Merkley v. Merkley

SHENK, J.

The plaintiff sued for a declaration of the rights and liabilities of the respective parties pursuant to certain contracts, assignments and transfers, and for other relief including a money judgment for services claimed to have been performed. The trial court denied the declaratory and other relief and rendered judgment for the defendants. The plaintiff appealed from the judgment.

Charles H. Merkley, the father of the defendants Wallace S. Merkley, Alan R. Merkley and Charlotte Merkley Hinkley, died in 1916 leaving about 105 acres of improved farming land in Yolo County of which the defendants became the owners in equal shares. In September of 1917 the plaintiff and the defendant Alan Merkley married. For about ten years following the father’s death, an uncle who was made executor of the estate, with the active assistance of Alan Merkley, managed the farm. Their management was not entirely satisfactory and the bank was threatening the foreclosure of mortgages. It became necessary to raise funds to dis

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charge .the obligations of the estate arising in part out of the threatened foreclosures and in part required to settle "the claims of a widow and minor children of the deceased by a second marriage. For this purpose a loan of $38,000 was procured from a Sacramento bank. The loan was obtained on condition that Wallace Merkley have the management and control of the properties free of any interference by the other members of the family. In order to carry out the condition, Alan Merkley and Charlotte Merkley Hinldey, in November, 1926, assigned and conveyed all of their interest in the property to Wallace Merkley. About the same time, in the course of the administration of the estate, a probate sale of the property to Wallace Merkley, with a stated consideration or purchase price of $30,000, was confirmed by the probate court.

In January, 1927, Wallace Merldey executed a deed conveying two-thirds interest in the property to Alan Merkley and Charlotte Merkley Hinkley, which, together with another executed document, he deposited with Harry L. Huston, an attorney at law. The additional document specified three contingencies upon the happening of any of which the deed should be delivered to the grantees named therein. The first was in the event of Wallace's death; the second, the payment, in full of the indebtedness against the lands; and the third, at the expiration of five years provided the second parties assumed or paid two-thirds of such indebtedness. The instrument provided that prior to the happening of any of such events Wallace Merkley should be the owner of the property and be in full control thereof without any interference by the brother or sister. It stated further that Wallace Merkley would exhibit t,o his brother and sister annual accounts of receipts and disbursements; that he should have the right to pay out, in addition to the usual and necessary expenses and indebtednesses against the lands, $75 per month to himself, $75 per month to Alan Merkley, and $25 per month to Mrs. Alan Merkley, provided each of them continued to render the services then being performed in the operation and conduct of the farm, and that such payments “shall not be made until the other indebtedness is taken care of as provided for in such manner as to insure the operation of said properties in the same manner as they are now being done''.