Cohn

Plaintiff, as the assignee of H. C. Katze and L. G-. Helm, brought this action on a nonnegotiable promissory note for the principal sum of $1,660, and to foreclose a mortgage given to secure its payment. The note and mortgage were executed by defendants, as makers and mortgagors, to Katze and Helm as the payees and mortgagees. Defendants’ answer alleges that the note was given without any consideration therefor and that it was fraudulently procured by the payees. Judgment passed for defendants and plaintiff appeals.

The facts of this case are closely related to those involved in Cham v. Katze et al., ante, p. 615 [ 217 Pac. 578 ], and grow out of the same transaction. The payees, who had been employed by the defendant Joseph Chain as real estate brokers to negotiate for the purchase by him of certain hotel property in the city of Bakersfield, fraudulently represented to the latter that the purchase price was $34,000, whereas its price was but $31,000. Moreover, plaintiff’s assignors, in furtherance of their scheme to defraud these defendants, repudiated their agency as such real estate brokers employed to negotiate for the sale of the property to their principal and represented…