Lindsay v. MacK

43 P.2d 350, 5 Cal. App. 2d 491, 1935 Cal. App. LEXIS 1095
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 23, 1935
DocketCiv. 1165
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 43 P.2d 350 (Lindsay v. MacK) 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
Lindsay v. MacK, 43 P.2d 350, 5 Cal. App. 2d 491, 1935 Cal. App. LEXIS 1095 (Cal. Ct. App. 1935).

Opinion

MARKS, J.

Plaintiffs brought this action to recover $1666.66 and the interest which they had paid to secure the reconveyance to them of property which they had sold to J. A. Mack and wife. This property was encumbered by a deed of trust which had been executed by plaintiffs. George S. Graves was not served and did not appear in the action. Therefore, we will refer to J. A. Mack as the defendant. Judgment went for defendant and plaintiffs have appealed.

Plaintiffs were owners of acreage property near Lakeside in San Diego County. They entered into negotiations for the sale of this property to defendant and his wife. These *493 negotiations resulted in the parties entering into an escrow on June 11, 1930, for the sale of the property to Mr. and Mrs. Mack. The purchasers were to take title subject to a mortgage to the California Joint Stock Land Bank executed by plaintiffs to secure their note upon which there was an unpaid balance of $12,979.35; they were to pay plaintiffs $16,000 in cash and to execute their mortgage securing their note in the principal sum of $32,270.65 payable in installments over a period of years. The escrow instructions were later modified by reducing the cash payment $6,000 and increasing the mortgage by a like amount. A second modification was made about July 21, 1930, whereby the cash payment was reduced to $8,333.34 and defendant gave plaintiffs the following instrument:

“July 21, 1930
“We, J. A. MACK and GEORGE S. GRAVES, do hereby agree to cause to be released and reconveyed of record on or before SIXTY DAYS from date hereof that certain deed of trust executed by Charles W. Lindsay and Alice F. Lindsay, husband and wife, in favor of Union Trust Company of San Diego, a corporation, in the amount of $1666.66, dated December 4, 1928, and filed for record December 12, 1928, in Book 1563, page 181, records of San Diego County, California.
“Dated July 21, 1930.
“(signed) J. A. MACK
“GEORGE S. GRAVES
“El Cajon, Calif.”

This was the first time the note for $1666.66 and the deed of trust securing it were mentioned in writing between the parties. Prior to July 21st, it was the evident intention of the plaintiffs to discharge this encumbrance out of the cash payment made by the defendant. The escrow was closed by recording the deed and mortgage on or about August 4, 1930. The deed did not contain any agreement on the part of the purchasers to assume and pay the trust deed encumbrance nor did it recite that the conveyance was made subject to any encumbrances.

Defendant went into possession of the property and remained upon it until about December 8, 1932. He did not cause the deed of trust to be released nor the property to be reconveyed to plaintiffs within sixty days or at all. The *494 note secured by the trust deed was not due until 1932 and plaintiffs waived payment until maturity.

Defendant paid interest on the $1666.66 note, made one payment of $5,500 on the purchase price mortgage note and paid installments of interest. When the $1666.66 note became due plaintiffs paid it to prevent foreclosure of the deed of trust. Defendant defaulted on the 1932 installment of principal and interest and plaintiffs declared the entire amount of the balance of the purchase price mortgage due and payable under the acceleration clause and started suit to foreclose the mortgage probably early in August, 1932. In the pleadings in that action no mention was made of the $1666.66 note or of the deed of trust securing it which plaintiffs had previously paid.

Some time after the foreclosure action was at issue the parties entered into negotiations to settle their difficulties. On November 27, 1932, Mr. Lindsay and Mr. Mack executed a written agreement whereby Lindsay agreed to dismiss the foreclosure action with prejudice and Mack agreed to execute a quitclaim deed to the mortgaged property and deliver its possession to Lindsay on or before December 3, 1932. The agreement also contained provisions concerning crops harvested from and growing upon the property, care of the property and payment of certain bills none of which are important here. A certified copy of the quitclaim deed is in the record, but its date of recordation does not appear. It is dated November 28, 1932, and was acknowledged by Mr. and Mrs. Mack on the same day. It quitclaimed a one-half interest in the property to plaintiffs and the other one-half interest to Annie E. Mitchell.

