Sampson v. Bruder

SCOTT (R. H.), J.

pro

tem.

From a judgment for plain tiff in an action to compel a reconveyance of certain real property and for an accounting defendants appeal.

[433]

Plaintiff is executor of and trustee under the will of Laura Shellabarger Hunt, who died October 22, 1936, at the age of about 89 years. (See

Estate of Hunt,

33 Cal. App. (2d) 358 [91 Pac. (2d) 609].) Mrs. Hunt met defendant Bruder in 1918 and her relationship with him became increasingly close during the succeeding years. In November of 1933 a grant deed was executed by Mrs. Hunt to Bruder covering the real property here in dispute—a two-story building in Culver City with eight or nine stores on the ground floor and sixteen apartments on the second floor. A month later she executed and delivered to Bruder a bill of sale for the furniture and fixtures in the building. On February 16, 1935, Bruder executed a deed for the property to defendant Coulter. Mrs. Hunt died on October 22, 1936. This suit was filed June 24, 1937, to recover the property and for an accounting on the ground that defendant Bruder’s title was that of a constructive trustee and that defendant Coulter was charged with knowledge thereof. Judgment was rendered for plaintiff requiring a reconveyance of the property, and defendants were also required to make an accounting of receipts and expenditures in connection with the property, following which a money judgment for the balance due was given against each defendant.

On appeal defendants assert that the pleadings are defective and that the evidence is insufficient. They also point to a determination of- the probate court in February, 1935, that Mrs. Hunt was at that time not incompetent, and claim that because of that proceeding plaintiff is estopped and the matter is

res adjudicata.

Defendant Coulter separately defends her title, claiming to be an innocent third person purchasing the property for a valuable consideration.

The trial court found that Mrs. Hunt sustained injuries about June 4, 1932, which confined her to bed or wheelchair, and that she continued up to the time of her death in a physically weakened and infirm condition; that defendant Bruder had been and on November 20, 1933, was an intimate, trusted and confidential adviser, and that by reason of that “confidential and fiduciary relationship’’ Mrs. Hunt, as grantor, executed a deed to the property in question, worth $35,000, to him as grantee, without sufficient consideration and under undue influence by him; that defendant Bruder