Spencer v. Stewart

SHENK, J.

This is an appeal by the plaintiff from a judgment in favor of the defendants in an action to quiet title to real property. The complaint was filed in December, 1924, by plaintiff as administratrix with the will annexed of the estate of William Hobbs, deceased, against the defend

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ants as executors of the last will and testament of Anna Hobbs, deceased, to determine which of the two estates has legal title to the real property in question. A sale of the property to one Bosbyshell for the sum of $7,650 had been confirmed by the probate court in the matter of the estate of William Hobbs, when a formal transfer was delayed by reason of what was claimed by the prospective buyer to be a defect in or a cloud on the title occasioned by an unrevoked declaration of homestead filed by Anna Hobbs in 1877, when she and William Hobbs were husband and wife and were residing on lots 1, 2, and 7 in block 3 of the Sanchez Tract in the city of Los Angeles. The property was community property and was declared to be of the value of $5,000. The declaration recited that the husband “has not made any declaration of homestead.” In January, 1880, William Hobbs, the husband, died, leaving a will wherein he devised and bequeathed all of his property to his wife, Anna Hobbs. Thereafter Anna Hobbs lived on the property, paid all taxes, etc., and at the time of her death in January, 1911, was still possessed of lot 7, which is the subject of the controversy. Anna Hobbs’ will left possession of all of her property to Mary E. Spencer, a granddaughter of William and Anna Hobbs, until the property should be sold, when the proceeds were to be divided one-fourth to her and the balance to other heirs as provided in the will. Anna Hobbs’ will, appointing Stewart and Adams the executors thereof, was admitted to probate on July 19, 1911, and the will of William Hobbs, who had died in 1880, was admitted to probate on January 11, 1912. Mary E. Spencer enjoyed possession of the property and received the rents therefrom from 1911 to the time when this action was brought, and so far as the record shows nothing further was done in either of these estates until about that time. The trial court found in favor of the defendants, adjudged t"he declaration of homestead to be valid and subsisting at the time of the death of William Hobbs and quieted the title to the property in the estate of Anna Hobbs.