Mandeville v. Solomon

Wallace, J., delivered the opinion of the Court:

A decree was entered in this cause, in the Court below, directing the appellant to convey to the respondent an undidivided interest in certain lands in Butte County, and her motion for a new trial being afterwards denied she prosecutes this appeal.

It appears that one James Potter, since deceased, had, at the time of his death, an unconfirmed claim to a piece of land, called, in the record, “Potter’s Half League.” He left seven children surviving him, and a will-—-by the terms of which it was supposed that one of his infant sons, James K. Polk Potter, was the sole devisee of this half league. John Bidwell subsequently purchased the tract at a sale made by the guardian of J. 3L P. Potter, under the direction of the Probate Court, and received from the guardian a conveyance thereof. He subsequently, in 1862, sold and conveyed to the respondent, Mandeville, and to Perrin L. Solomon, since deceased, a distinct portion of the tract so purchased by him, and retained the balance himself. At the time of Bidwell’s purchase, and also when he made the sale to Mandeville and Solomon, it was supposed that the title to the entire tract had passed to him at the guardian’s sale.

Mandeville and Solomon entered into the possession of the tract they purchased of Bidwell, and remained in its possession as tenants in common, until the death of P. L. Solomon, who departed this life on September 18th, 1863, and left the [129]appellant (his widow), the sole devisee of his interest in the land.

In April, 1863, Solomon was advised that the six other children of James Potter were the owners of, and were asserting claim to, the undivided six sevenths of the half league, by reason of its having, subsequently to the death of the father, been confirmed to the seven children, as his heirs at law, and Solomon, thereupon, commenced negotiations to purchase their title.

The claim of these six children was in the hands of William Neely Johnson for sale, and while the negotiations were proceeding between Solomon and Johnson, the latter, at the request of Solomon, called the attention of the respondent, Mandeville, to the fact, with a view to his joining with Solomon in the proposed purchase, but Mandeville then positively refused to do so.

Subsequenty, and before the consummation of the purchase by Solomon, the respondent, Mandeville, upon being applied to, personally, by Solomon himself, in the City of San Francisco, to unite with him in the purchase, again declined to do so.