Black Eagle Oil Co. v. Belcher (1913) · DecisionDepot

Black Eagle Oil Co. v. Belcher

Name: California Superior Court Tentative Rulings
Creator: DecisionDepot
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

California Court of Appeal Jun 10, 1913 No. Civ. No. 1342.Published

Before: Shaw

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Holding. The court held that the defendant's prior deed was valid and that the plaintiff failed to prove it was a bona fide purchaser for value without notice, as the consideration provided for the subsequent deed was insufficient and the evidence supported the trial court's findings.

Issues

Whether the trial court erred in admitting a deed that the plaintiff alleged was altered.
Whether the trial court erred in finding that a deed absolute in form was not intended as a mortgage.
Whether the plaintiff met its burden of proving it was a bona fide purchaser for value without notice of a prior unrecorded deed.

Disposition. affirmed

Quotations verified verbatim against the opinion

“At most, there was a substantial conflict of evidence upon the question, as to which the conclusion of the trial court must be deemed conclusive.”

“To entitle a party to protection as such purchaser, he must prove the payment of the purchase money in good faith and without notice, actual or constructive, prior to and down to the time of its payment”

Synopsis

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Kern County and from an order refusing a new trial. J. W. Mahon, Judge.

The facts are stated in the opinion of the court.

Kaye & Siemon, R. H. Cross, and Arthur H. Brandt, for Appellant.

SHAW, J.

Action to quiet title. Judgment against plaintiff, from which, and an order denying its motion for a new trial, it appeals. The land involved is the south

of the northeast % of section 34, township 12 north, range 23 west, S. B. M., in Kern County. It was stipulated that prior to July 27, 1906, the ownership of the entire northeast % of said section 34 was vested in defendant S. E. Belcher. Plaintiff then introduced in evidence the record of a grant deed executed by S. E. Belcher, dated March 9, 1910, recorded April 5, 1910, which purported to convey the land described in the complaint to the Black Eagle Oil Company; whereupon it rested its case. Thereupon defendant offered in evidence a grant deed and the indorsements thereon as follows:

“Grant Deed.

“S. E. Belcher of Los Angeles, County of Los Angeles, State of California, in consideration of Forty Dollars, to me in hand paid, the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged, does hereby grant to Ezra Belcher of Long Beach, County of Los Angeles, State of Calif., all that real property situated

[260]

in the county of Kern, State of California, described as follows :

“The Northeast quarter (%) of Section thirty-four (34), Township twelve (12) range twenty-three (23) B. M. and S., in the County of Kern, State of California.

“Witness my hand this 27th day of July, 1906.

“ (Signed) S. E. Belcher.

“State of California,

“County of Los Angeles—ss.

“On this 27th day of July, 1906, before me J. E. Counts, a notary public in and for said county, personally appeared S. E. Belcher, known to me to be the person whose name is subscribed to the foregoing instrument, and acknowledged that he executed the same.

“Witness my hand and official seal.

“(Signed) J. E. Counts,

Black Eagle Oil Co. v. Belcher

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Synopsis

SHAW, J.

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