Badal v. Adams

THE COURT. Plaintiff, a judgment creditor of defendants Isaac and Sarah Adams, brought this action to subject [128]to the lien of his judgment certain real property owned by said defendants, the record title to which had been transferred to their son, defendant Albert Adams, by means of an alleged fraudulent foreclosure and sale. Trial of the cause resulted in a decree in favor of plaintiff from which defendants have appealed. Their principal contention is that the evidence is insufficient to support the judgment. We are of the opinion that the evidence is sufficient.

On July 11, 1931, plaintiff secured a judgment against Isaac and Sarah Adams for $1,091.85. He renewed this judgment in November, 1936, for the sum of $1508.64, and at about the same time he became the assignee of a $214 judgment against them. Abstracts of these judgments were recorded, and the judgments thus became liens upon real property owned by the judgment debtors in Stanislaus County.

The only real property standing of record in the names of Isaac and Sarah Adams in 1931 was their ranch home, upon which they had resided for many years. They had previously executed a deed of trust on this property to the People’s State Bank of Turlock, and on February 15, 1933, they renewed the encumbrance, giving the bank a new deed of trust in the sum of $5,000. Their actual indebtedness, however, exceeded that amount by several thousand dollars, and the bank was anxious to realize something from the loan. On January 12, 1934, an effort was made to refinance the obligation through the Federal Land Bank of Berkeley, but the application for a loan was rejected when a title search disclosed the presence of plaintiff’s judgment liens. The property was then sold under the power contained in the deed of trust, and was purchased by the bank at the trustee’s sale for $7,400, which was approximately the amount owing the bank by Isaac and Sarah Adams. The trustees’ deed to the bank was dated February 26, 1934. Thereafter the bank executed a deed to Albert Adams dated March 12, 1934. The consideration for the conveyance to Albert was paid from the proceeds of a $5,000 loan obtained on the property from the Federal Land Bank under the file number of the prior loan application made by Isaac and Sarah. The Federal Land Bank required Isaac and Sarah to join with Albert in signing two promissory notes evidencing the loan, but the deeds of trust given to secure the notes were signed by Albert alone. The trustees’ deed to the People’s Bank, the deed from it to Albert and the deeds of trust from Albert to