Plaintiff employer sought review of a decision by the Superior Court of Los Angeles County (California), which sustained the demurrer to the complaint, and rendered a judgment against the employer in the employer’s action against defendant employees for damages resulting from the employees’ negligence in the examination and report upon the condition of the title.
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Overview
The employees contended that the employer did not bring the lawsuit until more than two years after the cause of action had accrued, and therefore the statute of limitations barred the lawsuit. The court stated that the contract which was the basis of the employer’s cause of action did not rest in or grow out of the certificate, nor did the certificate contain any obligation or contract that could have been enforced, or which was susceptible of a violation on the part of the employees, or under which any liability could have accrued against them. The obligation assumed by the employees was that created at the time of their acceptance of the employment by the employer, and antedated the making of the certificate. The certificate was not the evidence of this obligation, but was merely evidence of the act done by the employees in purported satisfaction of the obligation assumed by employees in accepting their employment. Consequently, instead of establishing the contract made between the employees and the employer, it was the evidence relied upon by the employer to establish the breach of that contract, and necessarily presumed that the contract was complete before it was given.
Outcome
The court affirmed the judgment sustaining the demurrer to the complaint and rendered against the employer.