Fouch v. Johnston

NOURSE, J.,

pro

tem.

This is an action to quiet title to a section of land situated in Riverside County. The defendant D. Johnston appeared and filed a cross-complaint setting up a claim that he was the equitable owner of one-half of the property because H. E. Fouch had acquired the property through funds furnished by said defendant under an agreement that he and said defendant should own an equal undivided one-half thereof. Judgment went for plaintiff and against the defendant, from which the latter has appealed upon a typewritten record.

On August 31, 1910, H. E. Fouch and Ella Fouch, his wife, became the owners of the land in dispute. On October 22, 1915, the. defendant D. Johnston, without having any title or interest in said property, executed a deed purporting to convey the same to Raymond Johnston. On April 11, 1917, H. E. Fouch and Ella Fouch commenced this action to quiet title to the premises, joining as parties defendants D. Johnston and his wife, Julia, and Raymond Johnston, the grantee under the deed of October 22, 1915. On the day the suit was filed Raymond Johnston and his wife executed a deed conveying all their interest in the property to Ella Fouch. On December 16, 1920, defendant D. Johnston and his wife gave a deed to the Johnston Realty Corporation covering an undivided one-half interest in, said property and during the trial of this case this corporation and Raymond Johnston filed their disclaimers of any interest in the property and the trial court found that these various deeds executed by the defendant Johnston were wrongfully executed .for the purpose of placing a cloud upon the title. The trial court also found that no trust agreement ever existed between defendant D. Johnston and the Fouehes covering the property in dispute; that D. Johnston never had any interest or right in the property; that at the time of the

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commencement of the action and long prior thereto plaintiffs were owners in fee and in the exclusive possession of the property, but that on April 22, 1920, and prior to the date of the trial, H. E. Foueh and his wife deeded the property to the Riverside Title. Company, a corporation. The judgment declared that Ella Foueh "was at the time of the commencement of the action sole owner in fee absolute of all the property described and in the actual and peaceable possession and occupancy thereof, but that the Riverside Title Company was, at the time of the entry of the judgment, the legal holder in trust of the title of the said property. It was also adjudged and decreed that no person other than the plaintiff Ella Foueh had any estate, interest, right, either legal or equitable, in the premises.