Kennard v. Binney

217 P. 808, 62 Cal. App. 732, 1923 Cal. App. LEXIS 387
California Court of Appeal·Decided July 3, 1923·No. Civ. No. 4183.·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

*733 CURTIS, J.

This action was instituted to foreclose a mortgage executed by the defendants, George A. Binney and Jennie I. Binney, his wife. These defendants interposed a demurrer to the complaint -which was overruled and upon their failure to answer judgment by default was rendered against them. The transcript on appeal contains no copy of defendants’ demurrer, but it is conceded by each party to the action that it was a general demurrer. The complaint contained the following allegation: “That on the 22d day of March, 1912, this plaintiff and her husband, E. 0. Kennard, by grant deed for a consideration of twenty-five thousand ($25,000.00(5) dollars sold and delivered to George A. Binney and Jennie I. Binney his wife the herein mortgaged premises and certain water and water rights, which water and water rights were afterwards represented by and converted into thirty shares of the Glendora Consolidated Mutual Irrigating Company stocks of a value of three thousand ($3,000.00(5) dollars, and two shares of Cienega Springs stock with a value of two hundred ($200.00(5) dollars, and at the same time and place the said purchasers gave back a purchase money mortgage to said Flora H. and E. O. Kennard covering the same premises in question and the said thirty shares of Glendora Consolidated Mutual Water Company stocks and the two shares of Cienega Springs stock.”

A copy of the mortgage was annexed to the complaint as an exhibit and the mortgaged property was described therein as follows: “The south 10 acres of the east one-half of the southeast quarter of the southeast quarter of section 30, township 1 north, range 9 west, S. B. M., including all buildings and improvements thereon or that may be erected thereon; together with all and singular the tenements, hereditaments and appurtenances, water and water rights, pipes, flumes, and ditches thereunto belonging or in anywise appertaining, and the reversion and reversions, remainder and remainders, rents, issues and profits thereof.”

The court in the decree of foreclosure found the amount due on the note and adjudged the same to be a valid lien upon the ten acres of land aJbove described, and upon “Thirty shares of Glendora Consolidated Mutual Irrigation *734 Company water stocks, and two shares of Ciénega Springs Company water stocks.”

Defendants appeal from the judgment and advance two reasons why the same should be reversed: First, that there is no allegation in the-complaint warranting the court ordering the sale of said water stock; and secondly, that the prayer of the complaint fails to ask for the sale of the water stock.

Appellants’ first contention is that the complaint, having set out the mortgage in full, any allegation therein contrary to the terms of the mortgage to the effect that the shares of water stock were covered by the mortgage is surplusage, that the same must be so regarded by the court, and that such an allegation cannot support a judgment based thereon.

In Linz v. McIver & Becker, 29 Cal. App. 470 [156 Pac. 1000], the court said: “The general allegations of the complaint were sufficient ... to charge t'he defendant [Becker] as an individual maker of the promissory note sued upon. The complaint, however, contains a copy of the note, which shows that defendant Becker signed his name thereto as a member of the firm of Mclver & Becker and not as an individual maker thereof. The only question involved upon this appeal is whether the variance between the general allegation of the complaint and the face of the note is fatal to the plaintiff’s judgment. The rule in this state is that a variance between the direct allegations of a complaint and a copy of an instrument set forth therein, or an exhibit attached thereto, can be successfully attacked only by special demurrer, and cannot be taken advantage of by general demurrer. (Mendocino County v. Morris, 32 Cal. 145.) In the case of Blasingame v. Home Ins. Co., 75 Cal. 633 [17 Pac. 925], the appellant therein relied for a reversal of the judgment upon a variance 'between a direct allegation of the complaint as to the identity of a person to whom a policy of insurance was payable, and an apparently contrary statement in the copy of the policy set forth in the complaint. The court there held that the complaint was sufficient to support the judgment when tested by a general demurrer. ’ ’ To the same effect is San Francisco Sulphur Co. v. Aetna Indem. Co., 11 Cal. App. 695-698 [106 Pac. 111]. From these authorities, and there seems to be none holding a contrary rule, it is *735 apparent that the complaint is sufficient to support the judgment.

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Kennard v. Binney, 217 P. 808, 62 Cal. App. 732, 1923 Cal. App. LEXIS 387 (Cal. Ct. App. 1923).

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