Tripp v. Duane

15 P. 439, 74 Cal. 85, 1887 Cal. LEXIS 748
California Supreme Court·Decided November 5, 1887·No. No. 9490·Published·Cited by 5 cases

Opinion

Searls, C. J.

J. — This is an action by plaintiff to quiet his title to thirty-three ninety-sixths of the real estate described in the complaint.

In 1853 George W. Ellis filed in the recorder’s office of the city and county of San Francisco a pre-emption claim on one hundred and sixty acres of salt-marsh and tide-land belonging to the state of California.

Between that time and October 21,1875, said Ellis executed to different parties bargain and sale deeds of undivided portions of said claim, amounting in the aggregate to thirty-three ninety-sixths of the whole claim, find the grantees of said undivided interest conveyed /by good and sufficient deeds the same to plaintiff prior to October 21, 1875, which deeds were all recorded prior to that date.

.■ On the 24th of November, 1875, the state of California made its deed to Ellis of the lands described in the complaint, the same being a portion only of the land described in Ellis’s pre-emption claim.

Plaintiff claims title to thirty-three ninety-sixths of the land described in the complaint, by reason of said pre-emption claim of Ellis, and the deed from the state to Ellis of date November 24, 1875.

When the deed from the state to Ellis was ready for delivery, Ellis had no money, and eight thousand dollars had to be paid to the state before the deed would be delivered, and thereupon defendant Ellis applied to W. PI. Patterson to advance the eight thousand dollars to the state for the purchase-money of the land, and take the land as security for its repayment.

Thereupon Ellis, Duane, and Haymond executed to Patterson the paper found at folios 109 to 113, both inclusive, and Patterson paid the eight thousand dollars [88] purchase-money, received the deed from the state to Ellis, and had the same recorded.

The eight thousand dollars not having been paid in sixty days, as provided in the instrument, nor any part thereof, W. H. Patterson deeded to Morrissey, and Morrissey to Duane, “all the right, title, and interest which said Patterson derived in said land by virtue of the deed of Ellis et al. to him, of date November 30, 1875,” without advertising such sale for sixty days, so as to free said real estate from the trust under which Patterson held the land, which said deeds were immediately recorded.

At the commencement of. this suit, neither the plaintiff nor Ellis had paid Patterson or Duane 'any portion of said eight thousand dollars, the purchase-monoy of said land so paid by said Patterson to the sígate, and plaintiff sought in his complaint to quiet his title to thirty-three ninety-sixths of said land, without paying or offering to pay to Patterson or to Duane any portion of the said purchase-money. '\

The paper from Ellis, Duane, and Haymond to Patter- ' son, as above mentioned, was a conveyance to the latter of all the estate of the former in the land in question, in trust, to secure the payment of the eight thousand dollars, with interest, and payable in sixty days from November 30, 1875, the date thereof, and if not paid, Patterson was authorized to sell the property after one week’s notice in any daily paper published in the city and county of San Francisco.

The conveyance by Patterson to Morrissey was made after the expiration of the sixty days, but without the notice prescribed, was without consideration, and was executed by Patterson in his own name, and not as a trustee. The deed from Morrissey to Duane was also without consideration.

After the defendant Duane had filed his amended answer in the case, the interest of Patterson in the trust deed was duly sold, as provided for in that instrument, [89] and was purchased by the plaintiff herein, who thereupon applied to the court for leave to file a supplemental complaint setting up those facts, which was refused by the court as to Duane and granted as to the other defendants.

Upon the trial of this case, the plaintiff offered the deposition of W. H. Patterson in evidence, to prove the facts contained in the supplemental complaint he had filed. Defendant Duane objected, upon the ground that all these matters thus sought to be proved occurred after the joining of issue in this case, and therefore the testimony was incompetent, irrelevant, and immaterial, and that no supplemental complaint had been filed so far as Duane was concerned.

The court did not admit the testimony at the time, but reserved its ruling.

Before the court decided the case, it read and considered the deposition of Patterson, which had not been admitted in evidence or read, and based in part its finding and decree thereon, and ruled and decided that defendant Duane had no right, title, or interest in the land claimed by plaintiff in his original complaint, viz., thirty-three ninety-sixths of the premises described, and quieted plaintiff’s title thereto, and to the whole of it as against the other defendants.

Defendant Duane alone appeals from an order denying a new trial, and makes the following points:—

1. The court erred in quieting the plaintiff’s title to the whole of the real estate described in the complaint, when he only sues to quiet his title to thirty-three ninety-sixths of the same.
2. The court erred in ruling that plaintiff was entitled to maintain this action without paying or offering to pay thirty-three ninety-sixths of the purchase-money of the land paid by Patterson, and in ruling that defendant Duane had no tille or interest in the land.
3. The court erred in reading and considering the evi[90] dence not admitted at the trial, and basing its findings and decree thereon.

The answer to the first point is, that, as against appellant Duane, the court did not quiet the plaintiff’s title to but thirty-three ninety-sixths of the premises.

This is what plaintiff demanded against said defendant in his complaint. The court found as a fact that “the plaintiff, at the commencement of this action, was seised in fee of thirty-three ninety-sixths of said title to said premises.”

As a conclusion of law, it was found,—

“ 1. That, at the commencement of this action, the plaintiff was seised of thirty-three ninety-sixths of the premises described in the complaint, and is entitled to the relief prayed for in his complaint against the defendants Charles P. Duane and H. H. Judson, as 'far as thirty-three ninety-sixths is concerned.”

The decree follows the findings, and decrees “that, at the commencement of this action, the plaintiff was, and now is, seised in fee of thirty-three ninety-sixths of the premises described in the complaint; .... that the defendants Charles P. Duane and H. H. Judson have, nor have either of them, any right, title of claim thereto, and that the title of the said plaintiff thereto be and the same is quieted, as against the claim of each of said defendants; and each of said defendants is ... . restrained from bringing any action .... against said plaintiff .... in regard to his title or possession of said thirty-three ninety-sixths of said premises.”

When the court decrees that defendants Duane and Judson have no title thereto, it must, by every rational rule of construction, be held to apply to the thirty-three ninety-sixths part decreed to belong to plaintiff.

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Tripp v. Duane, 15 P. 439, 74 Cal. 85, 1887 Cal. LEXIS 748 (Cal. 1887).

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