Alaniz v. Casenave

Temple, C. This action is for an accounting and to compel the reconveyance of real estate.

The complaint charges that defendant Pierre is the husband of the other defendant, who is the niece and adopted daughter of plaintiff; that after their marriage, in 1870, defendant Pierre took charge of plaintiff’s business, and has ever since continued to manage and control the same as her agent; that in 1874 plaintiff sold some property, and placed the proceeds, about twenty-two thousand dollars, in the hands of said Pierre to [44]manage for her; that with a portion of the money he purchased certain lots in Los Angeles, taking the deeds in her name, but retained the larger portion of the money; that on the seventeenth day of June, 1875, he proposed to her that for the purpose of managing her business she should convey all the lands to him, promising to manage and control the same for her, and reconvey on demand, and thereupon she conveyed all of the lands to him for the purposes mentioned; that she was living in the family of defendants at the time, had unlimited confidence in him, and was entirely under his control in business matters, being herself an illiterate and ignorant woman, entirely unacquainted with business, and was induced by his representations and promises to make the conveyances, and she is informed and believes that at the time of making the promises he had no intention of performing them, but made them with the fraudulent purpose of inducing her to put the property in his hands, that he might cheat and defraud her; that she had requested a reconveyance, which he refused to make; that he is indebted to her in a large sum, the amount of which she is unable to state, for portions of the money unexpended, and for rents received by him, and the proceeds of her property sold by him; that said defendant pretends that he never received from her, or for her use, any money whatever; and that he did not receive said lands in trust, but purchased the same from her; that on the twenty-second day of May, 1888, said defendant conveyed said lands to his wife, the other defendant, by a deed of gift; that the said Cayetana was privy to all the fraudulent designs of her husband, and took the deed for the sole purpose of defrauding the plaintiff and preventing the assertion of her rights, and, in trust, for the use and benefit of her husband.

The answer admits the relationship of the parties set out in the complaint, but denies that defendant Pierre was ever the agent of plaintiff, or managed any business for her in any capacity; denies receiving any money for her; denies that the lands were conveyed to him