Jordan v. Warnke

205 Cal. App. 2d 621, 205 Cal. App. 621, 23 Cal. Rptr. 300, 1962 Cal. App. LEXIS 2174
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJuly 13, 1962
DocketCiv. 6816
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 205 Cal. App. 2d 621 (Jordan v. Warnke) 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
Jordan v. Warnke, 205 Cal. App. 2d 621, 205 Cal. App. 621, 23 Cal. Rptr. 300, 1962 Cal. App. LEXIS 2174 (Cal. Ct. App. 1962).

Opinion

STONE, J. *

Defendant and cross-complainant, Garnet Warnke, and a person not a party to this action owned *625 mountain property fronting on a lake in the Big Bear Valley area of San Bernardino County. Mrs. Warnke and her coowner failed to make payments which became due on an obligation secured by a deed of trust, and the property was sold by the trustee. Mrs. Warnke purchased the property at the trustee’s sale. Following her attorney’s advice, she had it deeded to her sister, Mrs. Dickson, one of the cross-defendants herein. The sale occurred on December 16, 1952. Shortly thereafter Mrs. Dickson and her husband executed a quitclaim deed to the property, but left blank the name of the grantee. Although this deed was delivered by Mrs. Dickson to Mrs. Warnke, the name of the grantee was never filled in and it was not recorded. Mrs. Warnke occupied the property and paid the taxes until 1956, in which year the first tax delinquency occurred. Later, Mrs. Dickson paid this delinquency together with subsequent tax assessments up to the year 1958-59. On April 8, 1959, Mr. and Mrs. Dickson, cross-defendants herein, executed an agreement to sell the property to Clarence H. Jordan and Tressie 0. Jordan, his wife, who are plaintiffs and cross-defendants herein.

The Jordans knew that the Dicksons lived in Santa Barbara at all times pertinent to the case, and that they never occupied the property at Big Bear Valley. Mr. Jordan, an attorney, had represented a Mrs. Edwards, another sister of Mrs. Warnke, in a divorce action several years before he and his wife purchased the property. From Mrs. Edwards, Jordan learned that Mrs. Warnke had an interest in the Big Bear property.

Mrs. Warnke, who had been convicted of a felony, was on parole at the time the transaction between the Dicksons and the Jordans took place. Shortly before he and his wife purchased the property from the Dicksons, Jordan telephoned Mrs. Warnke’s parole officer. Following the conversation, Jordan wrote a letter to Mrs. Dickson in which he related that the parole officer asked if he were calling about Mrs. Warnke’s property. In the letter Jordan stated that he gave the parole officer a negative answer. The significance of the letter lies in Jordan’s admitted knowledge of Mrs. Warnke’s interest in the property, knowledge which he later denied while professing to be an innocent purchaser for value.

The Jordans also visited the property before entering into the purchase agreement with Mr. and Mrs. Dickson. Although the Jordans admitted seeing books, clothing and food in the cabin, they made no inquiry as to who was in possession of *626 the property. There was also evidence that improvements were being made at the time of the Jordans’ visit.

The terms of the sale between the Dicksons and the Jordans were somewhat odd for a bona fide sale of real property. The total purchase price was $7,500, of which only $1,500 was payable in cash, the $6,000 balance being evidenced by a five-year, noninstallment, noninterest-bearing, nonassignable note. The agreement further provided that if the property were sold during the five-year period, the note along with other specified sums was to be paid from the proceeds of such sale. The Jordans were likewise to be reimbursed for taxes and other expenses to be paid during the five-year period, and any surplus was to be divided according to conditions set forth in the agreement. The property had a value of approximately $40,000, as contrasted with the $7,500 purchase price provided in the agreement between the Jordans and the Dicksons.

The court found that Mrs. Warnke had furnished the money to buy the property at the time of the foreclosure sale December 16, 1952, and that title was taken in the name of her sister, Mrs. Dickson, in trust for Mrs. Warnke, pursuant to a resulting trust. The court further found that Clarence and Tressie Jordan were not innocent purchasers for value when they entered into the purchase agreement of April 8, 1958. The court found specifically that the purchase price the Jordans agreed to pay the Dicksons was disproportionate to the true value of the property; that at best the Jordans were joint venturers with the Dicksons.

Pursuant to these findings, the court entered its decree that Garnet Warnke is the owner in fee simple of the real property, and that the Jordans and the Dicksons and all persons claiming under them subsequent to the filing of the lis pendens are barred from any and all claim of right, title or lien upon the premises. The decree further ordered the Jordans and the Dicksons to execute and deliver a quitclaim deed conveying the property to cross-complainant Garnet Warnke, and to clear the title of a deed of trust which they had caused to be recorded as a lien against the property.

Counsel for cross-complainant Warnke served a notice of entry of judgment on Jordan, counsel for cross-defendants. Service was by mail and made on September 26, 1960, in the same city in which Jordan maintained his office. The Jordans and the Dicksons moved for a new trial, and on November 25, 1960, the last day for ruling on the motion under the 60-day limitation prescribed by Code of Civil Procedure section 660, *627 the court entered a minute order purporting to grant cross-defendants a new trial in the event cross-complainant refused to comply with the conditions set forth therein.

On December 20,1960, the court entered a second purported new trial order, which reads: Motion for New Trial in the above entitled action is granted on the grounds of Insufficiency of the evidence.”

Cross-defendants have appealed from the judgment, and cross-complainant has appealed from the two orders granting motion for new trial.

Taking up first the appeal from the judgment, we are constrained to observe that cross-appellants Jordans and Dick-sons devote much too much of their briefs to the futile purpose of discussing conflicts in the evidence. This court is a court of review and limits its functions accordingly. It is our duty to determine whether there is any substantial evidence in the record to support the findings and the judgment of the trial court, not to reweigh the evidence. (Overton v. Vita-Food Corp., 94 Cal.App.2d 367, 370 [210 P.2d 757]; Berniker v. Berniker, 30 Cal.2d 439, 444 [182 P.2d 557].) In doing so we must view the evidence in the light most favorable to the trial court’s findings. (Berniker v. Berniker, supra.)

There is evidence that Mrs. Warnke furnished the money at the foreclosure sale, but that Mrs. Dickson took title to the property because Mrs. Warnke was under the impression that she could not take title in her own name. The quitclaim deed executed by Mr. and Mrs. Dickson to Mrs. Warnke is evidence of a substantial nature supporting this finding, even though the name of the grantee was left blank and the deed was defective. There is evidence that Mrs. Warnke took possession of the property and that until the time this action was instituted she or someone with her permission was in possession. On the other hand, Mrs.

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Bluebook (online)
205 Cal. App. 2d 621, 205 Cal. App. 621, 23 Cal. Rptr. 300, 1962 Cal. App. LEXIS 2174, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jordan-v-warnke-calctapp-1962.