Scott v. Umbarger

Citations

• 41 Cal. 410

Syllabus

<p>Purchase by ah Admihistrator at his owh Sale.—If a person procures himself to he appointed administrator of an estate, and at a sale of the property of the estate purchases the same through a third person, who pays no money, and agrees to hold the title for the administrator, the sale is a fraud on the heirs, and such third person, and all who buy from, him with notice, hold the property in trust for the heirs.</p> <p>Denials in Answer.—K. acquired the legal title to land under such a state of facts as made his purchase fraudulent, and made him the trustee of S. IT. bought from K. S. commenced an action against TJ., to have him declared his trustee, and to compel him to convey the land. In' his complaint he averred the facts, showing K.’s fraud, and which, in law, made him the plaintiff’s trustee. S., in his answer, admitted these facts and his knowledge of them, but denied that he became the trustee of S., or that there was anything unfair or fraudulent in the facts alleged. Meld, that the answer admitted the trust.</p> <p>Purchase erom One who Holds in Trust. — One who purchases land from another who acquired the title fraudulently, and thereby became a trustee, in order to protect himself in his purchase, must have been ignorant of any of the facts constituting the fraud, not only at the time of his purchase, but when he paid the purchase money and obtained his deed.</p> <p>Constructive Trust.—If a party who is in possession of land, without right, legal or equitable, is fraudulently deprived of the possession by one who does not deprive him of any right at law resulting from his prior possession, and the one who thus obtains possession then purchases the title from the true owner, he does not hold this title in trust for the prior possessor, and cannot be compelled to convey it to him.</p>