Collins

Appeal from a judgment for the defendant, an order denying the plaintiff’s motion for a new trial, and an order denying the plaintiff’s motion to vacate the judgment and to enter a judgment in its favor. The suit was brought for breach of an agreement of the defendant with plaintiff’s assignor, of date October 1, 1903, for the lease of a lot of land in the city of Los Angeles near the northeast corner of Third and Olive streets, with a hotel building thereon to be constructed, according to the plans and specifications specified, under the following provision of the contract : ‘ ‘ Said first party agrees to complete said building and have it ready for occupancy by the first day of February, 1904, unless he shall be prevented by strikes, accidents, or other causes beyond his control; and if for any reason said first party shall not have completed said hotel by the first day of February, 1904, he agrees to complete it and deliver possession thereof as soon thereafter as possible.”

The agreement sued on is in the form of a lease, delivered in escrow to the Title Insurance and Trust Company, for delivery to the plaintiff within thirty days after the completion of the hotel, upon the…