Lawrence v. Maloof

JEFFERSON, J. Plaintiff filed a complaint seeking to quiet title to real property purchased several years before at a marshal’s sale. The court gave judgment for defendants, enjoining plaintiff from setting up any claim to the property, and plaintiff appeals. The facts are not in dispute.

On or about May 20, 1953, plaintiff obtained and recorded a judgment against the then owner of the subject property. An execution was levied on the property and it was sold to plain[602]tiff on November 18, 1955. A marshal’s certificate of sale was issued to plaintiff which was recorded on November 25, 1955. The one-year period for redemption expired without any redemption. Plaintiff did not secure a marshal’s deed, however, until December 22, 1964, about two months before commencing this suit.

In September 1953 the judgment debtor conveyed his interest in the property to Elizabeth Maloof, one of the defendants herein, who then took possession. (The claimed interests of the other defendants derive from her.) Since September 1953 she (or her successors in interest) have been in possession of the property, paying on the encumbrances, selling off parts and paying taxes.

Among its findings, the trial court found that, at the time of the commencement of this action, the defendants were the owners of the property, having acquired such ownership by adverse possession; that plaintiff was barred by section 318 of the Code of Civil Procedure from maintaining the present action.

The single question involved in this appeal is the date when the statute of limitations commenced to run. Plaintiff contends it was the date she acquired the marshal’s deed to the property (two months before bringing the present action). Defendants, on the other hand, contend the limitations period ran from the date the redemption period expired when they were entitled to possession of the property (which was about eight years before).

Generally speaking, a cause of action accrues when a suit may be maintained thereon, and at that point the statute of limitations begins to run. (Maguire v. Hibernia Sav. & Loan Soc., 23 Cal.2d 719, 733 [146 P.2d 673, 151 A.L.R. 1062].)

A purchaser at an execution sale possesses title to the property sold from the time of the sale (Pollard v. Harlow, 138 Cal. 390; Hansen v. G. & G. Trucking Co., 236 Cal.App.2d 481, 495 [46 Cal.Rptr. 186]; Powers v. Powers, 221 Cal.App. 2d 746, 750 [34 Cal.Rptr. 835]; Code Civ. Proc. §700), and may maintain an action to quiet title against the judgment debtor even before the redemption period has expired. (Elbert, Ltd. v. McKenna, 116 Cal.App.2d 480, 483 [254 P.2d 107]; Truelsen v. Nelson, 42 Cal.App.2d 750, 755 [109 P.2d 996].)