Hesse

The complaint alleges that the defendant agreed to pay plaintiff’s assignor $1500 “from a special fund, then and there being by said defendant and one J. E. Lee provided for that purpose, said payment to be made by the said defendant immediately upon receipt by defendant of said fund which said fund was ... in the amount of $7000.00 or thereabouts”; that the defendant thereafter received such fund but refused to pay plaintiff the sum promised and converted the fund to its own use; “that the said special fund consisted of moneys then due and payable by the California State Highway Commission on account of the contract of said J. E. Lee with said commission for the construction” of a certain highway. The answer denies the allegations of the complaint. The court found the foregoing allegations of the complaint to be untrue and rendered judgment for the defendant.

The defendant was supplying Lee with money to carry on his highway contract and had furnished him large sums for that purpose, taking as security a mortgage on his personal property, tools, and equipment and an assignment of moneys due and to become due under the contract. Lee had purchased two trucks from plaintiff’s…