Boyle v. Boyle

KOFORD, P. J.

Defendant appeals from a decree in favor of plaintiff as administrator quieting the title of Hannah Boyle, deceased, to a piece of property in the city and county of San Francisco. The appeal is upon the judgment-roll alone.

The complaint alleged that the deceased at the time of her death, January 18, 1920, was the owner in fee simple

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of the property described. It also alleged that on the ninth day of November, 1911, said decedent in her lifetime obtained a decree quieting title against all persons under the provisions of what is commonly known as the McEnerney Act. (Stats. 1906 (Ex. Sess.), p. 78.) It also alleged that plaintiff claimed some right in the property, but that said claim was without foundation. The defendant filed an answer and also a cross-complaint. The findings of the court found nearly all of the cross-complaint to be true, but some of the allegations of the cross-complaint were omitted from the findings, that is, they were neither found to be true nor untrue.

It is the claim of the appellant that, notwithstanding the general findings and conclusion of the court that the Estate of Hannah Boyle, deceased, was the owner in fee simple of the property described, the other findings of the court responding to the allegations of the cross-complaint are such that judgment should have been given for the defendant.

The cross-complaint pleaded that Hannah Boyle obtained the McE'nerney quiet title decree without in any manner notifying the appellant. That she did this by mistake and in ignorance of the legal effect of such a decree upon the title of appellant to said property.

We take the facts from the findings of the court. On June 2, 1905, Hannah Boyle, a widow, signed, asknowledged and delivered to appellant, who was her only unmarried daughter and who lived with her during her whole lifetime until the death of her said mother, a deed of gift to said property reserving unto herself a life estate in the same. Following the fire of 1906, which destroyed the public records of the city and county of San Francisco, the decedent obtained the McEnerney decree quieting title, November 9, 1911. The remainder of the findings necessary to be considered are as follows: