Gioscio v. Lautenschlager

PULLEN, P. J.

The action out of which this appeal arose was commenced by the filing of a complaint in the ordinary form to quiet title to the property involved. The answer of appellant Hyde denied plaintiff’s allegations of ownership and set up as a special defense that the defendants purchased the property for an adequate and fair consideration and that plaintiff had been guilty of laches in failing to assert his claim to the property within a reasonable time, and further pleaded adverse possession, and that said action was barred by the appropriate sections of the Code of Civil Procedure. Also in addition to a denial of plaintiff’s ownership of the property defendants allege ownership in themselves by virtue of certain conveyances by Gioscio and his wife, which conveyances were duly recorded in the office of the county recorder of the county of Los Angeles.

Plaintiff John Gioscio and defendant Beatrice Gioscio are husband and wife, although for the greater part of their married life they have lived separate and apart.

They came to California some time prior to 1911, and shortly thereafter plaintiff purchased for cash the property here in question, taking title to the same in his name as grantee.

In June, 1925, Gioscio left California and has never returned to this state. On June 8, 1927, a quitclaim deed dated June 6, 1927, in which Mrs. Gioscio was named as grantee,

[618]

and purporting to have been signed by plaintiff in Los Angeles on that date, and acknowledged, was recorded in the county of Los Angeles. On June 6, 1927, another deed purporting to have been signed by both Hr. and Mrs. Gioscio was placed on record conveying this property to Mary Emmanuel as grantee. By mesne conveyances the title now appears of record in the name of Mr. Frank Hyde, appellant herein. The defendants Lautensehlagers claimed no interest in the property. ,

At the trial plaintiff denied the execution of the deeds under which the defendants claim title, alleging said deeds were forged and in its finding the court found that the purported signatures of the plaintiff appearing on the deeds were forgeries but the signatures of Beatrice Gioscio were genuine, and that plaintiff was not barred by any statute of limitations, and that defendant had acquired no title by adverse possession. Just who was responsible for the forgeries does not appear, Mrs. Gioscio and Emmanuel each accusing the other.