Talbot v. Wetzel

PEEK, J. This is an appeal from an order confirming sale of real property by the administratrix of the above-entitled estate.

The appellant, who is the assignee and transferee of the heirs of the deceased, objected to the sale on the ground that it was unnecessary since he was ready, willing and able' to pay the expenses of administration. However the court confirmed the sale, and this appeal followed.

The overly long and contentious history of this case begins with the death in 1938 of James Wesley Weaver, leaving as his sole heir his son, Clyde Eldon Weaver. The latter died the following year, and prior to probate of his father’s estate. The sole asset in each estate consists of a small acreage in Sacramento County. At the time of Clyde Eldon’s death he was a resident of Winslow, Arizona. His heirs are his wife, Mildred, and three children—Virginia, Norma and James Eldon, all adults. In June of 1948 James Eldon, on behalf of himself and the remaining heirs of James Wesley and Clyde Eldon, for valuable consideration, executed and delivered to Louis E. Wetzel, also a resident of Winslow and the appellant herein, a quitclaim deed to the real property in question. Thereafter, on September 3, 1949, all of the heirs joined in the execution of a warranty deed covering the same property and delivered it to appellant who recorded the same on May 7, 1951. On January 7, 1949, Dorothy M. Talbot, a stranger, neither an heir nor a creditor of the decedent, filed a petition for letters of administration in the estate of Clyde Eldon, being ease Number 30600 in the Sacramento County Superior Court. Although her petition was filed in January of 1949, letters were not issued until June 17, 1954. It would appear that a like petition was contemporaneously filed in the estate of James Wesley since it bears Number 30599. On February 25,1954, and prior to the issuance of letters of administration, a request for special notice was filed by appellant through his attorneys. On April 12, 1956, the administratrix petitioned for confirmation of sale of real property giving notice to appellant as requested. Thereafter on April 24 appellant filed his opposition thereto. It appears that in the probate of the estate of James Wesley an identical situation developed. In that proceeding the late Grover W. Bedeau, then Judge of [369]the Superior Court of Sacramento County, upon the hearing of the petition denied confirmation thereof, and in his order noted that Wetzel, through his attorneys, had agreed in open court to pay all “. . . proper expenses of administration of said estate [number 30599] and the Estate of Clyde Eldon Weaver, Action No. 30600 [the present proceeding], as determined by the Court not heretofore paid, and after examining the return and hearing the evidence the Court finds that said sale is not necessary to pay the expenses of said administration.” Disregarding the conclusion of the court in the James Wesley estate, the administratrix and her attorney again sought to sell the property for the same reason that it “. . . is and was necessary in order to secure funds with which to pay the expenses of administration. ...” Opposition to confirmation of the proposed sale was again filed by appellant and upon the same grounds as in the previous proceeding. Thereafter a hearing was held on May 8, 1956, at which appellant’s attorneys offered in evidence the entire file of the James Wesley estate and affidavits by each of the heirs of the deceased identical to those offered in that proceeding which in substance alleged that the affiants as the surviving spouse and children respectively of the deceased were his sole heirs and as such had executed a warranty deed to the real property in favor of appellant; that said deeds which were also introduced in evidence were then a matter of record; and that the affiants waived any right, title or interest in and to said real property. During the course of the hearing the court reviewed the history of the litigation and stated that at one time, when inquiry was made of the administratrix and her counsel as to why they were so persistent in their attempts to sell the property, Attorney Gibson answered that, “Well, among other things he wanted a bigger fee.”