Wheeler v. Bolton

28 P. 558, 92 Cal. 159, 1891 Cal. LEXIS 1191
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 3, 1891
DocketNo. 12641
StatusPublished
Cited by42 cases

This text of 28 P. 558 (Wheeler v. Bolton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wheeler v. Bolton, 28 P. 558, 92 Cal. 159, 1891 Cal. LEXIS 1191 (Cal. 1891).

Opinion

Harrison, J.

William L. Carman died in San Francisco September 7, 1850, leaving a last will and testament, by which he devised and bequeathed all his estate to the plaintiff, and appointed the defendant and one Adams his executors. The will was admitted to pro[164]*164bate January 10, 1851, and on the 20th of that month the executors qualified and entered upon the duties of their office. Carman, in his lifetime, had caused to be surveyed a tract of about seventy-two acres of land, in the form of a parallelogram, in the vicinity of Mission and Twenty-third streets, in San Francisco, to which he made claim, and on which he made certain improvements. About thirty acres of this tract lay to the west of the San José road, and was subsequently ascertained to be included within the limits of the Noe grant, while the remainder, about forty-two acres in extent, was a part of the pueblo lands of San Francisco, and outside of the lands covered by the Van Ness ordinance. After the executors had qualified, they caused an inventory of the assets of the estate, with an appraisement thereof, to be prepared and filed in the probate court, and in said inventory was included, as a part of the assets of the estate, seventy-two acres of land at the Mission Dolores, to which the deceased had a pre-emption right,” which was appraised at six thousand dollars. The court finds that the defendant never had the actual possession of any part of the seventy-two-acre tract of land, and it appears from the evidence that soon after Carman died one Green took possession of that portion lying to the east of the San José road, and that the same has since been held adversely by him, and those claiming under him. The court also finds “ that at the death of said Carman, and for a long time thereafter, to wit, until the first day of January, 1852, there was no adverse holding or possession of the said forty-two acres of said Carman tract lying to the east of said San José road which could have prevented the defendant, as executor of said estate as aforesaid, from taking possession as such executor of the said lastipentioned tract of land.”

Prior to any claim by Carman of this tract of land, viz., April 11, 1850, the defendant had purchased the Santillan grant to a tract of land comprising about three square leagues, in the vicinity of the Mission Dolores, [165]*165which embraced the lands subsequently claimed by Car-man, and on the 13th of July, 1853, he conveyed this tract so purchased to one George W. Wright, by an instrument in which the sum of two hundred thousand dollars was expressed as the consideration. It does not appear that any possession under this grant was ever had by the defendant, or taken by Wright under the conveyance to him, and the grant itself was subsequently adjudged to be fraudulent. June 30, 1852, the defendant filed an account in the probate court containing a statement of his receipts and disbursements in the administration of the estate, in which, under the heading of “ Statement of property embraced in the inventory of the appraisers” was the item “seventy-two acres of land situate at the Mission Dolores, to which the deceased held a pre-emption right, etc., valued at six thousand dollars”; and under the heading “ Statement of disposition of the same property by the executors ” was the item “ No disposition has been made of this property, in consequence of a question of title now before the United States land commission.” This account was settled and allowed by the court July 12, 1852, and an order made canceling the bonds of the executors, and directing them to forward to the plaintiff the money in their hands, $61.06, belonging to the estate, which was done August 25, 1852. This was treated by the executors as a close of their administration of the estate, and nothing further was done therein until July 17,1875, when, upon the petition of the plaintiff, the defendant (his co-executor having left the state) was cited to appear before the probate court and render a final account in the matter of said estate. Such account was rendered by him September 23,1875, and was settled by an order of the court as of December 13, 1875. Thereafter, on the 17th of April, 1876, upon the petition of the plaintiff, the probate court made a decree of distribution in said estate, in which it “adjudged and decreed that the said real estate as described in the inventory of said estate and the account therein filed on the tenth day of June, 1852, be [166]*166and the same is hereby distributed, to wit, seventy-two (72) acres of land situated at the Mission Dolores, to which the deceased held a pre-emption right, be and the same is hereby distributed to Margaret C. Wheeler, sole legatee under and by virtue of the will of said William L. Carman, deceased.” In its finding upon this point, the court below, referring to the decree of distribution, states that in said decree “the plaintiff was adjudged to be entitled to the possession of said real estate, and the defendant required to surrender and deliver the possession of the same to the plaintiff” ; but this portion of the finding must be disregarded, as it is contradicted by the terms of the decree itself, which is set out at length in the same finding.

