Keele v. Clouser

268 P. 682, 92 Cal. App. 526, 1928 Cal. App. LEXIS 902
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 14, 1928
DocketDocket No. 5445.
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 268 P. 682 (Keele v. Clouser) 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
Keele v. Clouser, 268 P. 682, 92 Cal. App. 526, 1928 Cal. App. LEXIS 902 (Cal. Ct. App. 1928).

Opinion

SHAW, J., pro tem.

This is an appeal by the defendants Clouser, hereinafter referred to simply as the defendants, from a judgment in favor of plaintiff. The first point made in support of the appeal is that the court erred in overruling their demurrer to the complaint. The complaint alleges that the plaintiff and the defendants on November 3, 1920, entered into a contract by which plaintiff agreed to sell and defendants agreed to buy a parcel of real property, defendants agreeing to pay the price in monthly installments ; that the contract contained a provision making time of its essence; that defendants on and since March 3, 1925, have defaulted in payment of monthly installments of the price, “amounting at this time to the sum of $175.00”; that on June 26, 1925, plaintiff notified them of their default and that if the amount then due, $140, was not paid in three days, she would elect to declare the contract forfeited; and that on July 1, 1925, the plaintiff further notified the defendants that she declared the contract forfeited and canceled by reason of their said default. The complaint further alleges that the defendants halve denied any liability under the contract and asserted title and ownership of the property in themselves; that “ever since July 1, 1925, plaintiff has been and now is the owner and entitled to the possession of said premises; that the defendants ever since said date have been and now are unlawfully withholding from plaintiff the possession of said premises”; that the value of the rents and profits is $40 per month, and plaintiff has been deprived thereof since July 1, 1925, by the detention of the property by defendants. The prayer is for a decree declaring a forfeiture of the contract and quieting plaintiff’s title to the property, for possession of the premises and for $340 damages for the withholding thereof. This complaint is entitled in its caption, “Complaint—Unlawful Detainer,” and defendants’ first objection *530 to it is that a vendor of land cannot maintain an unlawful detainer proceeding against his vendee on account of the latter’s default in payment of the price. This is no doubt true, but to determine the nature of the complaint we look not so much at its caption as at its allegations, and from the latter it clearly appears that this complaint is not one in unlawful detainer. It states a cause of action to quiet title to real property and to recover possession thereof with damages for the withholding, and also a cause of action to foreclose defendants’ rights under the contract of sale. The general demurrer was therefore properly overruled.

Further grounds of the demurrer are that the complaint is ambiguous and uncertain because it does not disclose upon which of the above-mentioned causes of action it is based, and that these several causes of action are improperly united. There is nothing in the claim of uncertainty. It is clear from the complaint that the plaintiff intends to assert all of the causes of action stated therein. The demand for relief by way of a declaration of the forfeiture of the contract is merely an incident to the cause of action to quiet title and may be joined with it. (Bishop v. Barndt, 43 Cal. App. 149 [184 Pac. 901].) Relief by way of recovery of possession is also incidental to an execution issued on a judgment quieting title to real property in favor of a plaintiff who is out of possession. (Code Civ. Proc., sec. 380.) Consequently an action to quiet title to real property, brought by one who alleges that he is out of possession, is in effect an action to recover possession of the property, and in an action of the latter character a recovery of damages for the withholding of the property may also be sought. (Code Civ. Proc., sec. 427, subd. 2.) We think all of the various kinds of relief sought by the plaintiff may be obtained in a single action, and, hence, the demurrer for misjoinder of causes of action was properly overruled. But even if there were error in this respect we cannot see that any miscarriage of justice resulted from it, and hence it would not be ground for a reversal.

Defendants’ next point is that, the action being in substance one to quiet title, the plaintiff must prove title in herself in order to recover and that she failed to do so. The rule referred to is well established, but there is not an entire failure of proof of title in plaintiff. There is no *531 evidence or claim of title in anyone else. In giving her testimony the plaintiff referred to the property as “my property.” The evidence showed that at the date of the contract of sale she was in possession of the property. From this fact a presumption would arise that she was then the owner. (Code Civ. Proc., sec. 1963, subds. 11 and 12; Davis v. Crump, 162 Cal. 513 [123 Pac. 294].) Upon the making of the contract she delivered the possession of the property to the defendants, who went into possession under the contract. The general rule is that a vendee in possession under a contract of sale cannot dispute his vendor’s title. (Gervaise v. Brookins, 156 Cal. 103 [103 Pac. 329]; Garvey v. Lashells, 151 Cal. 526 [91 Pac. 498].) In Garvey v. Lashells the court said: “This rule is in full accord with the well recognized doctrine that no one who goes into possession of land under another will be heard to dispute the title of that other during the continuance of the relation.” All the cases on this point which we have examined were actions of ejectment, but the language above quoted from Garvey v. Lashells would apply as well to an action to quiet title. There may be some ground for limiting the application of the rule in an action of the latter class, but the action of the vendee in accepting the possession from his vendor and subsequently holding that possession is a sufficient acknowledgment of Ms vendor's title to support a finding thereof in an action between them, at least in cases where the vendee makes no claim or showing of title in any person other than the vendor.

The defendants allege in their answer that the plaintiff executed and delivered to them a deed of the property. It is claimed that such a deed was turned over to them and recorded, but the evidence showing this to be the fact is not printed in defendants’ brief. • The plaintiff testified that she signed this deed and entrusted it to a broker who had acted for her in procuring defendants to purchase the property, with instructions to put it in escrow with a bank, to be delivered to defendants when the payments on the contract had been completed. The complaint alleges that the payments have not been completed, and no denial of this allegation is called to our attention. The court refused to admit the deed in evidence and found that, it had never been delivered to defendants. They complain *532 that this ruling was error and that the finding was not supported by the evidence. A deed is not effective to pass title unless delivered. While the possession of a deed by the grantee, or the recording thereof, is prima, facie evidence of a delivery, it is not conclusive and may be disputed. (Black v. Sharkey, 104 Cal. 279 [37 Pac. 939]; Klose v. Hillenbrand, 88 Cal. 473 [26 Pac.

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Bluebook (online)
268 P. 682, 92 Cal. App. 526, 1928 Cal. App. LEXIS 902, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/keele-v-clouser-calctapp-1928.