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3 Cal. 292

Stone v. Fouse

California Supreme Court

Decided October 15, 1853

California Supreme Court · decided 1853-10-15

The complaint in this case was founded upon an agreement between the plaintiffs and defendants, which is set forth in the complaint, and which states that the plaintiffs and defendants had formed a company, called “ The Empire Water and Mining Company,” to be held in shares, the plaintiffs to hold five shares, and the defendants nine shares, divided between them, the whole number making fourteen shares, the property of the company.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1853-10-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 7 later decisions — most recently November 1996

5 state decisions

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Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Heydenfeldt, Justice,

¶1delivered the opinion of the court. Wells, Justice, concurred.

¶2The District Judge sustained the demurrer, on the ground that one of the plaintiffs’ propositions for relief was such as can only be sought in a court of law, and the other only in a court of chancery. In this I think he is clearly in error. Although the written contract between the parties contains a covenant for stipulated damages, yet it is by this same contract that they are constituted partners, and partners cannot sue one another at law, in respect to any of the business or undertakings of the partnership.

¶3It can only be done in chancery, by asking a dissolution and account. In such a proceeding, if by the failure to perform covenants, damages accrue, which would be legally considered as liquidated, they could be easily adjusted by a court of equity, and no question would be left for a jury to pass upon. Or in the event the damages are held to be unliquidated, an issue would be directed out of chancery, in order to have them ascertained by a jury. It is very certain that the plaintiffs cannot sue upon this contract in any form, without seeking an account and dissolution.

¶4Judgment reversed and remanded.

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