Johnston v. Debock

244 P. 330, 198 Cal. 177, 1926 Cal. LEXIS 350
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 18, 1926
DocketDocket No. Sac. 3644.
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 244 P. 330 (Johnston v. Debock) 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
Johnston v. Debock, 244 P. 330, 198 Cal. 177, 1926 Cal. LEXIS 350 (Cal. 1926).

Opinion

SHENK, J.

This is an action in ejectment and for the value of the use and possession of certain real property in the city of Sacramento. The plaintiff had judgment and the defendants appeal under the alternative method.

The appellants are husband and wife. The respondent was at one time the wife of Louis DeBock, a brother of the appellant August DeBock. In an action for damages for alienation of affections commenced and first tried in Placer County and tried the second time in the county of Sacramento, the respondent, on November 18, 1916, recovered a judgment against the appellants for five thousand dollars and costs. On appeal said judgment was affirmed (DeBock v. DeBock, 43 Cal. App. 283 [184 Pac. 890]). Execution was issued and on execution sale the respondent bid in said property and received a certificate of purchase. In due *179 time she obtained a sheriff’s deed dated March 19, 1918, which was duly recorded. The proceedings on execution and sale were regular in all respects but it was claimed by the appellants that the sheriff’s deed was insufficient to pass title, by reason of a homestead declaration made by appellant Clara E. DeBock, for the joint benefit of herself and her husband on the twentieth day of September, 1915, and filed for record on the following day. The homestead declaration was sufficient in form and substance but the respondent insists that at the time the declaration was made and filed the appellants were not residing on the premises as required by the homestead law (sec. 1237, Civ. Code). The court found in favor of the respondent’s contention and the main question presented on this appeal is whether the evidence is sufficient to support the finding. The appellant Clara E. DeBock acquired title to the lot in question by a deed from her mother dated April 8, 1909. Thereafter, with the assistance of her mother, improvements were constructed thereon consisting of a lower flat of five rooms, known as No. 2411 P Street and an upper flat of six rooms known as No. 2409 P Street, in the city of Sacramento. The construction of the building was commenced in 1909 and completed in 1910. It was occupied for a short period by the appellants and then rented to a Mr. Greenblatt. Thereafter the appellants claim to have occupied the upper flat from time to time and at all times to have considered the same their place of -residence.

The appellant August DeBock was a railroad conductor, operating on a division between Roseville, California, and Sparks, Nevada. In 1913 and 1914 he and his wife rented and occupied a furnished cabin in Roseville. In July, 1914, they purchased a lot in Roseville on which they constructed a house. As soon as said house was completed, in 1915, they occupied and continued to occupy the same as their home until December, 1915, when they sold it to a Mr. Prouty. On August 3, 1911, the appellant August DeBock registered as a voter in Sacramento County and gave his residence as 2409 P Street. His next registration was on August 3, 1912, at which time he gave his residence as No. 2415 P Street, which was the home of his wife’s mother and adjoined the premises in controversy. On March 11, 1914, he registered as a voter in Placer County and gave his resi *180 deuce as Roseville. This registration was canceled and he re-registered in Sacramento on December 16, 1915, nearly three months after the recording of the homestead declaration. In November, 1915, he was a witness in the superior court in Placer County on the first trial of the former action and he there testified that he then resided at Roseville and that he had been a resident of Roseville for three years.

On March 28, 1912, and on January 7, 1914, the defendant Clara E. DeBock registered as a voter in Sacramento and stated her residence as No. 2415 P Street. On November 16, 1911, she subscribed for a telephone and had the same installed and listed in her name at 2415 P Street and such listing remained up to the time of trial of this action. At no time since 1911 did the appellants or either of them register as residing at No. 2409 P Street. In the deed to the lot on which the appellants built their new home in Rose-ville appellant Clara E. DeBock was named as the grantee “of Roseville” and she personally filed the deed for record on November 2, 1914.

G. A. Eiehelberger, a witness produced on behalf of respondent, testified that he occupied the lower flat with his family from March 15 until December 8, 1915; that from March 15 to some time in August, 1915, a family by the name of Strand occupied the upper flat exclusively, and that from the time the Strands moved out, in August, 1915, until December 8, 1915, the upper flat was wholly unoccupied. The testimony of this witness, together with the testimony of other witnesses produced on behalf of respondent, which need not be recited, and the admissions and declarations of the appellants, was sufficient evidence on which to base the finding of the court, as follows: “That neither on the 20th day of September, 1915, nor on the 21st day of September, 1915, nor at the time of the making or the execution or the filing of the declaration of homestead set out in and annexed to defendants’ answer, were the defendants, or either of them, residing upon or occupying the premises described in plaintiff’s complaint, or any part thereof; . . . that said real property is not, nor is any part thereof the homestead of the defendants or of either of them; and that at no time was said real property or any part thereof the homestead, of the defendants or either of them.”

*181 The appellants contend that because of the nature of the occupation of the appellant August DeBock he was required to be absent from Sacramento, and they testified that at the time of the filing and recordation of the declaration of homestead they considered No. 2409 P Street as their home and intended to return to that place in seasons of repose. But the court was not bound to accept their testimony as to their intentions as conclusive. Concerning such evidence of intention this court said in the case of Tromans v. Mahlman, 111 Cal. 646 [44 Pac. 327]: “Whether she [the appellant] did in fact actually reside on the premises at the time the declaration was filed was a question of fact to be determined by the court from the evidence before it. The physical fact of her occupancy, as well as the intention with which she occupied the house, were both elements to be considered in determining actual residence, and the court was not bound to accept her statement that she intended to reside thereon as conclusive, if other facts to which she testified were inconsistent with such intention. Whatever inconsistency there was between these facts and her statement of her intention presented merely a conflict of evidence, on which the decision of the trial court was final. Its decision upon this conflict of evidence that she did not reside there is conclusive upon this court.” In the former appeal in that action (Tromans v. Mahlman, 92 Cal. 1 [27 Pac. 1094, 28 Pac. 579]), it was said: “It is settled law in this state that to constitute a valid homestead the claimant must actually reside on the premises when the declaration is filed (citing cases. . .

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Bluebook (online)
244 P. 330, 198 Cal. 177, 1926 Cal. LEXIS 350, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/johnston-v-debock-cal-1926.