In re Estate of Hale

2 Coffey 191
CourtSuperior Court of California, County of San Francisco
DecidedMarch 22, 1906
DocketNo. 13,439
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 2 Coffey 191 (In re Estate of Hale) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Estate of Hale, 2 Coffey 191 (Cal. Super. Ct. 1906).

Opinion

COFFEY, J.

Josephine C. H. Boyle, the daughter of the deceased, and one of the principal legatees and devisees in his will, and Anais Hale, his surviving wife, filed herein a petition for the final distribution of the above entitled estate. It is claimed in the prayer of the petition, upon the facts therein set forth, that the entire estate should be distributed one-half to the daughter and the other half to the surviving wife.

To this petition an answer was filed on behalf of the respondent, Ann Feeney Wright, which, it was subsequently agreed, should stand as the answer for the other respondents, who appeared upon the hearing of the petition. The application for final distribution presents two leading questions, [193]*193(1) the widow’s contention that all of the property is community property, and that one-half thereof should be distributed to her,- and (2) the daughter’s contention that on a proper construction of the will and after a proper marshaling of the assets all of the residue of the estate should be distributed to her.

In the will of the decedent there is this clause: “I hereby declare and make known that all property owned and possessed by me at the date of this will and wherever situated is property or its income and revenue or property purchased by me with its income and revenue that I owned and possessed at the time of my marriage with my present wife—and is my separate estate.”

This declaration has no legal force or effect; is not necessarily a statement of fact; it is merely at most the opinion of the testator; is not binding upon the widow; in short, is not to be considered to prove that the property was separate: Rowe v. Hibernia Savings etc. Soc., 134 Cal. 407, 66 Pac. 569.

Irrespective of this testamentary declaration and upon the evidence, in what way did the testator acquire the property of which he died seised? He married Anais Hale in 1880, and it is admitted that as he had previously acquired the Fresno property and the San Francisco tide lands, these items were separate estate.

On the part of the petitioner it is claimed that the remainder of the estate is community property, having been acquired subsequent to decedent’s marriage with his surviving wife.

This property now on hand consists, first, of a six-tenths interest in the orehilla which formerly belonged to the Flores Hale Company, appraised at $3,283.35.

Second, the unsold portions of the Santa Clara ranch consisting of Lots A, B, and 1 of the Hale Ranch Subdivision, and unsold portions of the Margarita Tract, consisting of all the lots in that tract except lots 1 and 16, all of the Santa Clara county property being appraised at $15,984.95.

Third, the balance of the cash on hand, being a portion of the proceeds of the sale of the lots and of the supreme court building, as per supplemental account, $126,535.19.

[194]*194The decedent and Anais Hale were married July 20, 1880.

The Santa Clara property which is still unsold was acquired June 12, 1886. The lot on which the supreme court building stands was purchased April 5, 1882, and the Flores Hale Company, from which the unsold orchilla was derived, was organized June 9, 1883.

It will be seen that the principal asset, about which there is contention, is the supreme court building or its proceeds.

The claim that all' of this property having been acquired during coverture is presumptively community property is contested by respondents, who assert that they have overcome this presumption by showing that it was the proceeds of the rents, issues and profits of property owned by decedent prior to marriage. Respondents contend that from the facts proved it is clear that all of the estate of decedent was at the time of his death separate property, and an enormous amount of erudition is expended to establish this proposition. It is insisted that it is in proof that for years prior to the date of his marriage the decedent was in the exclusive possession of the same tract of land which was subsequently conveyed to the Flores Hale Company, claiming at all times to be its owner and holding himself out as such to the entire world.

But the evidence on this point is scarcely satisfactory. It does not appear to the court that he had a title to this extensive tract prior to marriage. He may have claimed to own the land and he had possession in a manner. He had men roaming and camping about gathering orchilla, but the only evidence of any title, exclusive of the partnership agreement and of the Pacheco grant, is in the statement of James Hale and Byrne that deceased was in possession under a claim of title previously conferred upon him by the government of Mexico, pursuant to contracts entered into between him and that republic. The tract was five million acres in extent. It is plain that such an immense area could not easily be covered by the campers employed by decedent. This claim of title, however, can hardly be sustained by the documentary evidence introduced. It certainly is not established by this-species of evidence that decedent at the time of his marriage was the owner in fee of the .entire tract of land upon. [195]*195which the business in which he was engaged was carried on. A long and learned discussion is indulged in by respondents to overcome the effect of the Pacheco grant of 1883, but it is more interesting than convincing, and need not here be traversed. It is enough to say that decedent was the real party to this grant, James Hale being a mere agent, as is shown by the evidence.

The decedent went to Lower California some time before 1862. He hired gangs of men and sent them out through the country for the purpose of having them gather orchilla, which is a moss of natural growth reproduced without cultivation in two or three years. The men employed by the decedent were usually divided into camps and the number employed at one time reached as high as fifteen hundred to two thousand men. There were never more than two or three camps in actual operation. The camps moved from place to place after gathering the orchilla in question and sent it to Magdalena bay; there it was pressed into bales and shipped to Liverpool and the proceeds of the sales were remitted to the deceased.

The orchilla was never sold in Lower California, at the place of production, and the parties who had charge of the camps never knew anyone else in the occupancy of the land over which their operations extended, and understood the decedent to claim that he owned the land in question.

There is no direct evidence of the profits of this business, but there is direct evidence that the business was very extensive, and that the credits during the years 1876 to 1882 both inclusive, exceeded $1,000,000. At the close of the different years there were on hand the following balances:

1876 ............................$19,895.00
1877 ............................. 20,423.19
1878 ............................. 7,542.09
1879 ............................ 44,035.06
1880 6,194.94
1881 28,115.76
1882 ............................ 58,316.00

There is nothing in the evidence to show that these balances were profit, and in point of fact the balances of each year [196]

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Bluebook (online)
2 Coffey 191, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-estate-of-hale-calsuppctsf-1906.