35 P. 151 | Cal. | 1893
In April, 1888, one Buell was the owner of an interest in certain lands in Los Angeles county and the defendant was the owner of a similar interest therein. The defendant was a resident of California, but was at that time in Louisville, Kentucky, where he had formerly resided, and where the plaintiff was then residing. He had known the plaintiff and had been on friendly terms with him for many years, and while there represented to him and one Curtice that Buell would sell his interest in the lands for $2,750, and urged them to purchase this interest, representing that it was of
The rule is so familiar as to be trite that the obligation of an agent to his principal demands of him the strictest integrity and the most faithful service. He is not permitted to acquire any adverse interest in the subject matter of the agency, and is accountable to his principal for any gains that he may have made in violation of those obligations. So long as he retains his position of agent he is accountable to his principal for all property which he may have received from him with which to carry out the purpose of his agency, and for the faithful disposition of his - property in accordance with the principal’s directions. The defendant herein must be regarded as the agent of the plaintiff in all his transactions respecting the purchase of the lands in question. He had undertaken to effect the transfer of Buell’s interest in the' lands to the plaintiff and Curtice as their agent, and while that relation existed between them he was not at liberty to acquire any interest in the lands adverse to them. Even if it had been established at the trial that he had made a contract in his own name for the purchase from Buell of this interest, his relation to the plaintiff and Curtice would have made him a trustee of that interest for their benefit. In the first letter which he wrote to the plaintiff upon his return to California, in which
The proposition of the appellant that the plaintiff cannot recover the amount of the draft without tendering to the defendant an assignment or reconveyance of any interest he may have in the lands cannot be maintained. The relation of vendor and vendee never existed between them, nor was there ever any contract between them which required a rescission. The defendant could not, as we have seen, so long as he held the relation of agent to the plaintiff for the purchase of these lands from Buell, acquire any interest therein which he could hold as against his principals, or of which he could become the vendor. Equally untenable is the proposition that, inasmuch
We concur: Garoutte, J.; Paterson, J.