Croce v. Bazzuro

BEASLY, J.,

pro tem.

This action was begun some time previous to the ninth day of October, 1914, by Luigi Croce, as administrator of the estate of Francesco Bazzuro, against Mary Bazzuro and Anna Rose Mary Bazzuro, a minor daughter of Mary, to recover $1,960 from the defendants upon allegations that they received this fund in trust for the heirs of the deceased Francesco upon a fire insurance policy for loss sustained by the destruction of a building in the fire of April 18, 1906, and also to recover five hundred dollars alleged to have been collected by the defendants as rents from the tenants of the building covered by the policy. The facts supporting the action were these: Francesco Bazzuro died intestate in 1879. At his death he held a mortgage upon a lot in San Francisco on which the building above mentioned was situated. His brother, Giuseppe Bazzuro, was appointed administrator of the estate and as such foreclosed this mortgage, bought in the property at the amount of the mortgage at a sale in the foreclosure proceedings, and obtained a sheriff’s deed as administrator of his brother’s estate in the year 1884. In that condition the matter rested until the death of Giuseppe, which occurred in 1904. A year after the death of Giuseppe, the plaintiff, Luigi Croce, was appointed adminis.trator of the estate of Francesco to succeed Giuseppe, and he is still the administre tor of that estate. The defendant Mary is the widow of Giuseppe, and Anna Rose Mary is the daughter of Giuseppe and Mary. Mary and Anna Rose Mary are the only heirs at law of Giuseppe. On the fifteenth day of July, 1905, a decree of distribution was entered in Giuseppe’s estate by which all of the property vested in him at his death was distributed in equal shares to his widow and

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child. On the tenth day of October, 1905, Mary caused the building on the property to be insured against fire in the sum of two thousand dollars. The policy was made payable to the estate of Giuseppe. About the 7th of November following, Mary caused the name of the insured in the policy to be changed from the “Estate of Giuseppe” to “Mrs. Mary Bazzuro.” The building was totally destroyed by fire on April 18, 1906, and on the 7th of July succeeding, the defendants collected $1,960 upon the policy because of the loss. On the twenty-fifth day of September, 1913, in an action theretofore begun by the plaintiff and the defendants herein, the court made its decree that the real property distributed in the complaint was, at that time and had been from the month of October, 1904, held by the defendants in trust for the heirs at law of Francesco Bazzuro and required the defendants to convey the real property in trust for the said heirs and subject to administration of Francesco’s estate. On the first day of November, 1913, a commissioner, appointed by the court in that action for the purpose, executed and delivered to plaintiff a deed pursuant to that decree, conveying to him, as administrator, the real property described in the complaint herein in trust for the heirs at law of Francesco and subject to administration of his estate. Before the destruction of the building Mary had collected five hundred dollars as rent from tenants thereof.