Haight v. Stewart

172 P. 769, 36 Cal. App. 514, 1918 Cal. App. LEXIS 594
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 15, 1918
DocketCiv. No. 1781.
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 172 P. 769 (Haight v. Stewart) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Haight v. Stewart, 172 P. 769, 36 Cal. App. 514, 1918 Cal. App. LEXIS 594 (Cal. Ct. App. 1918).

Opinion

HART, J.

George W. Haight and his wife, Mary Setchel Haight, commenced the action for the purpose of having rescinded a certain contract between the plaintiff, George W. Haight, and the defendant, W. H. Stewart, and to have declared null and vo.id two certain deeds of conveyance. After *515 the trial of the case, and before judgment was entered, George W. Haight died and his executor, Samuel C. Haight, was substituted as one of the plaintiffs.

The complaint shows that during the month of November, 1911, George W. Haight and W. K. Stewart were negotiating for an exchange of certain properties. On the 22d of November, they entered into a written agreement by which said Haight agreed to convey to Stewart a tract of land situated in Glenn County, consisting of 760 acres, and Stewart agreed to convey to Haight his interest in certain lands in Mendocino County, subject to certain specified encumbrances, and also to deliver to him twenty-seven bonds of the par value of one thousand dollars each of the Western Consolidated Coal, Gas, and Electric Company (hereinafter called “the bonds”). The transaction was consummated on the twenty-seventh day of November, 1911, by the delivery to defendant, Myrtle J. Stewart, wife of W. H. Stewart, of a deed, executed by George W. Haight and his wife, conveying the Glenn County lands, and by the execution and delivery by said Stewart to George W. Haight of an assignment of all his right, title, and interest in and to the certificate of purchase of the Mendocino County lands, subject to certain encumbrances therein specified, and by the delivery to said Haight of twenty-seven bonds of said corporation.

On December 18, 1911, defendants, Myrtle J. Stewart and W. H. Stewart, conveyed the Glenn County lands to J. L. Stewart, the father of W. H. Stewart.

It is charged in the complaint that the above-described transaction was brought about by and through the false statements and representations of W. H. Stewart to George W. Haight; that said Stewart represented to said Haight that he had title to the Mendocino County lands, whereas, the title to said lands was never at any time vested in Stewart, but that the same was, at the time of the transfer, and still is, in the United States government; that Stewart stated and represented to said Haight that the bonds were of the actual value of six hundred dollars each and that he (said Stewart) had a short time previously to the transaction involved herein sold some of said bonds at that price; that said bonds were then “and now” of no value whatever and are wholly worthless for any purpose. It is alleged that said Haight, believing, accepting, and relying *516 upon the false statements and representations so made to him by Stewart, on the twenty-second day of November, 1911, entered into and subscribed to the written agreement with said Stewart above mentioned, and on the twenty-seventh day of November, 1911, in pursuance of said agreement, conveyed and transferred his Glenn County lands to said Myrtle J. Stewart. It is alleged that the said Myrtle 3". Stewart knew that the statements and representations made by W. H. Stewart to said Haight were false and untrue when they were so made. It is further alleged that the said Haight, at the time of the transaction, was sick, physically and mentally, and that his mental strength had been prior to the time of the said transaction, and was at said time, greatly weakened. The complaint states that the said Haight and his wife, Mary S. Haight, the other plaintiff herein, did not know or have any knowledge that the said statements and representations made by the said W. H. Stewart at the time above mentioned respecting the bonds and the Mendocino County lands were not true until the fourteenth day of March, 1912, when they learned that said statements and representations were wholly false and untrue and that the said bonds were absolutely worthless and that the title to the Mendocino lands was still in the United States government, and not in the said W. H. Stewart. It is alleged that due notice to both W. H. Stewart and Myrtle J. Stewart was thereafter given by said Haight that he rescinded the transfer of the Glenn County lands and that said Haight offered to restore to the Stewarts everything of value he had received from them under the agreement of November 22, 1911.

A demurrer to the complaint on general and special grounds was overruled, and the defendants thereupon answered, denying specifically the averments of the complaint and affirmatively stating facts disclosing the nature of the transaction and the circumstances under which it was brought about.

The court, briefly stated, found: 1. That, on November 22, 1911, George W. Haight was the owner and in the possession of 760 acres of land in Glenn County, having a market value of eleven thousand four hundred dollars; 2. That, on said date, W. H. Stewart was in possession of, and had an interest in, the Mendocino County lands described in the complaint under a certificate of purchase from the state of *517 California, numbered 15,955, which said interest was of the value of six thousand dollars, and subject to the following encumbrances: A certain mortgage thereon to one V. W. Liston, amounting to $350; a certain trust deed thereon to one H. S. Bridge in the sum of $450; delinquent taxes amounting to $250; the balance of the purchase price due to the state of California on said lands, amounting to the sum of $340; and the sum of .one hundred dollars due to one H. S. Beadle, constituting a lien upon said premises; 3. That said Stewart, on the twenty-second day of November, 1911, was the owner and did own twenty-seven bonds of the Western Consolidated Coal, Gas, and Electric Company, having a nominal par value of one thousand dollars each; that said bonds had no cash market value, but that they did have a “speculative or trading value”; 4. That George W. Haight and wife conveyed the Glenn lands to Myrtle J. Stewart at the request of W. H. Stewart, and received in exchange therefor the twenty-seven bonds of the Western Consolidated . . . Company, and a conveyance of all W. H. Stewart’s interest in and to the Mendocino lands; 5. That in the negotiations culminating in the agreement of November 22, 1911, W. H. Stewart told George W. Haight that said bonds were of the value of six hundred dollars each, and that he (Stewart) believed they were worth six hundred dollars each, but that said Stewart did not tell said Haight, as the complaint alleges, that the said bonds were of the reasonable market value of six hundred dollars each, and could actually be sold for said sum; and that said Stewart did not tell said Haight, as the complaint charges, that he (Stewart) was well acquainted with the value of the said bonds, and that he had, at a time immediately preceding said twenty-second day of November, 1911, actually sold said bonds for said sum .pf six hundred dollars' each, and that said bonds were then actually being sold and could be sold for said sum; 6. That no fraud was practiced or perpetrated on Haight by Stewart, and that Haight was not induced or influenced to enter into and carry out the agreement of November 22, 1911, through any fraud or misrepresentation ‘on the part of W. H. Stewart; 7. That, at the time the above contract was entered into, George W. Haight’s health and mentality were weakened, but not to such an extent that he did not fully know and understand the details of the trans

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Thompson v. Thompson
247 Cal. App. 2d 339 (California Court of Appeal, 1966)
Estrin v. Superior Court
96 P.2d 340 (California Supreme Court, 1939)
Lacey v. McConnell
48 P.2d 161 (California Court of Appeal, 1935)
Potter-Huffman Land & Livestock Co. v. Witcher
291 P. 725 (California Court of Appeal, 1920)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
172 P. 769, 36 Cal. App. 514, 1918 Cal. App. LEXIS 594, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/haight-v-stewart-calctapp-1918.