Copeland v. Rabing

VAN DYKE, J.

Under date of April 1, 1946, there was conveyed to C. H. Rabing, Ella M. Rabing, his wife, Charles Alexander Rabing, a son of the first two named, and Esther Rabing, the son’s wife, in joint tenancy, certain real property in Sutter County. At the same time the grantees executed to their common grantor a promissory note for $51,000, being the balance of the purchase money for the land after the payment to the grantor of $9,000. This note bound the makers to pay the principal sum in installments consisting of one-third of the gross returns of sale of all crops produced upon the property, with a provision that the minimum annual payment be not less than $5,000 plus interest on the unpaid balance. The performance of these obligations was secured by a crop mortgage upon all the crops to be grown during the existence of the indebtedness, and by a deed of trust upon the real property. The son, Charles Alexander Rabing, and his wife, plaintiff herein, moved upon the property and the joint owners began the operation of the ranch. On May 26th following Charles Alexander Rabing died and the record title by operation of law vested in his surviving joint tenants. On October 30, 1947, plaintiff herein, who in the meantime had married one Copeland, for a consideration of $1,000 conveyed her interest in the property to her cotenants, C. H. Eabing and Ella M. Eabing. More than two years thereafter and on December 23, 1949, she brought this action against her grantees, seeking, first, to have it decreed that by the deed of April 1, 1946, conveying the property to the four

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joint tenants, the defendants C. H. and Ella M. Rabing, took only a security interest for money advanced and obligations undertaken in the purchase of the property; second, that it be further decreed that her deed of October 30, 1947, purporting to convey her interest in the property to the defendants was null and void and that the same be canceled and set aside as having been obtained by fraud; third, that she, plaintiff, be decreed to be the owner of the property free of any claim of the defendants excepting the mortgagee’s interest for any funds advanced in the purchase of the property and unrepaid, or any payments advanced in the matter of the note installments and unrepaid; and, finally, that C. H. Rabing be required to account to plaintiff for all farming operations during the period between the taking of the first deed and the beginning of the action herein. The complaint contained three counts, the third being the action for accounting. By the first count plaintiff alleged that when the property was purchased, her then husband and she paid down the sum of $9,000 and executed the note and security instruments for the balance of the $60,000 purchase price; that the defendants had advanced to her and her husband $8,250 of the down payment and had executed the note and the security instruments as coobligors with an accompanying oral agreement that, to secure repayment to the defendants for the advance and for any payments which they might thereafter have to make, the property should be conveyed to the four in joint tenancy; that the deed was taken and the accompanying note and security instruments were executed in accordance with that understanding; that on October 30, 1947, after the death of the son, the defendants repudiated the plaintiff’s claim as owner and their status as mortgagees; that since July 15, 1947, defendants had occupied the property, asserting complete title thereto; that the first advance of $8,250 made by the defendants had been repaid by October 1, 1946, and that the accruing installments of principal and the accruing interest upon the promissory note had been discharged from moneys received through farming the property without any further contributions made or required of defendants, and that defendants had no interest other than that of their original status of security holders. By the second count it was additionally alleged that, after the death of his son, defendant C. II. Rabing entered into an oral agreement of trust with plaintiff whereby he agreed to serve her as trustee in