Barnard v. Wilson

Belcher, C. C. This action was brought to quiet the plaintiff’s title to four lots of land in the city of Los Angeles. The case was submitted in the court below upon an agreed statement of facts, and judgment was rendered in favor of the defendant. The plaintiff moved [514]for a new trial, and has appealed from the judgment and order’denying her motion.

The material facts of the case are as follows: On the nineteenth day of March, 1875, the defendant, being then the owner of the lots in controversy, mortgaged them to W. C. Barnard, to secure the payment of $1,375. The mortgage used the words, “has granted, bargained, sold, conveyed, and confirmed, and does hereby grant, bargain, sell, convey, and confirm, unto the said party of the second part, his heirs and assigns,” etc. On the first day of July, 1876, the defendant, for a valuable consideration, conveyed the lots to Miss M. M. Wheeler; and thereafter, in the month of December following, they intermarried. On the fourteenth day of June, 1879, Mrs. Wilson, formerly Miss Wheeler, died intestate, leaving her husband, the defendant, and one sister her only heirs; and on the twenty-seventh day of the same month, the sister, by deed of quitclaim, conveyed all her right, "title, and interest in and to the lots to the defendant. On the sixteenth day of October, 1879, an action was ■commenced against the defendant to foreclose the said mortgage, and such proceedings were thereafter had that ■on the first day of March, 1880, a decree was signed foreclosing the mortgage, and ordering a sale of the mortgaged property to satisfy the amount found due, viz., $1,230; and on the sixteenth day of October, 1882, under and in pursuance of the decree and order of sale, the sheriff sold the property at public auction to the plaintiff, and on the same day issued to her his certificate of sale, and thereafter, on the twenty-seventh day of April, 1883, there having been no redemption, executed and delivered to her his deed conveying to her the property so sold.' On the ninth day of July, 1883, letters of administration on the estate of his deceased wife were duly granted to the defendant, and he continued to act as administrator of the estate until the ninth day of February, 1884, when a decree was entered distributing the [515]whole of the property of the estate, including the lots in controversy, to him. In the year 1880 the lots were assessed, and taxes were levied against them for city purposes. The taxes became delinquent on the first day of November, 1880, and not being paid, the city tax collector, after due notice, sold the lots on the seventeenth day of February, 1881, to pay the taxes, percentages, and costs. O. Barnard was the purchaser at the tax sale, and received from the collector a certificate of sale for each lot. The time to redeem from the sales expired on the eighteenth day of February, 1882, but no redemption was had; and on the third day of March, 1882, Barnard assigned his certificates to the defendant, who held them until the thirteenth day of July, 1886, and then obtained from the tax collector a deed in proper form and properly executed for each of the lots.