Bowden v. Heaton

ADAMS, P. J. Plaintiffs, Lottie Bowden and Clara Mitchell, about January 31, 1945, filed an action claiming to be owners of some 800 acres of land in Humboldt County, and seeking to quiet their title thereto. Numerous defendants were named, but as the only defendants concerned with this appeal are Jennison Heaton and his wife, Beulah P. Heaton, further reference to the others may be omitted.

The Heatons filed an answer and a cross-complaint setting up ownership of some 600 acres of the property in themselves, [735]and seeking to quiet title as against plaintiffs. The latter replied to the cross-complaint, and the issues created were tried by the court, sitting without a jury, and resulted in a decree quieting plaintiffs’ title on the ground that plaintiffs, under color of title, had taken possession of the property, and by adverse possession for more than the statutory period had acquired an unassailable title as against the Heatons.

The evidence in the case shows that plaintiffs were owners of the property in controversy prior to June 1, 1926, at which time they leased it, with an option to purchase. The lease interest eventually became vested in Benbow Company, a corporation, which company, about June 1,1926, executed a trust deed to Mercantile Trust Company which did not include the property in controversy, but did include “all executed contracts for the sale and purchase of any other real property covered by this indenture, whether same be a part of the property herein specifieially described or such real property as shall hereafter be acquired by the company.” On April 16, 1928, plaintiffs, in execution of the option to sell, deeded the property to Benbow Company, taking, in payment therefor, promissory notes to the amount of $16,375, secured by a mortgage on the property conveyed, said mortgage being recorded June 22, 1928. In June, 1933, one Wilson succeeded the original trustee under the trust deed. On September 5, 1933, Wilson executed a deed to F. H. Woll and F. K. Clelland, which included the 800 acres of the property conveyed by plaintiffs to Benbow Company. Woll and Clelland executed to Jennison Heaton, on September 24,1934, a deed apparently for but 600 acres of the original 800 acres, upon which the Benbow Company had constructed an airport, which deed was recorded August 3,1936.

On October 10, 1933, payment of the purchase notes executed by Benbow Company not having been made, plaintiffs instituted foreclosure proceedings, naming a large number of defendants. Jennison Heaton was included as “Jennison Heaton, a corporation,” and, though Beulah Heaton was not at first named as a defendant, she was thereafter, by an amendment of the complaint allowed by the court, made a defendant, was served with summons September 11, 1936, and defaulted.