Adler

This is an action upon a contract to recover liquidated damages.

The portions of plaintiff’s complaint necessary to consider in the decision of this cause are: —

The complaint further alleges that plaintiff, in pursuance of the covenants in said agreement, demanded of said defendant, prior to January 1, 1889, said 187,500 bags, and defendant, at that time, had said bags in his possession, but neglected and refused to deliver them to plaintiff.

The answer of defendant practically admits the allegations of the complaint, and sets out certain matters in avoidance, as a speojal defense, to the effect “that plaintiff, through its board of directors, about the sixteenth day of May, 1888, devised a scheme to control the sale and supply of all or the greater portion of the grain-bags and burlaps which were then within the state of California, or to arrive prior to January 1, 1889, for the purpose of increasing the price of bags and burlaps, and of limiting the number of dealers from whom such bags could be obtained, and compelling the farmers of this state to purchase said bags from plaintiff, at a price in excess of their real value; that the demand in this state for such bags and…