Akers

This is an appeal from a judgment in favor of the defendant in an action brought by the plaintiff to recover the sum of three thousand dollars as stipulated damages upon a contract between the defendant and the predecessors in business of the plaintiff made in partial restraint of trade.

The facts of the case are substantially these: Carl Rappe, the defendant in this action, for many years conducted in the city of Watsonville a jewelry store known as Rappe’s Jewelry Store. After building up the business he sold his store and the goodwill of the establishment in the year 1905 to a certain firm, and in connection with the sale entered into a written contract agreeing that he would not engage in the same business in the city of Watsonville for the period of twenty years, either for himself or as the employee of another, and that if he did so he would respond in liquidated damages to the extent of three thousand dollars. The purchasers took possession of the store, and after conducting its business for a time the firm dissolved, and one of its members became the owner of the establishment. Later on he sold to the plaintiff herein, transferring by the sale the goodwill of the…