Hagan v. Hagan

RICHARDS, J.

This is an appeal from that portion of a judgment which is in plaintiff's favor in an action wherein the plaintiff seeks a decree that the defendant, his wife, holds the title to several certain pieces of real estate in the counties of Santa Clara, San Diego, and Kern in trust for the plaintiff’s use and benefit. The trial court held that the properties in Santa Clara and San Diego Counties were the sole and separate property of the defendant by virtue of certain deeds of gift from the plaintiff to her, but that as to the Kern County property, which the plaintiff had also transferred to the defendant by a conveyance in the form of a deed of gift, she took and held an undivided one-half of the same in trust for the plaintiff’s use. It is from this latter portion of the judgment of the lower court that the defendant has appealed.

Practically the only question presented for the consideration of this court is whether the evidence is sufficient to sustain the findings and judgment of the trial court as to the property involved in this appeal.

[37]

There are certain undisputed facts which may be first recited. The plaintiff and defendant were married in the city of New York in the year 1887. The plaintiff had been married before and had three daughters. At the time of his second marriage he was forty-five years of age, while the defendant was then but twenty-five years old, and was a schoolteacher, with a salary of from $40 to $50 a month, but with no other income or property. The plaintiff had been for several years a traveling salesman for a large jewelry house, in which he had an interest, and was earning from fifteen thousand dollars to twenty thousand dollars a year. At the time of his marriage he was the owner of some personal and real property, including the Kern County ranch, consisting of about 640 acres of land, which was at that time, however, believed to be of comparatively small value. The married life of plaintiff and defendant was for many years a happy and congenial one. He was a fond, trustful, and doting husband, and she a faithful helpmeet, traveling with him, looking after the details of his financial affairs, collecting his earnings and depositing them in various banks, and drawing upon them and upon his account with his firm at her own pleasure and without any question on her husband’s part. At Christmas in 1888, being in Santa Clara County, he bought a lot in San José and gave it to his wife for a Christmas present. In the following year he executed and delivered to her a deed of gift to the Kern County lands. In December, 1890, being in San Diego, he bought, at the suggestion of a mutual friend, the San Diego lot, and gave it also to her for a Christmas present. In the year 1900 he acquired and conveyed to her lands in Tacoma, Washington, by like deed of gift; in fact, the plaintiff at various times conveyed to his wife all of his real estate which he owned before marriage and all that he acquired afterward; and he also practically placed in her control all of-his earnings and personal property. He also had his life insured in her favor in sums amounting to thirteen thousand dollars, some of the policies of which have matured and their amounts become available to her. In the meantime the plaintiff had grown old, and had lost his position and earlier earning capacity and been otherwise unfortunate in certain business ventures. In the year 1911 the plaintiff and defendant quarreled over some trifling financial matter, and the difficulty then occasioned presently involved the whole question