Weeks v. Link

HENSHAW, J.

The complaint is in ejectment, alleging ownership and possession in plaintiff upon the second day of January, 1899, and the unlawful ouster and withholding of possession by defendants. The defendants pleaded, and the-court found, that Eva G. Weeks in her lifetime was the owner of the property in dispute; that Eva G. Weeks was the wife of O. D. Weeks, plaintiff herein, and daughter of defendants; that defendants were put in possession of the property by their daughter, resided upon it and made it their home with their daughter until her death in October, 1897, and that since her death they had continued to occupy the premises as their dwelling-place and home; that their daughter died seised in fee of the property, and by her last will and testament, which was admitted to probate, devised the same to her father, the defendant, Sylvester Link; that by the decree of distribution in the estate of Eva G. Weeks, deceased, the land and premises were distributed to the defendant, Sylvester Link, according to the terms and provisions of the will of the daughter. Thereafter, and on the sixteenth day of June, 1898, the defendants executed and delivered to the plaintiff a deed of conveyance of the land and premises. A part of the consideration for the deed was a certain contract and agreement in writing, executed by the parties on that date. This agreement provided that the plaintiff employed the defendant Sylvester Link “to farm, cultivate, work, superintend, and manage the ranch and orange orchard situated on Dearborn Street in said city of Redlands, on which the said Sylvester Link and his wife now reside, for and during the natural life of the said party of the second part, and hereby agrees to pay to the said

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party of

the

second part for said work, labor, and services the sum of $250.00 annually during each and every year of said term.

The object of the said Oscar Dayton Weeks by this agreement being to insure to the said Sylvester and his wife - a home on said ranch during their lives free of rent and all charges whatsoever.”

The contract further provided for an accounting by the defendant Sylvester Link of his stewardship, empowered him to employ extra help in the cultivation of the ranch and in gathering and marketing the proceeds thereof, and bound the plaintiff to pay such necessary extra help, either out of the proceeds of the sale of the products of the ranch, or from his own funds, if requested to do so. The defendants then allege that they were in possession of the . premises under this agreement, which had been faithfully carried out upon their part, and prayed judgment accordingly.