Dickey v. Gibson

45 P. 15, 113 Cal. 26, 1896 Cal. LEXIS 739
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedMay 26, 1896
DocketSac. No. 105
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 45 P. 15 (Dickey v. Gibson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dickey v. Gibson, 45 P. 15, 113 Cal. 26, 1896 Cal. LEXIS 739 (Cal. 1896).

Opinion

Searls, C.

This is an action to foreclose a mortgage. Plaintiff had judgment of foreclosure, and Crecencia Gibson, as executrix, appeals.

The contention of the appellant is, that a portion of the mortgaged premises were, and are, the homestead of said appellant and of Samuel Gibson, her testator, and that, as to such homestead, the mortgage of the plaintiff and respondent herein never was, and is not now, a lien thereon.

The following facts will serve to illustrate the contention:

In April, 1875, Samuel Gibson was the owner of all the land described in the mortgage herein, and resided thereon with his then wife, Guadalupe Gibson, and their two minor children. The land was the separate [29]*29property of said Samuel Gibson, acquired by him before marriage.

On the sixteenth day of April, 1875, and while so residing thereon, the said Gibson and his said wife made, executed, acknowledged, and filed for record, in due form, in the county of Stanislaus, where said land is situate, their declaration of homestead upon all of said land, the value of which was, and is, less than $5,000. Subsequently, and during the life of said wife, said Samuel Gibson and Guadalupe Gibson, his wife, sold and conveyed a portion of said homestead. In 1879 the said wife, Guadalupe Gibson, died.

On or about February 18, 1882, Samuel Gibson intermarried with Crecencia Gibson, the appellant herein, and they have since resided upon the premises in question with the two minor children of the first marriage, and with six minor children, the fruit of the second marriage. Subsequent to the second marriage (probably) Samuel Gibson repurchased the land so sold by him and his first wife, Guadalupe.

On the second day of December, 1889, the plaintiff and respondent herein loaned to said Samuel Gibson $5,700, and the latter made to said plaintiff his promissory note therefor, payable one year after date, with interest at eight and one-half per cent per annum, compounded annually, etc., and, to secure the payment of said promissory note, said Gibson executed his mortgage to plaintiff on all the land referred to herein, including that sold and reconveyed to said Gibson, as well as the homestead premises. The mortgage was recorded.

On the twenty-eighth day of May, 1894, at the county of Stanislaus, state of California, said Samuel Gibson departed this life, leaving a last will under which Crecencia Gibson was nominated as executrix, and such proceedings were thereafter had that the said last will was duly admitted to probate, and said Crecencia Gibson duly appointed executrix thereof, and she duly qualified as such executrix, and still is acting as such. [30]*30Crecencia Gibson, the appellant here, did not execute the mortgage or receive any portion of the consideration of the note which it was given to secure.

Respondent presented his claim to the executrix for allowance, and then brought this action to foreclose, waiving, in his complaint, all recourse against any other property of the estate, except the mortgaged premises.

By the decree, the court ordered a sale of the property, other than the alleged homestead, to be first made, and then the homestead premises, if necessary to satisfy the demand of plaintiff.

Section 1265 of the Civil Code, as amended in 1880, provides as follows in reference to homesteads: From and after the time the declaration is filed for record, the premises therein described constitute a homestead. If the selection was made by a married person from the community property, the land, on the death of either of the spouses, vests in the survivor, subject to no other liability than such as exists or has been created under the provisions of this title [Civ. Code, div. II, pt. IV, title V]; in other cases, upon the death of the person whose property was selected as a homestead, it shall go to his heirs or devisees, subject to the power of the superior court to assign the same for a limited period to the family of the decedent; but in no case shall it be held liable for the debts of the owner, except as provided in this title.”

As will be observed from the foregoing section, upon the death of either spouse, a homestead declared upon community property vests absolutely in the survivor.

In the hands of such survivor it is protected against enforced sale, precisely as before it had been protected to the community by its homestead character. (Sanders v. Russell, 86 Cal. 119; 21 Am. St. Rep. 26; Estate of Burdick, 76 Cal. 639; Sheehy v. Miles, 93 Cal. 288; Tyrrell v. Baldwin, 78 Cal. 470.)

Prior to the amendment of 1880, and under the law of 1862, the homestead, in such cases, went to the survivor, subject to forced sale for debts accruing after the [31]*31death of the other spouse. (Watson v. His Creditors, 58 Cal. 556.)

When, as in this case, the homestead is selected from the separate property of the husband, who joined in its selection as a homestead, then, upon the death of the wife, it goes absolutely to the surviving husband. (Estate of Croghan, 92 Cal. 370; Code Civ. Proc., sec. 1474.)

The title to the homestead property, then, vested absolutely in Samuel Gibson at the death of his first wife, Guadalupe Gibson, in 1879, which was some ten years prior to the making of the note and execution of the mortgage herein. Could he then execute a valid mortgage on the homestead premises? We think this question must be answered in the affirmative.

By the death of the first wife the homestead property vested absolutely in the surviving hnsband, Samuel Gibson. As far as the legal title is concerned, it vested in him as fully and perfectly as though no homestead had ever been carved out of it. The limitations and immunities which accompanied the enjoyment of the property under such title, modified, not the title, but its enjoyment, and were only such as the statute imposed. Save as to these limitations and immunities, the homestead ceased to exist.

It was also, under section 1474, exempt from the payment of any debt or liability contracted by or existing against either the husband or wife, or either of them, previous to or at the death of such husband or wife, except as provided in the Civil Code. (Code Civ. Proc., sec. 1474.)

The Civil Code provides the manner by which the homestead may be sold, abandoned, or encumbered. (Civ. Code, sec. 1240-44.)

The legislature evidently contemplated that cases would arise in which third persons would succeed by purchase to the rights and title of successors to homesteads, for it is provided by section 1435 of the Code of Civil Procedure, that such purchasers “ shall have all [32]*32the rights and benefits conferred by law on the persons whose interests and rights they acquire.”

Herrold v. Reen, 58 Cal. 443, was a case in which a homestead was declared by husband and wife upon community property under the act of 1860.

In 1862 the statute was so amended that it provided, as at present, that upon the death of the husband or wife the property, as at present, vested in the survivor. The husband died subsequently to this amendment.

Under the act of 1862, as at present, in order to constitute a valid mortgage on the homestead, it was necessary for the spouses to co-operate.

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Bluebook (online)
45 P. 15, 113 Cal. 26, 1896 Cal. LEXIS 739, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dickey-v-gibson-cal-1896.