Wills v. E. K. Wood Lumber & Mill Co.

154 P. 613, 29 Cal. App. 97, 1915 Cal. App. LEXIS 27
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 2, 1915
DocketCiv. No. 1431.
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 154 P. 613 (Wills v. E. K. Wood Lumber & Mill Co.) 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
Wills v. E. K. Wood Lumber & Mill Co., 154 P. 613, 29 Cal. App. 97, 1915 Cal. App. LEXIS 27 (Cal. Ct. App. 1915).

Opinion

CHIPMAN, P. J.

Plaintiff commenced the action to quiet her title to a certain lot situated in San Anselmo, Marin County, as against the claims which, it is alleged, defendant makes to the property.

Defendant answered, denying plaintiff’s ownership and denying that defendant’s claim to the property is without right. Further answering, alleges: That defendant is the owner and entitled to possession of the property; that, on October 8, 1906, and long prior thereto, plaintiff and one Hamilton Wills were, and ever since have been and now are, husband and wife, and on said day said Hamilton Wills was the owner seized in fee and in possession of the whole of said real property; that oh said day he was indebted to defendant in'the sum of $4,432.72 for goods, wares, and merchandise theretofore sold and delivered by defendant to Hamilton Wills, and in addition to said indebtedness the said Hamilton Wills was also indebted to divers other persons in large sums of money, the amount of which defendant is unable to state; that on said date and for a long time prior thereto the said Hamilton Wills was unable to pay his debts in full from his own means as the same became due in the ordinary course of business, and was insolvent, all of which was well known to plaintiff; that on said day said Hamilton Wills, while so indebted and so insolvent, ‘ ‘ and with full purpose and intent to hinder, delay, and defraud his creditors, and particularly this defendant, and designing to cheat his creditors and particularly this defendant, did voluntarily- and without valuable consideration make, execute, and deliver to plaintiff a conveyance transferring to plaintiff all of said real property”; that on February 12, 1908, there was still due from saidT Hamilton Wills to defendant on account of said indebtedness of $4,432.72 a balance of $2,680.82, and that thereupon, *99 upon said last named day, defendant commenced an action against said Hamilton Wills, in the superior court of said county, to recover said balance; that on June 25,1908, a judgment was duly given, made, and entered in said action in favor of defendant and against said Hamilton Wills for said balance,' together with $15.50 costs of suit, which said judgment was duly docketed in the office of the county clerk of said county; that on the thirty-first day of October, 1910, a writ of execution was duly issued out of said court in said action directed to the sheriff of said county, who did, after due proceedings had, according to law, duly sell all of said premises to the defendant, and that a certificate of sale was duly issued by said sheriff to this defendant, and thereafter, on January 12, 1912, said sheriff duly executed and delivered to this defendant a deed conveying all of said property, which said deed was duly recorded on January 19, 1912, and ever since said twelfth day of January, 1912, this defendant has been and now is the owner of all said property and entitled to possession thereof.

The court found the facts substantially as alleged in the answer and, as conclusions of law, found that the transfer of said property by said Hamilton Wills to plaintiff, on October 8, 1906, “was fraudulent and void as to this defendant”; that plaintiff take nothing by her complaint and “that defendant is entitled to the judgment and decree of this court that it is the owner of and entitled to the possession- of all of said real property,” etc.

Judgment was accordingly entered for defendant, from which and from the order denying her motion for a new trial plaintiff appeals.

Plaintiff testified: “I am the owner of the property described in the complaint herein. I acquired said property in 1905 and went into possession thereof in September, 1905, and went to live upon the property at that time. At that time I had upon the property a little shack that cost about two hundred dollars. Ever since September, 1905, I ¡have been living upon that property with my husband. Nobody but myself has been in possession of that property since September, 1905. I have paid all of the taxes which have been levied upon the property since September, 1905, and during all that time I have been in the exclusive possession of that property. I paid four hundred dollars for the lot.” There *100 was received in evidence on the part of plaintiff a declaration of homestead by plaintiff, in due form, of date July 7, 1908, duly acknowledged and recorded on that day, “for the joint benefit for myself and husband.” The value of the property was “estimated to be five thousand dollars.”

On cross-examination she testified: “I acquired the property in June or July, 1905, from Mr. Croker. My husband bought the property from my money. My husband did business for me: I had about one thousand five hundred dollars at that time. I put my money in the First National Safe Deposit and the next time my husband bought a safe I put it in his safe, in a little tin box at San Francisco. ... I came to California in 1888 or 1889. I came here in February and married Mr. Wills in the following November. I had over one thousand dollars when I married Mr. Wills. I do not know exactly how much over. I did not have any talk with Mr. Croker. (Mr. Croker conveyed the property to her husband.) I was very sick at the time. I earned money after I was married; I earn it still; I keep boarders. My husband went on the road. I kept boarders and raised chickens and made more money than he did. I loaned him money. In the sale and purchase of this property my husband was the agent for me on account of I was not acquainted with this language only a little. I was green to this country. Besides I was very sick. . . . Physically or mentally I was in no condition -to transact business in 1905. My husband negotiated with and made the contract with Mr. Croker. Q. Do you know to whom Mr. Croker gave the deed to the property? A. Well, my husband done the business. I was in no condition to transact business. I don’t know what they done. My husband took the money out of the safe deposit and paid cash for the property. He took it out of his safe. My husband kept the property in his name for quite a while and the papers were burned up; then I wanted the property recorded in my name; it belonged to me. . . . After the earthquake, when my husband went to the city, he said, ‘ The whole thing is destroyed, ’ safe and everything in his office, and after that he said, ‘All my papers were destroyed.’ He said, ‘That is destroyed, too.’ I said, ‘You had better go to Mr. Croker and have a new deed and have it recorded who it belongs to, in my name. ’ . . . About this deed I said (to her husband) ‘How can we settle it then?’ we have no deed.- I want to *101 have this property. I am well now and I want to have it, make it my home, so if anything, business or like such things, I could always make a living on it. ’ I think he went to Mr. Croker a couple of months after that when things were getting quiet.”

At this point in plaintiff’s testimony defendant introduced a grant, bargain, and sale deed, dated October 6, 1906, made by Frederick Croker and his wife to Hamilton Wills, recorded on the same day. Also, deed of gift, dated October 8, 1906, from Hamilton Wills, to his wife (plaintiff), recorded on the same day. On further cross-examination, she testified: ‘‘In 1905 a little shack was built on that lot. I bought it. My husband paid for it—the lumber. I gave him the bills. Not much lumber was bought from B. K. Wood Lumber & Mill Co.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
154 P. 613, 29 Cal. App. 97, 1915 Cal. App. LEXIS 27, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wills-v-e-k-wood-lumber-mill-co-calctapp-1915.