Robinson v. Thornton

34 P. 120, 102 Cal. 675, 1893 Cal. LEXIS 849
California Supreme Court·Decided August 31, 1893·No. No. 14819·Published·Cited by 31 cases

Opinions

Harrison, J.

Ejectment for land in San Mateo county. A certificate of purchase for the lands involved herein was issued to Benjamin S. Green by the register and receiver of the land office of the United States, March 5, 1863, and a patent therefor was issued to him August 1, 1871. April 21, 1869, Green and wife mortgaged the land to C. C. Wilson and J. P. Jourdan, and in an action for the foreclosure of this mortgage, commenced September 6, 1870, a judgment ivas rendered, under which the land was sold January 2, 1872, and on the same day the sheriff’s certificate therefor filed in the office of the county recorder. July 3, 1872, the sheriff executed his deed to the purchaser, who, on the twenty-sixth day of September, 1872, conveyed his interest in the land to William Ford.

April 1, 1872, John McCombe commenced an action in the fifteenth district court in and for the city and county of San Francisco, against Green and wife, and a writ of attachment was issued therein, under which the sheriff of San Mateo county, on the next day, purported to levy upon all the right, title, and interest of Green and wife in the land. Judgment was rendered in this action in favor of plaintiff, November 5, 1880, and by virtue of an execution issued thereon the sheriff, on December 10, 1881, sold the land to Alexander Forbes. June 4, 1887, the sheriff who made the sale executed a deed for the land, and on June S, 1887, the sheriff then in office executed another deed therefor. The plaintiff claims title by virtue of these deeds, and on the eighth day of June, 1887, commenced the present action.

August 17, 1872, B. S. Green executed a conveyance of the land to the appellant, Thornton, who, on the next day entered into the possession thereof, and has since remained in adverse possession, and paid all the taxes levied thereon from the year 1872 until the time of trial. [680]*680The plaintiff had judgment in the court below, from which, and an order denying a new trial, the defendant has appealed.

Whether there was sufficient evidence before the court to authorize it to find that the sheriff made an effective levy on the land by virtue of the writ of attachment issued in the action of McCombe v. Green need not be determined; but assuming that such levy was made, it affected only the interest in the land which was then held by the defendants in the attachment. Prior to that date their interest in the land had been sold under the judgment in foreclosure against them, and the'deed which was subsequently executed to the purchaser at that sale vested him with all the title to the land that the Greens had on the twenty-first day of April, 1869 (the date of the mortgage), or which they had subsequently acquired therein (Sichler v. Look, 93 Cal. 610), and the interest or estate which the Greens had at the date of the attachment was thereby extinguished. The execution of the deed gave to the purchaser at the sale no new title to the land purchased by him, but was merely evidence that his title had become absolute. Upon the sale he acquired “all the right, title, interest, and claim of the judgment debtors thereto” (Code Civ. Proc., sec. 700), subject to be defeated by a redemption within six months, and to the right of the judgment debtors to remain in the possession of the land until the execution of the sheriff’s deed, and all that remained in the Greens was this right of redemption, and to retain possession of the land until the expiration of the time therefor. “ During the period which elapses between the sale and the expiration of the time for redemption the statute regards the purchaser as the owner, in equity, and gives him the rents and profits, or the value of the use and occupation. In short, it gives him the entire beneficial interest in the property, except the actual possession.” (Page v. Rogers, 31 Cal. 302.)

Judgment was not rendered in the action of McCombe v. Green until November 5, 1880, and at the date of the [681]*681sale thereunder in December, 1881, the judgment debtors had no interest in the land upon which the judgment could be a lien, and as their interest in the land that was attached had been extinguished, and as, with its extinguishment the lien of the attachment upon that interest was also extinguished, the land was not subject to a sale in satisfaction of the judgment. The conveyance by Green to Thornton, August 17, 1872, did not transfer to him any title to the land, for the reason that at that date Green had no title or interest in the land. Thornton, however, took possession of the land on the 18th of August, 1872, and the record shows that since that date he has maintained such an adverse possession thereof as to vest him with a prescriptive title thereto, unless the other facts shown in relation to his possession of the land preclude him from acquiring such title or making this defense.

In an action of ejectment to recover lands purchased at a sale under an execution issued upon a judgment against the defendant, and of which he was in possession at the time of the sale or at the date of the lien of the judgment or attachmeut (if there was an attachment), the defendant cannot defeat the plaintiff’s right to recover by showing that he had no title to the land, or that the true title is outstanding. (Jackson v. Graham, 3 Caines, 188; Cooper v. Galbraith, 3 Wash. C. C. 550; Den v. Winans, 14 N. J. L. 6; McDonald v. Badger, 23 Cal. 393; 83 Am. Dec. 123; Blood v. Light, 38 Cal. 649; 99 Am. Dec. 441.) The same rule applies to the vendee of the judgment debtor, or any other person coming in under him subsequent to the creation of the lien, and who has no other title or claim to the lands than that which he derived from the judgment debtor, or whose title is, in effect, the same as that which was sold under the execution. (Jackson v. Bush, 10 Johns. 223; Green v. Watrous, 17 Serg. & R. 398.) As against the judgment debtor, the production of the judgment, execution, and sheriff’s deed is prima facie evidence of the plaintiff’s right to recover, but if the action is against a [682]*682stranger to the judgment, the plaintiff must also show that the judgment debtor had the title or possession of the land at the date of the lien or of the sale. This prior possession will then be prima facie evidence of a right to recover as against the mere possession of the defendant which will be deemed to have been taken subsequent to the sale. The sheriff’s deed does not, however, transfer any after-acquired interest in the land, and the judgment debtor is not estopped from showing in an ejectment suit against him that, subsequent to the execution of the sale, he has acquired a different title from that which was sold under the judgment (Emerson v. Sansome, 41 Cal. 552); and in an ejectment suit against'the vendee of the judgment debtor he may also show, not only that he has acquired a different, interest or right of possession, but also that the judgment debtor himself had no interest in the lands at the time of the sale.

In one sense the grantee of land maybe said to come into possession under his grantor, but his entry under his grantor is not in subordination to the title -which he receives from him or of that character which estops him from disputing the validity of the title under which he entered, as a tenant is estopped from disputing his landlord’s title, or the vendee in possession under a contract of sale the title of his vendor.

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Robinson v. Thornton, 34 P. 120, 102 Cal. 675, 1893 Cal. LEXIS 849 (Cal. 1893).

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