Security-First National Bank v. Marxen

82 P.2d 727, 28 Cal. App. 2d 446, 1938 Cal. App. LEXIS 560
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedSeptember 16, 1938
DocketCiv. No. 6062
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 82 P.2d 727 (Security-First National Bank v. Marxen) 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
Security-First National Bank v. Marxen, 82 P.2d 727, 28 Cal. App. 2d 446, 1938 Cal. App. LEXIS 560 (Cal. Ct. App. 1938).

Opinion

THOMPSON, J.

The plaintiff has appealed from a judgment which was rendered in favor of the defendant, Edward H. Marxen, as Trustee in Bankruptcy of the Estate of Santa Monica Amusement Company, a bankrupt corporation, and the plaintiff has also appealed from that portion of the same judgment which quiets title to a wharf at Santa Monica, subject, however, to the rights acquired by La Monica Dance Hall, Inc., a corporation, under a lease thereof from Santa Monica Amusement Company dated August 24, 1928, which lease expired June 6, 1936.

Since this appeal was perfected, the respective parties filed in this court July 14, 1938, a written stipulation to the effect that the portion of the judgment which quiets title to the real property involved in the defendant Edward H. Marxen, as Trustee in Bankruptcy of the Estate of Santa Monica Amusement Company, a bankrupt corporation, may be reversed, and that the court, in lieu thereof, may render judgment to the effect that the plaintiff, Security-First National [448]*448Bank of Los Angeles, a national banking association, is sole owner and entitled to the exclusive possession and use of the property as against said Marxen, as trustee.

The stipulation leaves for the disposition of this court only that portion of the appeal which quiets title to the real property in plaintiff, subject to the rights of the respondent, La Monica Dance Hall, Inc., a corporation, under the terms of its lease from Santa Monica Amusement Company, dated August 24, 1928.

The appellant, Security-First National Bank of Los Angeles, contends, with respect to the last-mentioned portion of the appeal,.that finding VIII, which was adopted by the trial court, is not supported by the evidence for the reason that appellant acquired title to the property by foreclosure of a trust deed which was executed by the Santa Monica Amusement Company, a corporation, to plaintiff as beneficiary thereof on September 12, 1932, and that the title of the defendant, La Monica Dance Hall, Inc., a corporation, became subject to plaintiff’s title by the terms of an express agreement to that effect, also dated September 12, 1932, subordinating its title to the lien of said trust deed, and that respondent’s title was also rendered subject to the plaintiff’s title by a subsequent written agreement dated May 25, 1935, between plaintiff as party of the first part, Los Angeles Trust & Safe Deposit Company, a corporation, as second party, and the City of Santa Monica, a municipal corporation, as party of the third part.

Finding VIII, which is involved on this appeal, reads as follows:
“That it is true that the right, title and interest of plaintiff in and to said wharf, pier, franchise and other property, hereinabove in Paragraph VII of these findings described, is subject to that certain lease held by the City of Santa Monica, a municipal corporation, as lessee, which said lease is dated October 1, 1934, and is more particularly described in the copy of the subordination agreement attached to plaintiff’s complaint herein and marked ‘Exhibit C’ thereto.
“That it is true that the right, title and interest of plaintiff in and to said wharf, pier, franchise and other property, hereinabove in Paragraph VII of these findings described, is also subject to the interest of the defendant herein, La Monica Dance Hall, Inc., a corporation, as Lessee, under and by virtue [449]*449of the terms and provisions of that certain lease dated on or about the 24th day of August, 1928, entered into in writing by and between Santa Monica Amusement Company, a corporation, as Lessor, and said defendant, La Monica Dance Hall, Inc., a corporation, as Lessee, for a period ending at the expiration date of the franchise attached to plaintiff's complaint herein and marked ‘Exhibit A’, or any extension thereof; that it is true that the expiration date of said franchise, attached to plaintiff’s complaint herein and marked ‘Exhibit- A’, is midnight on June 6, 1936.
“That it is true that no renewal or extension of said franchise, granted under date of June 7, 1916, by the City of Santa Monica to Charles I. D. Looff, has ever been made.”

June 7, 1916, the city of Santa Monica granted Charles I. Dv Looff a franchise to build and operate for a term of twenty years a wharf extending into the Pacific Ocean at the foot of Colorado Avenue, in Santa Monica, to be used for commercial, amusement and recreation purposes. The dock was constructed. By mesne conveyances it was leased to the Santa Monica Amusement Company, a corporation, which was the .owner thereof on August 24, 1928. On the last-mentioned date, for a named consideration, the Santa Monica Amusement Company executed a lease to this respondent, La Monica Dance Hall, Inc., a corporation, of a portion of the dock specifically described, and including a space of 180 feet by 250 feet in size, for the purpose of constructing and operating thereon a dance hall. The term of that lease was specified as the duration of the Looff franchise, which expired June 6, 1936. On September 12, 1932, the Santa Monica Amusement Company executed and delivered to the plaintiff its promissory note for $96,000, secured by a trust deed on the wharf property, including that portion thereof which was leased to the La Monica Dance Hall, Inc., as above stated. On the last-mentioned date, and as a part of the same transaction, the Santa Monica Amusement Company and the La Monica Dance Hall, Inc., executed a written agreement specifically covenanting that the respondent’s title to the dance hall property should become subject to the lien created by the trust deed of September 12, 1932. October 1, 1934, this respondent, in conjunction with E. Pickering, a sub-lessee of respondent, and the Santa Monica Amusement Company joined in a lease to the city of Santa Monica of [450]*450the dance hall property which was originally leased to La Monica Dance Hall, Inc., on August 24, 1928. This last executed lease created a term more than a year in advance of the date of the expiration of the former lease held by the respondent. It also provides for a definite sum of rental per month whereas the consideration for the respondent’s former lease of the dance hall property depended upon the gross receipts derived from operating the pavilion.

May 25, 1935, this- appellant, together with the trustee named in said trust deed of September 12, 1932, and the city of Santa Monica joined in another written instrument, declaring that the trust deed was executed on the date which it bears for the purpose of securing the Santa Monica Amusement Company’s note for $96,000, and that, on October 1, 1934, the last-mentioned lease of the dance hall property contained the following provisions: “It is hereby agreed that the lease mentioned above to third party [City of Santa Monica] as lessee, dated October 1, 1934 is hereby made prior and superior to the deed of trust mentioned above.” Thereafter, by appropriate valid proceedings, the property described in the trust deed of September 12, 1932, was foreclosed and sold to this appellant June 14, 1935. The regularity of the foreclosure proceedings is not questioned.

This suit was commenced to quiet title to all the property described in the trustee’s deed. The complaint alleges the execution of the subordination agreement with the city of Santa Monica dated May 25, 1935, which is referred to as “Exhibit C” thereof, and the complaint concedes that plaintiff’s title is subject to the second lease of the wharf property.

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Bluebook (online)
82 P.2d 727, 28 Cal. App. 2d 446, 1938 Cal. App. LEXIS 560, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/security-first-national-bank-v-marxen-calctapp-1938.