Lovelace v. Free

54 P.2d 82, 11 Cal. App. 2d 370, 1936 Cal. App. LEXIS 355
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 22, 1936
DocketCiv. No. 10687
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 54 P.2d 82 (Lovelace v. Free) 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
Lovelace v. Free, 54 P.2d 82, 11 Cal. App. 2d 370, 1936 Cal. App. LEXIS 355 (Cal. Ct. App. 1936).

Opinion

WOOD, J.

Judgment was rendered in favor of defendant upon his pleas that the statute of limitations barred plaintiff’s action and that the matter had been previously adjudicated between the parties.

[371]*371Plaintiff filed her complaint on May 19, 1933, in which she alleged that an agreement had been entered into between herself and defendant on or about July 29, 1925, whereby plaintiff would permit defendant to occupy her home and would render defendant various services such as furnishing him with board, personal care, nursing, etc., and in consideration thereof defendant agreed to treat plaintiff as a life employee. Plaintiff further alleged that “in consideration of plaintiff’s agreeing to perform such agreement on her part, and performing the same, during the joint lives of said parties, said A. M. Free agreed to and did treat plaintiff as a life employee, and agreed that he would transfer and in proper manner convey to her all the property then owned by him, or thereafter to be acquired by him, both real and personal, and did on or about the 2d day of April, 1926, execute and deliver to plaintiff an instrument in writing by which he disposed of all his property by will in favor of plaintiff, and thereafter on or about the month of November, 1931, he procured in conjunction with plaintiff a policy of life insurance from the defendant Aetna Life Insurance Company of Hartford, Connecticut, for $20,000.00 and agreed that said policy should belong to said parties for their joint support for their joint lives, and then go to the survivor of them”. It was further alleged that plaintiff permitted defendant to occupy her residence property as his home from April 2, 1926, until November 22, 1932, when defendant moved away from her home without her consent and refused to accept further performance of the agreement by plaintiff; that between the dates just mentioned plaintiff rendered the services in accordance with her agreement. In the prayer of the complaint plaintiff asked that defendant be enjoined from encumbering or disposing of his real estate and that a receiver be appointed to preserve the real property. Plaintiff also prayed for “such judgment and decree in the premises as may be meet and in accordance with law and equity”.

An amendment to the complaint was filed on July 14, 1933, in which plaintiff set forth the life expectancy of both parties and the income of defendant, together with an allegation that if defendant had performed the contract according to its terms she would have received a maintenance for the balance of her life of the value of $60,000. In said amendment she also alleged: “And the value of the services, rents, board [372]*372and other matters given by plaintiff in performance which plaintiff actually rendered to said Arthur M. Free as far as he permitted her to perform were of the value of $20,000; and the total damages suffered by plaintiff by reason of said acts of said defendant Arthur M. Free were and are the sum of $60,000.” Plaintiff in this amendment added an additional prayer for judgment against defendant in the sum of $60,000. On November 24, 1934, plaintiff filed another amended complaint in which her causes of action were separately stated and in which she made the following allegation: “That the reasonable value of the room, board, personal care, nursing, automobile transportation, driving, care of said defendant’s clothing and linens, and other services and accommodations furnished said defendant by plaintiff, at his special instance and request as aforesaid, during the said time from April 2nd, 1926, until November 22nd, 1932, was and is the sum of Ten Thousand Dollars ($10,000.00).” In this last-mentioned amended complaint plaintiff also alleged, in her first cause of action thereof, that she had advanced to defendant, the sum of $4,000 as a part of the purchase price of a contract of annuity insurance. In her second cause of action in the last-mentioned amended complaint plaintiff reiterated the allegations contained in her original complaint. Before trial the first cause of action was dismissed by plaintiff.

Defendant by his answer pleaded the statute of limitations as a bar to plaintiff’s action and also pleaded as a defense that the subject-matter of the action had been previously adjudicated.

The action came on for trial before a jury but the trial court excused the jury and entertained defendant’s motion to dispose of the matter by first considering his motion to dismiss upon the two grounds hereinabove set forth. Defendant presented the judgment roll in another action between the parties and also the transcript of the testimony of the two parties given in the other action. Thereupon the court made an order sustaining the contentions of defendant and in the judgment in.defendant’s favor provided as follows: “Now, therefore, by reason of the law it is hereby ordered, adjudged and decreed that defendant Arthur M. Free have judgment in the above entitled action on the grounds that said actions and all the material issues thereof have heretofore been adjudicated in the action entitled ‘In the Superior Court of the [373]*373State of California, in and for the County of Los Angeles, Eula B. Lovelace, plaintiff, v. Arthur M. Free et al., defendants, No. 357301’, and that said actions are barred by Section 339, Subdivision 1, of the Code of Civil Procedure of the State of California.”

The ruling of the trial court that plaintiff’s action was barred by the statute of limitations cannot be upheld. Although it is true that the amended complaint in its final form, containing complete allegations properly set forth, was not filed until November 24, 1934, more than two years after defendant left the residence of plaintiff, it is also true that in July, 1933, and well within the statutory period, plaintiff amended her complaint by setting forth facts as a basis for demanding judgment for the value "of the services performed, and asked judgment in a sum sufficient to include the value of the services. The allegations were not made in an approved manner and the cause of action was not separately stated, but they clearly served as a basis for the second amendment and prevented the running of the statute.

The trial court erred in ruling that the subject-matter of the action had been litigated in superior court action No. 357301. The record does not disclose the exact date of the filing of action No. 357301, but the verification of the complaint was made on May 16, 1933. It is apparent that the two actions were filed at approximately the same time. In action No. 357301 plaintiff sued defendant for $4,000 “for moneys had and received from the plaintiff to and for her use”. Defendant in his answer in that action denied that he “became indebted to plaintiff in the sum of $4,000 or any other sum or at all, for moneys had and received, or for any other matter, or at all ’ ’. The transcript of the testimony of defendant taken in action No. 357301 reads as follows: “The defendant Arthur M. Free testified in said Action No. 357301, that he had received the sum of $4,000 from said plaintiff on or about the 24th day of September, 1931, and that in consideration thereof he released a deed of trust in the sum of $4,500.00 which he held and owned and which was an encumbrance on the home of said plaintiff Eula B. Lovelace.” The testimony of plaintiff given in action No. 357301, as disclosed by the bill of exceptions in the case now before us, is as follows: “Eula B. Lovelace testified that upon the return of defendant from a trip around the world, [374]

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
54 P.2d 82, 11 Cal. App. 2d 370, 1936 Cal. App. LEXIS 355, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lovelace-v-free-calctapp-1936.