Crabtree v. Potter

LORIGAN, J.

This is a controversy between daughter and parents over a couple of lots of land in Hazard’s East Side Addition in Los Angeles.

The plaintiff filed an ordinary complaint in ejectment to recover possession of the land. Defendants, by answer, denied her ownership or right to its possession, and also filed a cross-complaint, the essential averments of which were: That defendants were husband and wife, and purchased the property in question in 1900 for four hundred dollars, taking title for the benefit of the marital community in the name of the wife; that on July 19, 1901, there was a mortgage debt upon the lots for one hundred and fifty dollars, being the balance of the purchase price; that defendants were at

[711]

that date old and infirm and financially poor, having no property save these lots; and that it was difficult for them to make enough -money to support their family, and it was a matter of struggle and self-denial for them to make payments on the mortgage; that plaintiff, their daughter, proposed to them that if they would convey said property to her she would pay the balance of said mortgage, and that defendants should have and retain said premises as their home as long as they lived; that feeling they would thus be relieved from the burden of making payments on said mortgage, and also be secured in a home for life, they consented to her proposition; that they had confidence in her and trusted and relied on her statements and promises, and so confiding and trusting, and induced to do so solely by her promises, they, on July 19, 1901, executed a deed conveying the property to her; that said property was then worth eight hundred dollars; that said statements of plaintiff were false and fraudulent, and made by plaintiff to defendants with intent to deceive and defraud them out of their property; that plaintiff did not intend to perform the same, but intended when they were made to deceive and defraud the defendants; that plaintiff has violated her trust and seeks to eject defendants from the said premises. The cross-complaint closes with a prayer that the deed to plaintiff be set aside and annulled; that it be decreed that plaintiff holds the property in trust for defendants, and for general relief.

Plaintiff, by answer to the cross-complaint, practically denied all the allegations therein except as to the execution of the deed, and alleged that all the money that was paid by defendants for said property was money she had loaned her mother for that purpose. She further alleged that about July 19, 1901, her mother applied to her for a further loan to make payment on said property, which she refused to let her have; that her mother then offered to deed her the property if she would pay off the balance of the mortgage and release her from the loans theretofore made to her by plaintiff; that plaintiff consenting to do so, defendants deeded her the property and she released them from said loan and assumed and paid off the mortgage.