California Trust Co. v. Kerckhoff-Cuzner Mill & Lumber Co.

SHENK, J. California Trust Company, as executor of the estate of R. W. Huntley, deceased, brought the action to quiet title to certain lots situated in Los Angeles. Subsequently the heirs of the decedent were joined as party plaintiffs. Certain of the defendants filed disclaimers and otherwise waived any right to oppose the plaintiffs’ claim of title. The trial proceeded on the issues raised by the complaint and the answer of the defendant, John L. Kirkpatrick. The plaintiffs had judgment, from which John L. Kirkpatrick, who will be referred to as the defendant, has appealed.

The plaintiffs deraigned title through a trustee’s deed delivered pursuant to a sale of the property under a deed of [629]trust. On September 16, 1927, the property was owned by Thelma H. Davis, who on that day deeded it to Amanda E. Lesher. On the same day the last two named persons and F. E. Davis executed a deed o£ trust securing payment of the sum of $8,500 to Ethel L. Purwin. At the sale held under that deed of trust on November 15,1930, Fred J. Eddy became the purchaser, and on November 17, 1930, he received the trustee’s deed which was recorded on that day. On September 23, 1932, Eddy and his wife delivered to the plaintiff executor their deed running to the “heirs or devisees of R. W. Huntley, deceased”, the estate being then in the course of administration.

The defendant claimed title through a grant deed executed by Amanda E. Lesher on October 2, 1930, and which was delivered to him in January, 1932. In addition the defendant sought to have declared as an equitable mortgage a certain instrument executed in December, 1931, by Amanda E. Lesher, on the one hand, and Eddy and Huntley on the other, which purported to be a six months’ option to purchase the property by Amanda E. Lesher for the sum of $13,000, but which option was never exercised. All of the terms and provisions of the option heed not be noted. It was the defendant’s theory that the option to purchase should have been construed as an equitable mortgage and that the plaintiffs should have brought a foreclosure action instead of an action to quiet title. The trial court found that at the time of the delivery of the grant deed by Amanda E. Lesher to the defendant, the former was not the owner of the property but that all of her right, title and interest had been foreclosed by the sale under the deed of trust. It found further that the option agreement was not in fact or in legal effect an equitable mortgage, that the option had not been exercised, and that the option instrument was no longer in force. Judgment was accordingly entered for the plaintiffs.