Schott v. Schott

ANGELLOTTI, J.

Two actions were commenced by the plaintiff against the defendant. One was an action instituted in the superior court for the partition of three parcels of land

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situated in the city of Los Angeles, the plaintiff claiming that he and the defendant were the owners thereof in joint tenancy. The other action was one for the recovery of certain rents and profits for one of said parcels, instituted in the justice’s court, and transferred to the superior court for the reason that the defendant claimed that title to the real property was involved therein. By consent the actions were consolidated and tried together in the superior court. Judgment went for the defendant, and we have here an appeal by plaintiff from such judgment and from an order denying his motion for a new trial.

All the property involved stands on the records in plaintiff and defendant as joint tenants with the right of survivorship, the same having been acquired by three deeds from third parties, one bearing date April 30, 1907, another bearing date October 23, 1908, and the third bearing date November 18, 1908. In the first of these deeds the grantees were described as “Ada L. Schott and Victor L. Schott, ... or the survivor of them,” in the second as “Ada L. Schott and Victor L. Schott (her son) as joint tenants with the right of survivor-ship and not as tenants in common,” and in the third deed “Ada L. Schott and Victor L. Schott, her son, as joint tenants with the right of survivorship.” By her amended cross-complaint the defendant alleged substantially that she bought all of said property; “that at the time of the making of said conveyance, the plaintiff and the defendant were residing together ; that the consideration for the transfer to the plaintiff of plaintiff’s alleged interest in said property was that the plaintiff would continue thereafter to reside with the defendant during the balance of her life and care for, protect, comfort, and maintain her; that the plaintiff agreed to care for, protect, comfort, and maintain the defendant during the balance of her life and in consideration of such promise and for no other reason whatsoever, at all, defendant was induced to have the conveyances of the property heretofore described made to the plaintiff and the defendant in joint tenancy; that the said conveyances to the plaintiff of his alleged interest in said property were made wholly upon the aforesaid representations and for no other reason whatsoever, at all, and the plaintiff has failed and still fails to care for, protect, comfort and maintain the defendant during her old age; that the defendant verily believes that the plaintiff made the aforesaid