Los Angeles First National Trust & Savings Bank v. Northrup

STURTEVANT, J.

The plaintiff commenced an action to quiet title. It named as defendants James L. Northrup, Mrs. James L. Northrup, Ada Osborn, and W. M. Mauck as administrator of the estate of Clarence S. Osborn. An answer was filed by Ada Osborn and W. M. Mauck. A purported answer was filed for James L. Northrup by W. M. Mauck as administrator of the estate of C. S. Osborn. Each answer contained many affirmative allegations. The trial court made findings in favor of the plaintiff and from the judgment entered thereon the defendants have appealed.

On March 18, 1914, the title to the lots in controversy was vested in the Los Angeles Title and Trust Company. On that date it executed a deed conveying a number of pieces of property, including the lots in controversy, to the Los Angeles Trust and Savings Bank. That institution was merged in the Pacific Southwest Trust and Savings Bank. That corporation commenced this action. Before the trial the court made an order that the Los Angeles First National Trust and Savings Bank should be substituted as plaintiff. On the trial it was stipulated that the Pacific Southwest Trust and Savings Bank had become merged in the Los Angeles First National Trust and Savings Bank. In the briefs that stipulation is denied but the denial is not supported by the record. The plaintiff introduced in evidence its deed. It also introduced evidence that the lots in dispute are unoccupied and that the plaintiff and its predecessors are entitled to the possession of them, and that they have paid the taxes 1916-1928, both years inclusive. It was the theory of the defendants that on the fourteenth day of October, 1915, the Los Angeles Trust and Savings Bank executed a contract agreeing to sell the lots in dispute to James L. Northrup; and that thereafter he assigned his contracts on May 9, 1917, to C. S. Osborn. But it was the contention of the plaintiff, and the trial court held, that the assignments were invalid because each contract contained a clause “No assignment, sale or transfer of this agreement shall be valid unless written consent thereto by the Los Angeles Trust and Savings Bank is endorsed hereon, ’ ’ and

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that its written consent to an assignment was never given. In reply the defendants assert that a written consent to the assignment was indorsed on each contract. In support of that assertion they call our attention to an indorsement as follows: “The foregoing assignment is hereby approved Los Angeles Trust and Savings Bank, By-, Trust Officer; ’ ’ The blank was not filled in, no seal was attached, and there was no showing that the trust officer had any authority to execute a “written consent” to assignments of such contracts. It follows that there was no authorized assignment. (5 C. J. 875;