Hill v. Donnelly

MOORE, P. J.

This is an appeal from a judgment which decreed that a certain joint tenancy deed in favor of decedent and defendant was regularly executed, acknowledged and delivered and that it vested absolute legal title of the real property in defendant as the survivor of the joint tenants.

The primary contentions of appellants are (1) that the findings are insufficient to determine the issue raised by the pleadings and (2) that the evidence is insufficient to support a finding of a valid delivery of the deed.

The facts established by the proof are as follows: Decedent, Emma B. Donnelly, was the owner of lot 1 of the Wallace Brothers Tract in the city of Pasadena referred to in the evidence as the Molino Street property. She was the sister of plaintiff Hill, and of defendant. On the 8th day of June, 1933, decedent by grant deed conveyed lot 1 to her companion, Elizabeth Kessler. At the same time and as a part of the same transaction, Miss Kessler executed a deed conveying the same lot to decedent and defendant as joint tenants. The notary who took the acknowledgments of both of them was one Upton, a real estate broker of Pasadena who advised decedent that such deed would accomplish her purpose. Upon receiving both deeds from the ladies, he carried them away with him and kept them in his office for eight days when he left them with a title company to be recorded. Upon their return to Mr. Upton from the office of the county recorder he delivered both deeds to the decedent, who paid him for his services and the costs of recording and placed the deeds in her safety deposit box in a bank where they were found

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after her decease. At the time of departing for the bank she stated to her companion that Fred did not need a deed to the property; that her name as well as Fred’s was on the recorded deed and that if anything happened to her the property would be Fred’s and if anything happened to Fred, the property would be hers; that she could not sell the property without Fred and Fred could not sell the property without her.

Defendant had no knowledge of the joint tenancy deed until about June 1, 1936. Before he gained such knowledge decedent had executed a will on May 13, 1936, by which she bequeathed to defendant and to her sister and her niece the “entire (estate) or residue of my estate, to be divided share and share alike. ...” Attached to it was a codicil reading as follows: “As my brother Fred B. Donnelly is paying taxes on the property located at 54 South El Molino Avenue, Pasadena, California, I want him reimbursed for all taxes paid. ’ ’ He had no knowledge of decedent’s intention to make the conveyance to him prior to June 1, 1936, except what he might have learned on the occasion in 1935 when she handed him the Pasadena tax bill for 1935 which showed that the property was assessed to himself and decedent as joint tenants. Inasmuch as he could not read, it cannot be said that he comprehended the significance of that tax bill.