Worthington v. Crapser
Worthington v. Crapser
Opinion of the Court
This is a suit to quiet title to lots 11 and 12 of block 9, and lots 1 and 2 of block 3, in Mechanics addition to Tacoma. A trial before the court resulted in a decree in favor of the plaintiff, from which the defendants have appealed. Appellants claim an interest in the lots under the will of Phoebe Worthington, the deceased wife of the respondent, and base their claim upon the ground that the lots were the community property of respondent and Phoebe Worthington at the time of her death, thus enabling her to dispose of her interest therein by will. Respondent claims the lots as his separate property.
Respondent.and Phoebe Worthington were married in 1893. At that time he had a small store and stock of notions therein
The petition for letters testamentary of the deceased wife’s estate filed by respondent, it is insisted, amounts to an admission that these lots were community property. The lots are not described in the petition, though even if they were, we would not be inclined to hold that that fact would estop him from now claiming that they are his separate property under the circumstances. He is by no means a man learned in the law, and from his testimony it is apparent that he had but little conception of the difference between community property and separate property when he filed that petition. The will was in his possession at the time of her death, another person was named as executor therein, and his wife appears to have had some property besides her possible community interest in these lots. Under these circumstances, he presented the will for probate and filed the usual petition therewith. We think that fact was of little or no weight under the circumstances in determining the character of this property. Under all the circumstances, we are constrained to affirm the judgment. It is so ordered.
Mount, Gose, and Fullerton, JJ., concur.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- T. T. Worthington v. Charles M. Crapser
- Cited By
- 9 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Husband and Wife — Community Property — Evidence — Sufficiency. Lots purchased by a husband with money received from his father, as an advance from his father’s estate, are his separate property, even if he procured a loan to pay a very small portion of the purchase price, where such portion was too small to notice. Same — Evidence—Admissions. The husband’s petition for letters testamentary on the estate of his wife is not an admission that certain lots which she attempted to dispose of by her will were community property, where she had other property, and the lots in fact belonged to his separate estate.