Ward v. Yorba

HARRISON, J. The parties hereto entered into an agreement in writing February 24, 1893, by which the plaintiff agreed to sell to the defendant for the sum of four thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars certain property in the city of Los Angeles, and the defendant agreed to buy the same and pay said sum of money within thirty days thereafter. The circumstances leading up to this agreement are as follows, viz: The title to the property in question was originally in Francisca D. de Labracco, and in an action by Yorba, the defendant herein, against Labracco the property was attached March 5, 1892, and judgment was rendered in his favor April 20, 1892. Execution was issued upon this judgment July 10, 1892, and on August 20th the property was sold by the sheriff to Yorba. Prior to March, 1892, an action had been commenced against Labracco by one Bacon, in which a judgment was docketed against Labracco March 31, 1892, and under this judgment the property was sold to one Jarvis, and a sheriff’s deed issued to him January 27, 1893. Jarvis immediately took possession of the property, and on January 30, 1893, conveyed the same to Ward, the plaintiff herein. By this conveyance the plaintiff became at its date vested with Labracco’s title to the property, subject to whatever rights Yorba had acquired therein by the attachment and subsequent proceedings in his action against Labracco. Prior to February 24th negotiations on behalf of the plaintiff and defendant had been had for an adjustment of their claims to the property, and on the morning of that day Mr. Mun-day, as attorney for Yorba, and in company with him, visited the office of Mr. Meserve for the purpose of completing the negotiations and purchasing the property from Ward. Munday had previously advised Yorba that Ward’s claim was superior [449]to his own, and that his best course was, to buy the property, (but he saw on that morning that he was mistaken, and it was also conceded by Meserve, after an examination of the abstract, that Yorba’s claim was paramount to that of Ward. As a result of the negotiations upon that morning an instrument setting forth the above agreement was prepared and signed by the plaintiff and the defendant. Before the expiration of the thirty days Yorba was advised that he was not bound to carry out the contract, and gave to the plaintiff a notice of rescission, and afterward declined to make the payment provided in the instrument. Thereupon the plaintiff brought the present action. In his complaint he alleges that the written instrument does not express the actual agreement which was made, and that by a piistake of the scrivener it is drawn so as to require a conveyance of the property, whereas the agreement itself was for a purchase and transfer of merely his right, title, and interest therein, and he asks that the instrument be reformed accordingly, and that he have judgment against the defendant for its performance as so reformed. The court found in favor of this claim, and rendered judgment accordingly. This finding and the judgment thereon are assigned by the defendant as error.