Estate of Heydenfeldt

McFARLAND, J.

The executors filed a petition for an order directing the sale of certain real property of the estate in order to redeem from sale under a decree of foreclosure certain property that had been sold for indebtedness of the testator, and in order to pay charges and expenses of administration, to pay taxes on the property of the estate, etc. Written objections to the petition were filed by Elizabeth A. Heydenfeldt, widow of the testator, and certain other heirs. After a full hearing of the matter, the court, on the 12th of January, 1898, made an order directing certain real property to be sold. From this order the widow, Elizabeth A. Heydenfeldt, appeals.

The points mainly relied on here for a reversal are based on asserted insufficiencies of the petition for the sale. No objections of that character were made in the court below; but appellant contends that the petition occupies the position of a complaint in an ordinary action, which may be assailed at any time on the ground that it “does not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action.” Assuming, for the purposes of this decision, that this is so, still a complaint cannot be successfully

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attacked on that ground, unless it exhibits a total failure to state the necessary facts; the point that a statement is insufficient which is easily understood as an attempted statement of a particular fact,'and is merely shadowed by some uncertainty or want of fullness or aptness of expression, can be reached only by a special demurrer or objection in the court below. And in this case, without enumerating here the various objections to it, it is sufficient to say that the petition shows a substantial compliance in all respects with section 1537 of the Code of Civil Procedure, which prescribes what a petition for the sale of property should contain; and “a substantial compliance is enough.”

(Stuart v.

Allen, 16 Cal. 474; 76 Am. Dec. 551;

Richardson v.

Butler, 83 Cal. 174; 16 Am. St. Rep. 101;

Burris v. Adams,

96 Cal. 666, 667;

Burris v. Kennedy,