Gregoire v. Redwood City Elementary School District

WOOD (Fred B.), J. In this action brought by plaintiffs to quiet title to certain land, the defendant school district prevailed. In support of their appeal plaintiffs claim (1) the court failed to make findings on certain issues, (2) the evidence demonstrates an oral gift of the property to the plaintiffs, and (3) the evidence demonstrates that plaintiffs acquired title by adverse possession.

Louis and Katherine Gregoire, husband and wife, acquired this property as joint tenants in 1924. Louis died in September, 1952. In November, 1952, the defendant school district filed a condemnation suit against Katherine. It resulted in acquisition of title from Katherine by judgment entered in June, 1953. She appealed. The appellate court affirmed. The Supreme Court denied a hearing and the judgment became final on January 12, 1955. (See Redwood City etc. School Dist. v. Gregoire, 128 Cal.App.2d 766 [276 P.2d 78].)

In November, 1955, plaintiffs, the 12 children of Louis and Katherine, filed this action. They pleaded ownership in general terms as is usual in a complaint to quiet title. They predicated title upon an asserted oral gift to them from Louis and Katherine. In their closing brief they advanced the additional claim of title by adverse possession against the defendant district.

(1) Did the court fail to make findings of fact on certain material issues? No.

Plaintiffs mistakenly claim the court failed to find on the question whether or not Louis and Katherine orally gave them this property.

The court expressly found the allegations of the answer true and of the complaint untrue except, as to the latter, that the plaintiffs had been in possession and that the defendant claimed an interest in the property. This, by reference to those allegations, a finding that since June 30, 1953, the defendant district has been and is sole owner of the property in fee simple absolute and that the plaintiffs have no title or right to it, is a sufficient finding of ultimate fact on that subject in a suit of this nature. (See 41 Cal.Jur.2d 580-582, Quieting Title, etc., § 82, and cases there cited.)

Similar findings in respect to the allegations of the district’s cross-complaint and Katherine’s answer thereto include a finding that Louis and Katherine did not give this property to the plaintiffs and that the plaintiffs do not own it.

In addition, the trial court expressly found that “the [670]