Scott v. Austin

California Court of Appeal Jul 31, 1922 No. Civ. No. 4272.Published

Before: Richards

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Holding. The court held that a husband has the legal authority to convey community property acquired prior to the 1891 amendment of Civil Code section 172 as a gift, provided the conveyance is made in good faith and without fraudulent intent.

Issues

Whether the 1891 amendment to Civil Code section 172, restricting a husband's power to convey community property, applies to property acquired before its enactment.
Whether a conveyance of community property without valuable consideration is per se fraudulent.

Disposition. affirmed

Quotations verified verbatim against the opinion

“the husband possessed full power to make an absolute gift of the whole of the community property acquired prior to the amendment of section 172 of the Civil Code in 1891, when such conveyance was made in good faith”

“The question whether a transaction involving the transfer of real estate is fraudulent is a question of fact and not a question of law”

RICHARDS, J.

This is an appeal from a judgment in favor of the defendants in an action brought by the plaintiff as the surviving wife of one John B. Scott, to recover a one-half interest in certain community lands which her said husband conveyed during his lifetime to the defendant without her consent to such conveyance. The plaintiff is an insane person, and in bringing said action is acting through the regularly appointed guardian of her person and estate. The plaintiff and said John B. Scott intermarried on May 14, 1873, and continued to be husband and wife until the death of her said husband on February 18, 1920. Oh April 6, 1888, the lands in question, consisting of business property on Main Street, in the city of Salinas, were acquired by said John B. Scott by purchase, and it is a conceded fact in the case that they are of the present value of about twenty thousand dollars. On May 6, 1889, the plaintiff was adjudged insane by the superior court of Monterey County and was committed to the state hospital at Stockton, where she has ever since been and now is in said condition, and is incurably insane. Her present age is about seventy-three years. On January 31, 1920, said John B. Scott conveyed said premises to the defendant herein, Horace W. Austin, reserving to the grantor a life estate therein. The said grantor was then seventy-six years of age and was in failing health. He died, in fact, within a month after the deed of said conveyance. It is an admitted fact in the case that no money consideration passed from the defendant Austin to said John B. Scott for said conveyance. The only consideration claimed by the defendant to have existed therefor being the execution by him to said Scott of an instrument in writing at the time of the delivery of said deed, reading as follows:

“Salinas, Cal., January 30, 1920.

“In consideration of a deed of conveyance this day made to me by John B. Scott, I hereby agree that from aud

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after the death of the said John B. Scott, I will pay towards the care and support of his wife, now confined in the asylum for the insane at Stockton, California, such amounts as, from time to time, may be fixed or required by the public authorities, and will likewise furnish her with necessary clothing.

“This obligation is to continue until the death of the said wife of John B. Scott, and is to bind my heirs, executors and administrators.

Scott v. Austin

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RICHARDS, J.

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