Estrella Vineyard Co. v. Butler

Action to recover the value of 255,000 pounds of raisins, alleged to be worth $7,650, on account of which plaintiff had received only $4,090.82, leaving due the sum of $3,559.18. The cause was tried by the court with a jury, and plaintiff had a verdict for $2,840, upon which judgment was entered. The appeal is from the judgment and from an order denying motion for a new trial, and comes here on a statement of the case. The complaint sets forth three separate causes of action:

Defendants answered, specifically denying most of the material allegations of the complaint, but admitted the delivery of the raisins and alleged that they were so delivered “to be handled, marketed, and sold by said defendants upon commission, and as the agents and representatives of plaintiff, upon commission”; in an amended answer defendants set up a contract in writing, dated May 11, 1894, between one G. W. Taft and defendants, under which it is alleged that the raisins were delivered to defendants, and not otherwise. This contract provided, in brief, that defendants were to receive the raisins in the sweat-box, and pack and otherwise prepare them for market and sell them upon a commission of five per…