Stebbins

The transcript in this case contains seven hundred and forty-five pages of manuscript, seven hundred of which might have been omitted without detriment to the appellant. The action is for an accounting and settlement touching a certain contract, for the construction of a prison wall, between plaintiff and defendants on the one part, and the state of California on the other. The case was tried by a referee, who found for plaintiff, in twenty-three distinct findings, and reported a judgment in his favor for the sum of thirteen thousand seven hundred and fourteen dollars and sixty-three cents, subject to a credit of one thousand dollars if paid by defendant Dali. The defendants moved for a new trial upon the grounds: First. That the evidence is insufficient to sustain the findings. Second. Errors of law occurring at the trial and excepted to by defendants.

There is, neither in the notice of motion for new trial, nor in the statement, a specification of the errors upon which the appellants rely for a new trial; nor is there any specification of the findings which they claim to be contrary to the evidence. This motion was made under the law of 1861 (Stats. 1861, p. 590), which…