It is not questioned by the parties that they had at least one contemporaneous oral agreement which was not mentioned in the writing of November 27, 1932. This concerned personal property which defendant had placed on the land and which plaintiffs were willing to and did buy for the sum of $750, which sum they paid him.

This action was filed on December 8, 1932, and a writ of attachment issued against defendant’s property. After defendant had loaded his household goods on his truck, and while it was being driven away from the Lakeside property, the truck was attached. There is no evidence in the record showing that any demand had been made by plaintiffs for *495 the payment of the $1666.66 and interest between the time the trust deed note was paid by them and the service of the writ.

The findings of fact and conclusions of law disclose that the sole theory upon which judgment was rendered for defendant was based upon the conclusion that the document of July 21, 1930, upon which this action was brought, made defendant a surety for the pajunent of the $1666.66 deed of trust note and that action could not be maintained against him on the agreement until the security had been exhausted. The trial court expressly refused to find on other issues raised by the pleadings because further findings were regarded as unnecessary.

We are of the opinion that the writing of July 21, 1932, was neither a contract of guaranty nor of suretyship. Section 2787 of the Civil Code provides that “A guaranty is a promise to answer for the debt, default, or miscarriage of another person.” The agreement did not bind defendant to do anything in case of default or miscarriage of any other person nor to pay the debt of such person if such person failed to do so. It bound him to pay the debt of such other person, not upon a default, but long after such default could take place and long before the due date of the obligation. Section 2831 of the Civil Code provides: “A surety is one who at the request of another, and for the purpose of securing to him a benefit, becomes responsible for the performance by the latter of some act in favor of a third person, or hypothecates property as security therefor. ’ ’ The writing in question fails to measure up to the standard of suretyship for the same reasons that it falls short of creating a contract of guaranty. Defendant did not become responsible for payment of the note by plaintiffs. He agreed to discharge the note within sixty days, many months before plaintiffs had agreed to pay it.

Nothing we have here said conflicts in any way with the conclusions we reached in the case of Birkhofer v. Krumm, 4 Cal. App. (2d) 43 [40 Pac.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Hart v. Wells Fargo Bank CA2/7
California Court of Appeal, 2013
Overland Machined Products, Inc. v. Swingline, Inc.
263 Cal. App. 2d 642 (California Court of Appeal, 1968)
Pellissier v. Hunter
209 Cal. App. 2d 306 (California Court of Appeal, 1962)
Mangini v. Wolfschmidt, Ltd.
331 P.2d 728 (California Court of Appeal, 1958)
Bowman v. Santa Clara County
315 P.2d 67 (California Court of Appeal, 1957)
American Industrial Sales Corp. v. Airscope, Inc.
282 P.2d 504 (California Supreme Court, 1955)
Swanson v. Thurber
281 P.2d 642 (California Court of Appeal, 1955)
Shimmon v. Moore
232 P.2d 22 (California Court of Appeal, 1951)
Simmons v. California Institute of Technology
209 P.2d 581 (California Supreme Court, 1949)
Lacy Manufacturing Co. v. Gold Crown Mining Co.
126 P.2d 644 (California Court of Appeal, 1942)
Stockburger v. Dolan
94 P.2d 33 (California Supreme Court, 1939)
Cotton v. Riverside Cement Co.
85 P.2d 136 (California Court of Appeal, 1938)
Lindsay v. MacK
59 P.2d 1055 (California Court of Appeal, 1936)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
43 P.2d 350, 5 Cal. App. 2d 491, 1935 Cal. App. LEXIS 1095, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lindsay-v-mack-calctapp-1935.