Thompson V. Moore

CURTIS, J. Plaintiffs were the owners of a house and lot in San Francisco. The defendants owned a tract of land containing 41.5 acres situated in the county of Yolo. They exchanged their respective properties upon a basis of a valuation of $4,500, assuming each piece of property to be clear of encumbrances. Plaintiffs' property in San Francisco was subject to a mortgage given to secure a promissory note for $1697.43.Defendants paid plaintiffs the sum of $102.57. These two items amounted to $1800, and, to offset them, the plaintiffs executed and delivered to the defendants their promissory note for $1800, and secured the same by a trust deed on the Yolo County  property. After the completion of this exchange, the plaintiffs instituted this action, claiming that by reason of certain false and fraudulent representations made by defendants in respect to the Yolo County property they had been materially damaged. The original complaint was simply an action to quiet title to real property. Thereafter, plaintiffs filed an amended complaint consisting of two counts. The first count was like that contained in the original complaint, an action to quiet title to real property (the Yolo County property). In the second count it was alleged that the defendants were the owners of the Yolo County property and that it was reasonably worth the sum of $1452.50 and no more, but that had it been of the kind and character represented by the defendants it would have been worth the sum of $4,500; that plaintiffs were the owners of the San Francisco property and it was reasonably worth the sum of $4,500 with a mortgage thereon in the sum of $1697.43; that the Yolo County property as represented by defendants exceeded in value plaintiffs' San Francisco property in at least the sum of $1800; that in order to make up the difference in value between the Yolo County property as represented by the defendants and the true value of plaintiffs' San Francisco property, the plaintiffs executed and delivered to the defendants their promissory note for $1800 and a trust deed upon the Yolo County property to secure the payment of said promissory note. Then follows a statement of the representations, which the plaintiffs allege were made to them by the defendants; that they were false and fraudulently made, and that the defendants knew of their falsity at the time they were made; that plaintiffs did not, but believed they were true, and would not have made said exchange had they not