Caruthers Building Co. v. Johnson

SLOSS, J.

This action was brought against Parley M. Johnson to quiet the title of Caruthers Building Company to certain land in the county of Los Angeles. Johnson filed a cross-complaint, bringing in as parties various purchasers of portions of the property from Caruthers Building Company. Judgment went in favor of the building company and its grantees. Johnson appeals from the judgment and from an order denying his motion for a new trial.

All of the respondents, other than Caruthers Building Company, derive their rights from that corporation, and we shall, therefore, in this opinion treat the controversy as if it were one between Johnson as appellant and Caruthers Building Company as the sole respondent.

Both of these parties claim under William Reid as the common source of title.- In 1890 Reid executed a conveyance of the land to one Wannop. In 1906 Wannop and Reid made quitclaim deeds of the land to C. B. Williams. All of these deeds were duly recorded, and they vested the record title, from 1906, in Williams. He claimed to own the property in fee by virtue of them:. In June, 1906, Williams borrowed of the German American Savings Bank the sum of three thousand five hundred dollars, for which he gave his promissory note, secured by a deed of trust to Union Trust and Realty Company as trustee. In November, 1906, Reid brought an action against Williams, German American Savings Bank, and Union Trust & Realty Company, in which he sought an adjudication that his. conveyance to Wannop and the subsequent deeds from Wannop and himself to Williams, although absolute in form, .were in fact mortgages. The trial resulted in findings in favor of this contention, and judgment was rendered on March 17, 1909, directing the plaintiff to pay to the German American Savings Bank the sum of three thousand five hundred dollars, with interest,

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due it under tHe note of Williams; directing said German American Savings Bank, upon payment of said sum, to cancel and deliver to Williams his promissory note and to give him a release of the indebtedness, and requiring the Union Trust & Realty Company, upon payment of said moneys to the savings bank, to reconvey the property to the plaintiff Reid. No appeal was ever taken from this judgment.

On October 22, 1909, Reid conveyed the land by deed of grant to one Hunter, and on August 24, 1909, Hunter conveyed by a like deed to Ilex Realty Company, a corporation. On November 3, 1909, Ilex Realty Company made a deed of trust to Union Trust and Realty Company in favor of the German American Savings Bank to secure a loan of three thousand two hundred dollars. On or about the same date, the three thousand five hundred dollars required to be paid under the judgment of March 17, 1909, was paid to the savings bank, the releases provided for in that judgment were duly made, and Union Trust & Realty Company executed its deed to Reid. The evidence shows that the payment to the savings bank was made by Ilex Realty Company. Thereafter, the Ilex company defaulted in the payment of its three thousand two hundred dollar debt, and Union Trust and Realty Company sold the property under the power conferred upon it by the deed of trust from Ilex Realty Company. The appellant, Johnson, purchased at such sale, paying for the land the sum of $6,250. The trustee’s deed to Johnson was executed under date of October 24, 1910. The time to appeal from the judgment declaring Reid to be the owner of the land had expired when the trustee’s sale to Johnson was made.