McBrown v. Dalton

Citations

• 70 Cal. 89
• 11 P. 583
• 1886 Cal. LEXIS 732

Syllabus

<p>Partition — Agreement between Co-tenants — Trust — Decree. — Pending a suit for the partition of a ranch, the plaintiff, who owned an undivided interest therein, conveyed his interest, except a specified portion reserved to himself, to the defendants, a committee of trustees acting on behalf of a league formed of certain tenants in common of the ranch, of which the plaintiff was a member. At the time of the conveyance, the defendants executed and delivered to the plaintiff a writing by which they consented and agreed that he should have set off to him by the decree in the partition suit the portion so reserved, and that they would use their influence to secure the same to him. By a subsequent transaction, to which the plaintiff was not a party, the defendants acquired title to the undivided interest of one Gates, a tenant in common in the ranch. The interlocutory decree in the partition suit, after determining the respective rights of the parties, adjudged that the interest of the plaintiff should be set off to him within the boundaries of the reservation made in his deed to the defendants. That portion of the ranch contained 3138 acres. Eight hundred and twenty-six acres of it were allotted and set apart to the plaintiff as his ascertained and adjudged interest; the remainder was allotted and set apart to Gates as his ascertained interest; while the interest acquired by the defendants under their deed from the plaintiff was allotted and set apart to them in a portion of the ranch wholly outside of the reservation. The final judgment, from which no appeal was taken, confirmed these allotments. Held, that the legal title acquired by the defendants to the portion of the reservation allotted to Gates was not held in trust for the plaintiff. c</p> <p>Id.—Action to Enforce Trust — Parties.—Held further, that the defendants held the legal title to the land, which they acquired from Gates and the plaintiff in trust for the members of the league, and that the plaintiff,