De Galindo v. De Galindo

McFARLAND, J.

This is an action to establish an alleged trust in certain described land; to compel the defendant Marina to convey said land to the plaintiff; and to quiet title thereto as against all the defendants. The defendants other than Marina are made parties upon averment that they claim some interest in the property. The court made findings and rendered judgment in favor of ' defendants; and from the judgment and an order denying her motion for a new trial plaintiff appeals.

The plaintiff is the surviving wife of Francisco Galindo, deceased, who died testate on January 10, 1890, and she was the owner, as successor of said Francisco, of certain land, including that described in the complaint. Francisco left surviving him a son named John, by a former wife, and the defendant Marina is the surviving wife of said John, now deceased. John was nominated in the will of Francisco as executor and qualified and acted as such. On January 29, 1891, the plaintiff executed a deed to said Marina which on its face absolutely and unconditionally conveys the land described in the complaint in fee to said Marina. At the time of the execution of this deed Marina and her husband, John, were living on said land, and had been living there since before the death of said Francisco; and they continued to live there, using the land as their own until the death of John, which occurred on December 4, 1898, ancj the defendant Marina continued to so live there after the death of John. It does not appear that after her deed plaintiff asserted any interest in said land until after John’s death. Several months thereafter, and between eight and nine years after the said deed to Marina, plaintiff commenced this action.

Plaintiff seeks to maintain the action upon averments which may be briefly stated as follows: She avers that she had confidence in said John, and was herself ignorant of business; that pending the administration ■ of the estate of

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Francisco, and while said John was acting as executor, he represented to her that the heirs o£ one Salvio Pacheco were claiming that a large part of the property of Francisco, including the land here involved, was held in trust by him for them; that said heirs were threatening to and about to commence legal proceedings to enforce said trust; that said proceedings would cause plaintiff great trouble and annoyance if she retained the title to said land in her own name; that he was familiar with business and legal proceedings, and that if she would convey the land to him he could manage the legal proceedings to better advantage and with less trouble to her than if she retained the title; and that if she would make the transfer to him he would hold and protect the property for her, save her all trouble in defending against the legal proceedings, and “would reconvey the property to her whenever she might demand the same.” She further avers that these representations were false and fraudulent, and that he never intended to reconvey the property to her, but that, relying on these representations as true, and solely by reason thereof, she agreed to convey said property to him; that he had a deed prepared in which defendant Marina was named as grantee instead of said John; that she at first declined to make a deed to Marina, but it was represented by John that it would be safer and better to make the conveyance to his wife than to him, and that she would take the deed upon the same trusts and conditions as theretofore agreed upon between him and plaintiff; and that upon these promises she agreed to and did execute the deed to Marina, who she avers took with knowledge of the said conditions and trusts.. The complaint is quite full of details, but the foregoing condensed statement of its contents is sufficient for a full consideration of the case. Its averments as to the false representations about the claims and threats of the Pacheco heirs, and considerations which induced plaintiff to execute the deed, are all denied in the answer.