Prince v. Varona

BURCH, J. pro tem.

*

Defendant appeals from a decree quieting title in plaintiff to certain real property in the city of El Centro, County of Imperial, State of California, described as follows:

“The South 60 feet of the West 160 feet of Lot 10, Block 6, Second Addition to the City of El Centro, excepting therefrom the South 10 feet of the West 20 feet thereof?”

By a cross-complaint defendant sought a decree of partition, an accounting and for general relief.

The record indicates that the parties were married in 1924 and that a decree of divorce was granted defendant September 6, 1944, in Las Vegas, Nevada. On that date the parties owned the described property as tenants in common. The plaintiff has been in possession since the parties were divorced. At the time of the divorce there was no property settlement agreement or division of property in the decree. The parties also had owned real property in Pasadena, California, which was under contract of sale for $2,400 upon which there was an encumbrance of $660. The purchaser had paid down $500. The El Centro real property they valued at $2,300. There was a Chevrolet automobile, 1940 model, valued at $800. There was household furniture valued roughly at $800.

After the divorce the parties met in Pasadena and orally agreed to divide the property as follows: To the wife the contract of sale of the Pasadena property and the furniture, the wife to have the $500 down payment on the contract of sale and the husband to pay off an existing encumbrance of $660. The husband to have the El Centro real property and the automobile. The husband fully performed his part of this agreement. The wife refused, upon request, to deed her interest in the El Centro property to plaintiff.

There is some conflict upon the question of the oral agreement dividing the property and upon the values of the

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several pieces of property set off to each. However, the court found that the division of community and separate property in the oral agreement was fair and executed except that defendant refused to deed the legal title of the El Centro property to plaintiff. A decree was entered quieting plaintiff’s title to the El Centro real estate against any and all claims of the defendant.