Fox

This action was brought by plaintiff, appellant herein, to recover judgment on a promissory note for five thousand dollars, dated May 13, 1913, executed by defendant Alex T. Crane, and made payable one year after date to the order of C. W. McKee and Kit Carson, defendants herein. Before maturity the note was indorsed and delivered to appellant, together with three other promissory notes, the four notes amounting to the sum of fourteen thousand five hundred dollars. These notes were transferred by defendant Crane to plaintiff in payment for certain real property situated in the city of San Diego. To secure their payment a declaration of trust was entered into by the parties, under which the property was conveyed to a certain trust company, to be held by it in trust and until the notes were paid, or to be sold by the company in the event of the nonpayment thereof. For failure to pay two of the notes when they became due the trust company sold the real property as provided by the terms of the declaration of trust.

As a defense to the note sued upon defendant claimed that it was non-negotiable and that he had been induced to execute the same through fraud on the part of the payees.…