Earle v. Bryant

TAGGART, J.

This is an action to quiet title. The case was submitted to the trial court upon an agreed statement of facts. Judgment was rendered in favor of plaintiff based upon full and .complete findings made by the court. Appellants moved for a new trial upon a bill of exceptions, in which the only exceptions, or alleged errors, presented consist of some ten specifications of the insufficiency of the evidence to justify or sustain the findings. The appeal is from an order denying that motion.

Plaintiff claims title to the real estate in dispute as executor of William T. Earle, deceased, to whom it was conveyed for a valuable consideration by Elizabeth E. Bryant, by deed dated November 24, 1886. He entered immediately into possession thereof, improved the property by building--a house and making other improvements, paid all taxes levied and assessed against the property, and his occupation and possession thereof were open, continuous and exclusive, until he died on October 22, 1905. Since that time possession has been held and all taxes thereon paid by plaintiff in the same manner. Defendants’ predecessor in title was William Bryant, who, in his lifetime, was the husband of said Elizabeth E. Bryant. Bryant settled upon said premises with his family in the year 1875, and continued to reside thereon until his death on December 22, 1882. In 1877 he made application to the United States land office to enter a pre-emption claim upon a government fraction which included the land in controversy. His application was rejected, but after successive appeals to the commissioner of the general land office and

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the Secretary of the Interior, his application was directed to be received by an order dated on February 27, 1885. Elizabeth E. Bryant, who had been appointed administratrix of the estate of William Bryant, deceased, in January, 1884, thereafter, on the twenty-third day of March, 1885, entered the property as a pre-emption claim, and on January 12, 1889. the patent thereto issued in her name. The land was returned by said Elizabeth E. Bryant as a part of the estate of William Bryant, in the inventory and appraisement of said estate filed by her as administratrix, the said property being declared to be community in character. On October 11, 1884, a final account and petition for distribution was filed in said estate wherein distribution of said property to the heirs at law of William Bryant was prayed for. No decree of distribution was made and nothing further done in said administration. The petition, signed in the name of Elizabeth E. Bryant, by her attorney, enumerates all the defendants, except Timothy Judson and J. E. Hartell, as heirs at law of William Bryant, deceased, and declares them all to be adults, except Amanda M. Bryant, whose age is given at sixteen years. Knowledge on the part of William Y. Earle of the interest of the estate in the property mentioned, at the time he purchased, is admitted; and it is also stipulated that all of the defendants have lived in the county of Los Angeles near where said property is situated with knowledge of said conveyance since it was made, and have never made any claim to the premises until this action was commenced, May 13, 1907.