executed by Jacobson and Tremble…