Parker v. Burrows

McCOMB, J. Plaintiff: filed an action to quiet title to the following personal property: (1) A promissory note in the principal sum of $4,500, executed by William J. Grover and Jeraldine W. Grover, payable to Louisa J. Covey and plaintiff as joint tenants, which promissory note was secured by a deed of trust. This note will be hereinafter referred to as the Grover note. (2) An undivided one-half interest in a promissory note executed by Otis C. Briggs and Dorothy J. Briggs in the principal sum of $4,350, payable to Louisa Covey, which note was secured by a deed of trust. Hereinafter this will be referred to as the Briggs note. (3) One-half of the sum of $2,123.46 on deposit with Western Federal Savings and Loan Association.

Trial was had without a jury and judgment entered for plaintiff, Lillian May Parker, quieting title in an undivided [784]one-half interest in both the Grover and Briggs notes, and in and to the balance of the account at Western Federal Savings and Loan Association in the sum of $1,117.04. It was also decreed that plaintiff recover from defendant Lloyd A. Burrows, as guardian of the person and estate of Louisa J. Covey, an incompetent person, the sum of $1,161.65, as money collected by said defendant on the Grover and Briggs notes for plaintiff’s benefit.

Facts: On May 19, 1938, Louisa J. Covey, who had been previously widowed by the death of her husband, the father of her three adult children, Dr. Clinton A. Burrows, Lillian May Parker and Dr. Lloyd A. Burrows, conveyed to plaintiff a house and lot on Maple Street in Pasadena, California, reserving in herself a life estate therein. On June 2, 1938, plaintiff and her husband conveyed their reversionary title in the property to their three sons subject to the life estate therein reserved by Mrs. Covey. On January 16, 1945, Mrs. Covey, as owner of the life estate, plaintiff, her husband, their three sons, and the wife of one of the sons, as owners of the reversionary estate, sold and conveyed the Maple Street property to William J. Grover and Jeraldine W. Grover, husband and wife, for $6,800, comprising cash $2,300 and a promissory note dated February 1, 1945, for the principal sum of $4,500, secured by a trust deed payable to Louisa J. Covey and Lillian May Parker as joint tenants.

In 1946, to facilitate the formation of a trust for her mother, plaintiff assigned the Grover note, and endorsed thereon “Pay to the order of Louisa J. Covey (signed) Lillian May Parker.” When it became evident that the proposed trust would not be created, Mrs. Covey on March 22, 1947, executed a reassignment of the Grover note to plaintiff so as to reinvest in plaintiff a joint interest therein with herself, and later on June 12, 1947, restated such an assignment by a proper endorsement on the Grover note itself.