Wills v. Pauly
Wills v. Pauly
Opinion of the Court
This action is brought by the plaintiff for the purpose of having it declared that defendant holds the undivided one half of a certain tract of land described in the complaint as the trustee of the plaintiff, and to obtain a conveyance thereof by defendant to plaintiff, and an accounting for rents and profits. The court below rendered judgment for plaintiff, from which, and from an order denying a new trial, the defendant appeals.
Respondent contends that upon this appeal nothing can be considered other than the judgment-roll, for the reason that the appeal from the judgment was not taken within sixty days, and that the notice of motion for a new trial was given prematurely; but, as it is doubtful whether or not the respondent did not waive the irreg. ularity of the notice of motion for a new trial by filing amendments to the statement without objection, we will not consider that question, as it does not appear to be very important in the case.
J. O. Glenn, father of the plaintiff, died on Novem
“ Know all men by these presents: That I, Harriet F. Glenn, wife of G. O. Glenn, late deceased, of Kern
“ Witness my hand this 26th day of July, 1880.
“(Signed) H. B. Glenn (Seal.)”
It is quite clear from the record that in the ordering and making of this sale the provisions of title IX of the Code of Civil Procedure were not substantially followed, and that in fact there was no attempt to follow said proceedings. The petition for the sale set forth that the whole of the estate of said Glenn, deceased, was not of any greater value than fifteen hundred dollars; and the court proceeded upon the theory that in such a case there could be a valid order of sale without any compliance whatever with the provisions of the code with respect to the sale of real estate of a deceased party. The whole proceeding seems to have been based upon section 1469 of the Code of Civil Procedure as it existed at that time. Said section, so far as it is necessary to be considered here, reads as follows: “If upon the return of the inventory of the estate of an intestate it appears that the value of the whole estate does not exceed the sum of fifteen hundred dollars, the probate court must appoint a day for the hearing, and cause notice to be given and proceedings had in the same manner as provided in 1633, 1635 and 1638 of article II, chapter X, of title II, of the Code of Civil Procedure, relating to settlement of accounts. If upon the hearing the court find that the value of the estate does not exceed the sum of fifteen hundred dollars, the probate court by decree for that purpose must assign
At the time of the order for the sale, as above stated, there had been no decree of the probate court under section 1469. Afterward, however, upon the eighteenth day of September, 1880, the said administratrix did present a petition for a decree setting apart the property to the widow and minor child as provided for in said section 1469, and on the twenty-seventh day of September, 1880, such a decree was made. But, if the latter decree had been made before the said order of sale, the results would have been the same. Section 1469 does not provide for any sale of the property of the deceased. It merely provides that the whole estate shall be set apart to the widow and children, subject only to the expenses of last sickness, administration, etc. If there is to be any sale of the real property of the estate to pay such expenses, such sale must be conducted under the provisions of title IX of the code, where alone the power to make and the method of such sale are to be found. Article IV, of chapter VII, of title IX, of the code, commencing with section 1529, provides fully and minutely for the sale of the property of a deceased person when such sale is for any purpose necessary, and it has been frequently held that no sale is valid where there has not been at least a substantial compliance with that article of the code. The court gets jurisdiction to order such sale only by compliance with those provisions of the code, the very first of which is a verified petition-(Beckett v. Selover, 7 Cal. 215; 68 Am. Dec. 237; Pryor v. Downey, 50 Cal. 398; 19 Am. Rep. 656; Estate of Boland, 55 Cal. 310; Richardson v. Butler, 82 Cal. 174; 16 Am. St. Rep. 101.) There are also various provisions in the
We see nothing in the point made by appellant that this action is barred by the statute of limitations'. At the time of the sale respondent was a minor; and the testimony was amply sufficient to warrant the court in finding that she had not discovered the facts upon which this action is based until within the statutory period before the commencement of this action.
The appellant contends that a judgment of the United States circuit court dismissing a bill brought by this respondent against the appellant for the same cause of action set tip in the complaint in the present case is a bar to this action; but we do not think so. It does not appear that the merits of the case were determined in that action. It was held there that the plaintiff, being a married woman, could not sue in the federal court in her own name, and it also appeared that the only thing relied on by the plaintiff in that case to confer jurisdiction upon the federal court was that she was a citizen of the Territory of Arizona, the defendant therein being a citizen of California; but it has been uniformly held by the federal courts that citizenship of a territory did not give jurisdiction to those courts, where the defendant was a citizen of a state. The case was decided upon a demurrer to the complaint.
It appears that the deceased had acquired title to the
The judgment and order appealed from are affirmed.
Harrison, J., Garoutte, J., Van Fleet, J., Temple, J., Henshaw, J., and Beatty, C. J., concurred.
Rehearing denied.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- MARY E. WILLS v. A. PAULY
- Cited By
- 12 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Estates of Deceased Persons—Sale of Real Estate—Jurisdiction— Unverified Petition.—The superior court obtains jurisdiction to order a sale of real estate only by substantial compliance with the provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure regulating such sales, first of which is a verified petition; and where there is no verified petition upon which to base an order of sale, a sale under such order is void, and passes no title to the purchaser. Id.—Estate Less than Fifteen Hundred Dollars—Construction of Code.—The fact that the estate of the decedent is of less value than fifteen hundred dollars, only justifies the court in setting it apart without any sale, to the widow and children, subject to the expenses of last sickness, administration, etc., pursuant to section 1469 of the Code of Civil Procedure; but if there is to be any sale of real property to pay such expenses, it must be conducted under the provisions of title IX of the code, where alone the power to make such sale and the method of making it are to be found; and the court has no jurisdiction to dispense with the regular proceedings required by that title, because the estate is of less value than fifteen hundred dollars. Id.—Enforcement of Trust—Title of Purchaser—State Patent— Rights of Minor Heir—Statute of Limitations — Discovery of Facts.—Where the purchaser at a void sale of the real estate of a decedent obtained title from the state as the successor in interest of the decedent, under a certificate of purchase held by such decedent, one who was a minor heir at the time of the void sale may enforce a trust against such purchaser; and where the facts upon which the trust was based were not discovered by such heir, until within three years before the commencement of the action, the cause of action is not barred by the statute of limitations. Id.—Res Adjudicaba—Dismissal or Suit in Federal Court—Want of Jurisdiction.—A judgment of dismissal of a suit brought by the plaintiff in a federal court for want of jurisdiction or right of the plaintiff to sue in that court, is not res adjudicata as to the cause of action upon the merits, or a bar to another action for the same cause brought by the same plaintiff in the state court. Id.—Certificate of Purchase Held by Decedent—Patent Obtained by Purchaser at Void Sale—Payment not Required or Heir Enforcing Trust.—Where the decedent had fully paid for the land in controversy, and obtained a certificate of purchase therefor, and the purchaser at a void probate sale obtained a patent under such certificate, an heir of the decedent enforcing a trust against the holder of the patent, to one-half of the land, is not required to pay one-half of the purchase money to the defendant.