Valdes v. Larrinaga

Citations

• 233 U.S. 705
• 34 S. Ct. 750
• 58 L. Ed. 1163
• 1914 U.S. LEXIS 1177

Syllabus

<p>Although the contract for participation in profits involved in this case may not have created a partnership, as defined under § 1567, Civil Code of Porto Rico, it gave the party entitled to participate an equitable interest in the property involved which attached specifically to the profits when they came into being. Barnes v. Alexander, 232 U. S. 117.</p> <p>In such a case, if the party having, the legal control of the property and profits abuses the fiduciary relation created by the contract, equitable relief is proper.</p> <p>In this ease it does not appear that the contract under which one who had formerly occupied a government office in Porto Rico rendered services in connection with obtaining a franchise from the loeáí and Federal governments was improper or against public policy. Hazelton v. Sheckells, 202 U. S. 71, distinguished.</p> <p>In this case held, that notwithstanding the forfeiture of an original grant and the final sale relating to a new but similar grant, as there was a continuous pursuit of the end achieved, one who was entitled to a share in the profits of the enterprise as originally conceived was entitled to share in the proceeds.</p> <p>Where no error of magnitude is made by the court below in construing a contract for services executed in a foreign language and establishing the amount due thereunder, and only a translation of the contract is before this court, the decree will not be reversed.</p>