Estate of Weaver

158 Cal.App.2d 367 (1958) Estate of CLYDE ELDON WEAVER, Deceased. DOROTHY M. TALBOT, as Administratrix, etc., Respondent,

v.

LOUIS E. WETZEL, Appellant.

Civ. No. 9187. California Court of Appeals. Third Dist.

Mar. 12, 1958. MacBride & Gray and Hugh A. Evans for Appellant.

Irving D. Gibson for Respondent.

PEEK, J.

This is an appeal from an order confirming sale of real property by the administratrix of the above-entitled estate.

The appellant, who is the assignee and transferee of the heirs of the deceased, objected to the sale on the ground that it was unnecessary since he was ready, willing and able to pay the expenses of administration. However the court confirmed the sale, and this appeal followed.

The overly long and contentious history of this case begins with the death in 1938 of James Wesley Weaver, leaving as his sole heir his son, Clyde Eldon Weaver. The latter died the following year, and prior to probate of his father's estate. The sole asset in each estate consists of a small acreage in Sacramento County. At the time of Clyde Eldon's death he was a resident of Winslow, Arizona. His heirs are his wife, Mildred, and three children--Virginia, Norma and James Eldon, all adults. In June of 1948 James Eldon, on behalf of himself and the remaining heirs of James Wesley and Clyde Eldon, for valuable consideration, executed and delivered to Louis E. Wetzel, also a resident of Winslow and the appellant herein, a quitclaim deed to the real property in question. Thereafter, on September 3, 1949, all of the heirs joined in the execution of a warranty deed covering the same property and delivered it to appellant who recorded the same on May 7, 1951. On January 7, 1949, Dorothy M. Talbot, a stranger, neither an heir nor a creditor of the decedent, filed a petition for letters of administration in the estate of Clyde Eldon, being case Number 30600 in the Sacramento County Superior Court. Although her petition was filed in January of 1949, letters were not issued until June 17, 1954. It would appear that a like petition was contemporaneously filed in the estate of James Wesley since it bears Number 30599. On February 25, 1954, and prior to the issuance of letters of administration, a request for special notice was filed by appellant through his attorneys. On April 12, 1956, the administratrix petitioned for confirmation of sale of real property giving notice to appellant as requested. Thereafter on April 24 appellant filed his opposition thereto. It appears that in the probate of the estate of James Wesley an identical situation developed. In that proceeding the late Grover W. Bedeau, then Judge of