Spitzer

This action was instituted by the plaintiff to recover from the defendant the sum of one thousand dollars, alleged to have been received by it for the use and benefit of the plaintiff and to have been unpaid to him upon demand. The answer consists in a denial that the defendant received the said sum or any part thereof for the use of the plaintiff.

Upon the trial of the cause the following facts appeared: The plaintiff, who resided in the east, had come out to California about a year before the episode occurred out of which this action arose, and while here had fallen afoul of some “bunco-men,” who “buncoed” him out of the sum of about two thousand eight hundred dollars. He went home, but about a year later returned with the resolution and intent of trying to recover his lost money. He presently fell in with another “bunco” sharp, who, under the pretense of co-operating with him in betting on a horse-race, handed him a thousand dollars in bills. Instead of betting on the horse-race the plaintiff went to the police department in Oakland with a view to procuring the arrest of the bunco-men. The officer in charge demanded that he leave the money in the hands of the police department…