Jordan v. Fay

Citations

• 98 Cal. 264
• 33 P. 95
• 1893 Cal. LEXIS 903

Syllabus

<p>Estates of Deceased Persons—Title of Devisee. — The legal title to real estate devised by will passes to the devisee, subject only to the payment of the claims of creditors against the estate and the expenses of administration.</p> <p>Id.—Quieting Title—Rights of Purchaser from Devisee. — A purchaser of land from the devisee of a decedent, who receives a conveyance of the title of such devisee before settlement or distribution of the estate, may maintain an action to quiet title to the devised premises, as against any one except the executor or administrator.</p> <p>Id. —Presumption as to Unpaid Claims. —In such action, where it does not appear that there were any unpaid claims or expenses of the estate at the time of the conveyance from the devisee, it is to be presumed that there were none.</p> <p>Id. — Husband and Wife — Community Property — Presumption— Joint Conveyance-Deed by Surviving Husband.—Under the law of this state, as it stood before the enactment of the codes, there was a legal presumption that all property acquired after marriage by either' husband or wife was common property, in the absence of clear and convincing proofs that it was acquired as separate property, and in the absence of such proof, it must be presumed that land conveyed jointly to a husband and wife, prior to the code, was community property, and that a conveyance thereof by the husband, after the death of the wife, passed title to the entire interest conveyed to them jointly.</p> <p>Id. — Rule of Property.—The legal presumption in force prior to the codes, that ail property acquired by husband or wife after marriage was community property, was not a mere rule of evidence, but was a rule of property, and section 164 of the Civil Code, as amended in 1889, providing that property conveyed to the wife shall be presumed to be her separate property, did not and could not change the former rule so as to disturb titles already vested thereunder.</p> <p>Id. — Construction of Deed—Conveyanc