The plaintiff commenced this action December 23, 1876, to recover from the defendant the sum of four hundred thousand dollars, alleging in her complaint that the said seventy-two acres of land were then of that value, and were of the value of about six thousand dollars at the date of Carman’s death, and that the defendant, “ in violation of his duties as executor, did not safely keep, retain, and protect his possession of this land, but allowed and permitted himself to be dispossessed, and the property and title lost to the plaintiff.” The action was tried by the court, and in its findings, in addition to the foregoing facts, the court found “ that the said sum of six thousand dollars was the true value of the said claim of the said Carman to the said seventy-two (72) acres of land at the time of said appraisement and valuation, and at all times thereafter to and including the thirteenth day of July, 1853”; and found that the plaintiff had sustained damages for which the defendant is responsible in the sum of one hundred and nine thousand dollars, — stating in its finding that “the damages are estimated on the basis of six thousand dollars ($6,000) as the value of the claim or interest of the estate on the thirteenth day of July, 1853, and adding thereto legal interest from said day until the present time, computed with annual rests.” Judgment was [167]*167thereupon entered in accordance with the findings, a motion for a new trial made by the defendant was denied, and from the order denying a new trial the defendant has appealed.

The case has been before this court on two former appeals, the first from a judgment rendered on sustaining a demurrer to the complaint (54 Cal. 302), and the second from an order granting a new trial after a judgment of nonsuit. (66 Cal. 83.) As the present appeal is only from the order denying a new trial, we are limited in our consideration thereof to a review of the action of the court upon the grounds upon which the new trial was asked. Whether the conclusions of law are correctly drawn from the findings of fact, or whether the findings sustain the judgment entered thereon, can be examined only upon an appeal from the judgment.

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

Related

Michelson v. Hamada
29 Cal. App. 4th 1566 (California Court of Appeal, 1994)
Westbrook v. Fairchild
7 Cal. App. 4th 889 (California Court of Appeal, 1992)
Estate of Harvey
224 Cal. App. 2d 555 (California Court of Appeal, 1964)
Industrial Indemnity Co. v. Golden State Co.
316 P.2d 966 (California Supreme Court, 1957)
Hamasaki v. Flotho
248 P.2d 910 (California Supreme Court, 1952)
Douglas v. Westfall
248 P.2d 68 (California Court of Appeal, 1952)
West v. Stainback
240 P.2d 366 (California Court of Appeal, 1952)
Bank of America v. Willardson
226 P.2d 369 (California Court of Appeal, 1951)
Felton v. Anderton
174 P.2d 212 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1946)
In Re Anderton's Estate
174 P.2d 212 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1946)
Katz v. Enos
156 P.2d 461 (California Court of Appeal, 1945)
Tucker v. Brown
150 P.2d 604 (Washington Supreme Court, 1944)
White v. Citizens National Trust & Savings Bank
116 P.2d 117 (California Court of Appeal, 1941)
Burnett v. Burnett
109 P.2d 26 (California Court of Appeal, 1941)
Guardianship of O'Connor
83 P.2d 65 (California Court of Appeal, 1938)
Estate of Smith
297 P. 927 (California Court of Appeal, 1931)
Reed v. Taliaferro
259 P. 815 (Wyoming Supreme Court, 1927)
Estate of Perry
220 P. 321 (California Court of Appeal, 1923)
Gaver v. Early
215 P. 394 (California Supreme Court, 1923)
In re Eakins' Estate v. Eakins
208 P. 956 (Montana Supreme Court, 1922)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
28 P. 558, 92 Cal. 159, 1891 Cal. LEXIS 1191, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wheeler-v-bolton-cal-1891.