Carpenter v. Smallpage

CURTIS, J.

The original plaintiff died during the pendency of this appeal. His executor has been substituted in his place. All references herein to the plaintiff or appellant are intended to relate to the original plaintiff.

Plaintiff brought this action to quiet his title to certain real property situated in the city of Stockton. Defendants answered, and the defendant M. M. McFarland set forth in his answer that he was the owner of said real property and claimed to have acquired the same under and through a trust deed executed by Charles A. Menne and Alzada M. Menne, his wife. Each of the parties hereto derive whatever rights they have in said real property from a common source, that is, from the said Charles A. Menne, who acquired the property from George 0. Rimington on June 9, 1923. In October, 1925, Menne married Mary Alzada Welton. (In all documents hereinafter mentioned her name appears as Alzada M. Menne.) In April, 1926, he filed and recorded a declaration claiming said real property as a homestead. On May 29, 1926, Charles A. Menne deeded the property to his wife, Alzada M. Menne. On June 14, 1926, Alzada M. Menne was declared a bankrupt. As the real property here involved was a homestead at the date said Alzada M. Menne was declared a bankrupt, it is conceded that said bankruptcy proceedings did not in any way affect the title to said real property, although it stood on said date in the name of said bankrupt. On July 7, 1926, Charles A. Menne and his wife, Alzada M. Menne, executed a trust deed to said real property to secure certain obligations due to the Stockton Morris Plan Company. This trust deed was duly recorded in the office of the county recorder of the county of San Joaquin, where the real property therein described was situated, on July 9, 1926. On January 23, 1930, an abandonment of said homestead was executed and filed for record in the office of said county recorder. On March 15, 1930, Charles A. Menne was adjudicated a bankrupt. On February 6, 1932, Charles A. Menne and Alzada M. Menne executed a deed to said real property to the plaintiff herein, A. H. Carpenter, which deed was duly filed for record on February 8, 1932. In the meantime, the trust deed executed

[132]

by Menne and wife to secure said obligations due the Stockton Morris Plan Company had been foreclosed by a sale of said real property by the trustees named therein and in accordance with the provisions of said deed of trust. At said sale, the defendant M. M. McFarland became the purchaser of said real property, and the deed from said trustees to said McFarland was recorded on February 9, 1932. Upon this state of the evidence, the trial court found that the defendant M. M. McFarland was the owner of said real property and that the plaintiff had no title or interest therein. Judgment was rendered in accordance with these findings, and the plaintiff has appealed.