Pickwick Stages v. Board of Trustees

Upon a cross-complaint filed by defendant Price in the above-entitled action he, in default of an answer filed by plaintiff, had judgment for compensatory damages in the sum of three thousand five hundred dollars. The court made an omwíbus finding that “each and every allegation, part and paragraph of defendant’s cross-complaint is true in every particular.’’ In paragraph 12 of the cross-complaint it was alleged: “That the further sum of five thousand dollars is' a reasonable sum to be allowed to this cross-plaintiff herein as exemplary damages herein, by way of example and as a punishment for the oppression, fraud and malice practiced, shown and inflicted by cross-defendant upon and toward cross-plaintiff, and hereinbefore particularly set forth and described.”

The contention of appellant is that, inasmuch as the court found that five thousand dollars was a reasonable sum to be allowed to cross-complainant as exemplary damages, he was therefore entitled, upon such finding, to a judgment for said sum, instead of which the court in rendering judgment against plaintiff and for cross-complainant restricted the same to the actual damages sustained from the conduct and acts of…