Strausburg v. Connor

THE COURT.

By this action the respondents herein, Mike Strausburg, his wife, Dorothy, and Jean DeBreau, sought cancellation of a deed dated March 23, 1939, whereby they had conveyed to appellant, Helen C. Connor, all their interests in the real property described in the complaint. By its judgment the trial court decreed that Miss DeBreau was the owner of an undivided one-fourth interest in the property, that Miss Connor owned the remaining interest, that the deed should not be canceled, that Mike Strausburg recover of appellant the sum of $20 and that he and his wife had no interest in the land.

By the amended complaint Alice Kratka was made a defendant. It was alleged Connor had assigned an interest to her. The trial court decreed she had no present interest and she has not appealed. No further reference need be made to her.

Connor has appealed from all parts of the judgment except the parts thereof which ordered that the deed be not canceled and that the Strausburgs had no share in the title.

The trial court found that on December 13, 1937, plaintiffs had owned the property in fee and that on that date DeBreau by deed conveyed to appellant a one-fourth interest which appellant still owns; that on March 23, 1939, the plaintiffs herein conveyed the remaining interest to appellant, but that as to DeBreau’s remaining one-fourth interest so conveyed appellant had obtained the same by fraud through false representations that this interest would be reconveyed to DeBreau. The court found that no fraud had been practiced by appellant toward the Strausburgs, but that appellant did agree to pay them $150 for their one-half interest, and owed them a balance of $20, having paid only $130 of the agreed price.

The Civil Code, by section 2224, declares that “One who gains a thing by fraud, . . . , or other wrongful act, is, unless he has some other and better right thereto, an involuntary trustee of the thing gained, for the benefit of the person who would otherwise have had it.’’ Trusts arising from transactions within the scope of the code provisions fall within the class of trusts created by operation of law and are commonly called constructive trusts. Concerning such trusts it was said in

Rankin

v.

Satir,

75 Cal.App.2d 691, 695 [171 P.2d 78] :

“. . . Constructive trusts of this form are not based pri