Paduveris v. Paris

SEAWELL,J.

Defendant appeals from a judgment for plaintiff in an action to quiet title to a lot in the city of Oakland. The parties were formerly husband and wife, and had resided upon the property to which the action relates until their separation. Defendant denied that her claim of interest was without right and alleged that said property was community property of herself and her former husband; that neither the interlocutory nor final decree of divorce entered in the action commenced by her in April, 1917, made any provision for the distribution of the community property; and that no settlement of her community interest had ever been made. She prayed that the court decree the extent of her interest and make such settlement thereof as it should deem proper.

[171]

Upon the trial of the action herein plaintiff introduced in evidence a deed of said property from his wife to himself and testified that said deed was signed by his wife in his presence in July, 1917, which was after she had filed suit for divorce, and immediately delivered to him. It was not acknowledged and had ' never been recorded. Defendant denied having signed said deed or any other instrument transferring her community interest to her husband. By its general finding that plaintiff was the owner and entitled to the possession of the property involved and that the " claim of defendant was without right, the court below rejected defendant’s contention that her signature was a forgery. Upon this appeal defendant does not attack the court’s conclusion in this regard, which we find to be amply supported by satisfactory evidence, but contends that notwithstanding said deed may have been executed it is of no legal effect.

This contention is based in part on the premise that the interlocutory and final decrees of divorce, entered after the date of the deed, which do not purport to dispose of the property of the parties, nevertheless determined that the property here involved was community in character, and the force of said adjudications cannot be overcome in the action herein by evidence of a transaction had before the entry of said decrees. Defendant must fail in this argument for the reason that neither the interlocutory nor final decree purport to determine the character of the property.

Defendant alleged in her complaint for divorce on the ground of extreme cruelty that the property herein described was the community property of herself and her husband, of the value of $4,000 and subject to a mortgage of $2,500, and that the household furniture was of the value of $50. She prayed that it be set aside to her. The complaint was filed on April 3, 1917. The deed under which plaintiff herein claims bears date July, 1917. He filed a general demurrer in the divorce action, which was overruled. On October 5, 1919, more than two years after the execution of the said deed, the wife filed a supplemental complaint alleging additional acts of cruelty and describing the property, which she had referred to in the first complaint as