Kreske v. Eyman

SHOEMAKER, P. J. Plaintiff Frank Kreske brought this action to quiet his title to an easement over certain real property in the possession and use of defendants. Defendants J. R. Eyman and Allan Fuller, sued both individually and as the [841]business entity of Fuller and Eyman, answered, denying .that plaintiff was the owner of the easement and asserting several affirmative defenses.

After a nonjury trial, the court found that plaintiff was not the owner of the easement described in the complaint, and disposed of the affirmative defenses adverse to defendants. The court concluded as a matter of law that defendants were entitled to judgment against plaintiff and that plaintiff should take nothing by his complaint to quiet title. Judgment was accordingly entered, and plaintiff appeals.

Although the court made no probative factual findings indicating the basis for its ultimate finding that plaintiff was not the owner of the easement described in the complaint, the court did render a memorandum opinion in which it pointed out that plaintiff had derived his title to the alleged easement through one Abrott, who in turn had taken by a 1919 conveyance from the Danville Water Company, a public utility which had made the conveyance to Abrott without having obtained the permission of the California Railroad Commission. The court concluded that since Abrott was a shareholder and incorporator of the Danville Water Company and was therefore not a buyer “in good faith” from said utility, the conveyance to him had destroyed the easement under the provisions of former section 51, subdivision (a), of the Public Utilities Act, as it then read.

Plaintiff’s sole contention on appeal is that the trial court misconstrued the applicable statute and ought to have held that since plaintiff was himself a purchaser in good faith for value, it was of no moment that his predecessor in interest, Abrott, was not. This argument is untenable.

At the time of the 1919 conveyance from the Danville Water Company to Abrott, section 51, subdivision (a), of the Public Utilities Act provided in pertinent part as follows: “No . . . water corporation shall henceforth sell, lease, assign, mortgage or otherwise dispose of or encumber the whole or any part of its . . . plant or system, necessary or useful in the performance of its duties to the public, . . . without having first secured from the commission an order authorizing it so to do. Every such sale, lease, assignment, mortgage, disposition, encumbrance, . . . made other than in accordance with the order of the commission authorizing the same shall be void. . . . Nothing in this subsection contained shall be construed to prevent the sale, lease or other disposition by any public utility of a class designated in this subsec