Snodgrass v. Ricketts

Baldwin, J. delivered the opinion of the Court Terry, C. J. concurring.

This case, when it came on for trial, was, after the plaintiff’s statement of his case, summarily disposed of by the Court, by its intimation that, conceding the plaintiff’s statement to be true—that is, that he could establish the facts stated in the bill— he was not entitled to recover. We do not consider this a demurrer to the evidence. It was rather deciding the case on the demurrer, or as on demurrer to the complaint, or as on a motion for a nonsuit. We mention this for the purpose of saying that if we remand the case on the ground of error in the judgment below, it will be sent back for a new trial.

It is only necessary to look into the bill to see whether the plaintiff has any cause of action; for if he has, and could have introduced any legal proof to sustain the complaint, he was entitled to do so.

The bill states that in January, 1859, at request of defendant, Ricketts, and defendant, Margaret Seymour, (then Kleas,) the [361]plaintiff contracted with and purchased from Ricketts a third of a lot in Sacramento City for one thousand eight hundred dollars, and Ricketts executed a deed accordingly. Before and at the time of this purchase of Margaret and Ricketts, they declared to him, in the presence of each other, that Ricketts was the owner of 0110-third and Margaret of the other two-thirds of this lot, and plaintiff acted and paid his money on this assurance; that, before this, one Gardner bad levied an attachment for some four hundred dollars, duo by note made by these defendants, on this property, and got judgment; that this judgment was a lien upon this property at the time the plaintiff bought from Ricketts, and plaintiff afterwards, at the request of these defendants, paid it off. This was a part of the consideration money paid by plaintiff to Rickets for the property. Bill avers further, that in November, 1853, these defendants made a note to--for one thousand dollars, at six months, five por cent, per month interest, and a mortgage was executed to secure this debt on this property; on this, plaintiff paid five hundred and fifty dollars, as a part of the price of the land; and that the balance of this one thousand eight hundred dollars, due by plaintiff, was paid by him to Ricketts, and divided between him and Margaret. The bill proceeds to state that in January, 1858, plaintiff caused, for the first time, a search to be made of the records for this lot, and then first discovered that Ricketts and Margaret Seymour had “no regular title,” from John A. Sutter or his grantees, to. the east half of this lot; but the title to this lot was in one. Mumford; that Ricketts had only an undivided one-half interest in the east half of the west half of said lot, and that the title to the east half of Lot Number One, and the west half of Lot Number Two, and this undivided half interest in the east half of the-west half of Lot Number Two, was in Margaret; that prior to. plaintiff’s purchase, the said Margaret had made a deed to Ricketts for the same; that the deed was not recorded, and after the purchase, redelivered to Margaret fraudulently, and then by them destroyed; that Margaret, after the plaintiff’s purchase and payment for it, in September, 1854, conveyed the whole of her title to her daughter Elizabeth Ideas—made a defendant— to the east half of the Lot Number One, the west one-half of Lot Number Two, and the undivided one-half interest in the east