Milton G. Cooper & Son, Inc. v. William R. Davis & Brother, Inc.

Plaintiff corporation, which has its principal place of business in Los Angeles, was at all times material to this case and until about January 25, 1926, a member of an unincorporated association of merchants known as the San Francisco Board of Trade (which will be hereinafter referred to as the board). For some time prior to the month of August, 1925, William E. Davis and Brother, Inc., a corporation (hereinafter called the defendant), had been engaged in the conduct of a department store on Mission Street in San Francisco. On August 5, 1925, a meeting of the creditors of the defendant was held at the office of the board at San Francisco for the purpose of considering defendant’s affairs. The creditors represented at the meeting consisted of both members and nonmembers of the board, and their claims comprised approximately eighty per cent of defendant’s indebtedness. At this meeting a committee, consisting of the representatives of both the members and • nonmembers was appointed. The committee proceeded to take an inventory of defendant’s property, and negotiations commenced which resulted in an offer of settlement being made to the committee by the defendant of a sum sufficient…