Moretti v. Abbot

WOOD (W. J.), J. The plaintiff obtained a judgment by which his title was quieted in a parcel of real estate and by which relief was denied to defendants on their cross-complaint. From this judgment defendants have appealed.

Prior to January 30, 1935, Mercedes Madden was the owner of a parcel of real estate located on Spring Street in Los Angeles of the value of $7,500, according to the appraisal of the bank which held a lien thereon, to secure the payment of a note on which there was due the sum of $9,438.15. At the same time Kate Carmen Abbot, a sister of Mercedes Madden, was the owner of a parcel of real estate located on Main Street in Los Angeles of the value of $19,000, according to the appraisal of the bank which held a lien thereon, to secure the payment of a note on which there was due .the sum of $6,565.25. Mrs. Madden was in danger of foreclosure because [663]of delinquency. There was also a delinquency in the payment of three years taxes on Miss Abbot’s property. On the date above mentioned Mrs. Madden and Miss Abbot deeded their respective properties by grant deed to Grace Stoermer, an officer of the bank, who in turn executed a deed in favor of Mrs. Madden and Miss Abbot, by which the record title to both properties was conveyed to them as joint tenants. Simultaneously a deed of trust was executed by the two sisters covering both parcels of property to secure a single promissory note in the sum of $17,000, the total indebtedness then due on the properties. All of these instruments were placed in escrow and were filed -for record on February 18, 1935. Miss Abbot died on March 7, 1937, and on April 16, 1938, Mrs. Madden recorded in the office of the recorder of Los Angeles County an affidavit setting forth the death of Miss Abbot and the description of the property in question for the purpose of vesting legal title in herself. Mercedes Madden died on May 14, 1940. Her estate was probated and distributed to her son, plaintiff herein.

The defendants are the successors in interest of three-fourths of the estate of Miss Abbot. They contend that the joint tenancy deed was executed to the two sisters because of the insistence of the bank; that the arrangement by which the two properties were deeded to Grace Stoermer and thereafter to the sisters in joint tenancy was made for security purposes only and that it was the intention of the two sisters that their properties should be kept separate. In their cross-complaint they ask that it be decreed that they have the right to redeem the property which was deeded to Grace Stoermer by Miss Abbot upon the payment of the amount due to the bank and that there be an accounting between the parties covering the collection of rentals received from the two parties.