Meeker v. Spencer

SHAW, J.

Action to quiet title. The complaint, in the usual form in such eases and filed on March 31, 1915, alleged that plaintiff is now, and for a long time has been, the owner of Lot “ G, ” Block 40, Horton’s Addition to the city of San Diego, as to which defendants, though having

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no title or estate therein, wrongfully and without right claim an interest; followed by the usual prayer that defendants be required to set forth the nature of their claims, and that it be decreed that they have no title or claim to the lot. The answer, in addition to denials of plaintiff’s allegations, alleged that William A. Deuress, deceased, was at the time of his death in possession and the owner of the premises described in the complaint, and that his legal heirs, one of whom was defendant Taylor, were the owners thereof, subject to the rights of Wilbur S. Spencer, as administrator of the estate, and entitled to possession thereof; followed by a prayer for a decree in their favor.

The court found: First, that plaintiff was not then, nor at the commencement of the suit, owner of or entitled to the property. Second, that the claim of defendants Wilbur S. Spencer as administrator, and Katherine Taylor as heir of William A. Deuress, deceased, is not without right, but that said defendants have right, title, and interest in said land and every part thereof. Third, that the legal heirs of William A. Deuress, deceased, are the owners of the premises, subject to the administration of said estate by said defendant Wilbur S. Spencer, as administrator thereof; followed by a conclusion of law in favor of said defendants, upon which judgment was entered in accordance therewith.

Plaintiff, claiming that the evidence is insufficient to support these findings, has appealed from the judgment.

Plaintiff at the trial founded her claim of title to the property upon a deed to her made by William A. Deuress on the eighth day of May, 1897, which she says her deceased husband, at the date of its execution, delivered to her. That the deed was signed and acknowledged by the husband, admits of no controversy. The facts and circumstances touching the delivery of the deed are that on the day mentioned plaintiff and her then husband went to the office of a notary public, before whom three deeds were signed and acknowledged, one of which was a deed, signed by both parties, which purported to convey the real estate therein described to the defendant Katherine Taylor, stepdaughter of plaintiff; another was a deed by plaintiff purporting to convey certain property standing of record in her name to her husband William A. Deuress; and the other was a deed from plaintiff’s husband to herself purporting to convey