McGee v. Hoffman

NOURSE, J.

This is an appeal from a judgment in favor of defendant in an' action to quiet title to certain real property situate in the county of Orange in this state.

The facts material to the opinion are that defendant and one J. W. Hoffman intermarried in February, 1909, and that soon thereafter Hoffman purchased the property in controversy, taking the deed thereto in the name of W. S. Jones. In June, 1911, defendant, while still the wife of the said Hoffman, recorded her declaration of homestead upon the property. In February, 1913, at the instance of J. W. Hoffman, an action was brought in the superior court of Orange County in the name of W. S. Jones against this defendant, Carrie Hoffman and her husband, J. W. Hoffman, to quiet title to this property. Personal service of process was had therein upon said Carrie Hoffman and she suffered her default' to be entered. J. W. Hoffman filed a disclaimer, and in August, 1913, judgment was entered quieting title in the name of W. S. Jones. In July, 1914, the said Carrie Hoffman instituted proceedings in Orange County for a divorce from her husband, J. W. Hoffman, alleging in her complaint that the said J. W. Hoffman and W. S. Jones were one and the same person and that the property in controversy was the community property of the parties involved in the action for divorce. Service of process in the divorce action was obtained by publication only, and in January, 1915, the default of the defendant in that action was entered. In March of that year an interlocutory decree of divorce was rendered in favor of Carrie Hoffman, wherein all the property was awarded to her. In September, 1915, J. W. Hoffman, under the name of Jones, executed the deed to plaintiff upon which he bases his claim of title to the land. Upon the trial plaintiff rested upon proof of title

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under this deed. Defendant rested upon her claim of title based upon the award contained in the interlocutory decree of divorce, the showing that J. W. Hoffman and Jones were one and the same and that plaintiff was fully aware of all the facts above stated, that he paid no consideration for the property, and that the deed from Jones to him was in fact made to him by J. W. Hoffman without actual transfer of title and for the purpose of defeating the award to plaintiff under the interlocutory decree. The trial court found in favor of the contentions of defendant upon all these disputed points. Having specifically rejected the testimony of McGee and J. W. Hoffman as given upon the stand, and having found that J. W. Hoffman and Jones were the same person, the court was justified in disregarding the written evidence contained in the deed from Jones to plaintiff as being discredited by the testimony given at the trial. It fully appears from the record that in this respect the trial court committed no error.