Jackson v. Gorham

PLUMMER, J.

Plaintiffs had judgment in an action to quiet title, from which judgment the defendant appeals. The action was instituted by the plaintiffs to quiet their title to lot 26, in block 53, of the city of Long Beach, as that lot is described in a map recorded in book 19, at page 91 et seq., miscellaneous records of the county of Los Angeles. The facts, as gleaned from the record, are as follows:

Upon the premises described there is situate one single house and one double house. For a long time prior to any of the transactions referred to herein, J. W. Harris and Mary Harris, his wife, occupied the single house; that for about two years prior to December, 1921, the plaintiffs had occupied one section of the double house as tenants of J. W, Harris and his wife; that during the month of December, 1921, J. W. Harris and Mary Harris executed and delivered to G. N. Jackson and Della Jackson, a deed of conveyance transferring all of said property to the plaintiffs in this action; that at the time of the delivery of said conveyance, the plaintiffs in this action executed and delivered to J, W,

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Harris and Mary Harris, an instrument conveying to said J. W. Harris and Mary Harris a life estate in the premises referred to, and also a mortgage thereon in the sum of $3,000, payable ten years after date without interest; thereafter, and on or about the sixteenth day of January, 1922, an agreement was entered into between the plaintiffs in this action and the said J. W. Harris and Mary Harris, whereby the section of the double house therefore occupied by the plaintiffs was leased by the said J. W. Harris and Mary Harris to the plaintiffs in this action, for and during the term of the lives of the said J. W. Harris and Mary Harris, and for the life of the survivor of them, the lessees yielding and paying to the said J. W. Harris and Mary Harris, or to the survivor of them, the sum of $15 per month as rental for said premises, and also agreeing to care for and attend to said J. W. Harris and Mary Harris, and the survivor of them, during the remainder of their lives, and the life of the survivor, for which services compensation was also to be paid. At the time of the execution of this agreement, and of the instruments herein referred to, the said J. W. Harris and Mary Harris were of the age of eighty years, or thereabouts. It appears from the record that the plaintiffs did look after and care for the said Harrises until the month of February, 1923, when both J. W. Harris and Mary Harris died.