Albertson v. Schmidt

GANS, J.,

pro tem.

— Appellant brought this action against George Schmidt (now deceased) to have him declared trustee of certain real property theretofore conveyed to him by appellant, to compel a reconveyance of said property to appellant and for an accounting for the rents, issues and profits thereof. The complaint was filed in July, 1918, and twelve years thereafter, in August, 1930, the action was brought to trial on the issues raised by the fourth amended complaint and the answer thereto, Schmidt in the meantime having died and the executrix of his will having been substituted as party defendant. The grounds upon which it was sought to maintain the action were that appellant was mentally incompetent at the time he conveyed the property to Schmidt and that there was no consideration for the conveyance. The trial court found against appellant on both issues, and from the judgment entered in conformity with the findings, this appeal was taken, the sole ground urged for reversal being the insufficiency of the evidence to sustain the trial court’s findings.

The facts leading up to the commencement of the action were as follows: In May, 1913, appellant conveyed said property to Schmidt by a grant deed reciting the payment of $10 as consideration. At that time the property was encumbered with a deed of trust to secure the payment of the sum of $3,000. In June, 1913, appellant made a second deed identical in form with the first

conveying

the property to Schmidt, it being recited therein that the same was given “to correct the errors” in the first deed. Some four months later, to wit, in October, 1913, pursuant to proceedings taken under section 2168 of the Political Code, appellant was adjudged insane by the superior court and committed to a state hospital, where he remained until January, 1914, at which time he was discharged by the medical superintendent as “recovered”; and in March, 1916, he was restored to mental capacity by the decree of court in a proceeding instituted for such purpose. In April, 1915, which was more than a-year after his discharge from the

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state hospital and about a year prior to the rendition of the court decree restoring him to mental capacity, he made a quitclaim deed of the property to Schmidt; and some time during 1918, and prior to the commencement of the present action (the exact date not appearing in the record), the property was sold at trustee’s sale pursuant to proceedings taken under the terms of said trust deed to a purchaser named Spear.