Tompkins v. Sprout

Citations

• 55 Cal. 31

Syllabus

<p>Pleading—Complaint — Joinder of Actions — Demurrer.—Held, that the complaint in this case, being a combination of several independent and distinct causes of action, could not have been sustained had a demurrer been interposed.</p> <p>Fraud as to Creditors—Fraudulent Conveyance—Equity—Pleading— Demurrer—Action to Quiet Title—Equity.—In an action by a purchaser at an execution sale, to quiet title and to compel a conveyance against one who had purchased land from a fraudulent grantee of the execution debtor, by a deed made with intent to defraud creditors, the complaint alleged that the defendant claimed some estate or interest in the land adverse to the plaintiff, but that his claim was without right, and that he had no right, title, or interest therein; and the answer admitted the former and denied tiie latter allegation; and the Court found that the defendant had purchased with constructive but without actual notice of the fraud, and that he had paid off a mortgage on the land which was prior to the plaintiff’s claim. Held, 1st, that the pleadings raised a material issue, and that, though the answer should have set out the nature of the defendant’s claim, yet, as no demurrer or objection to the evidence was interposed, it could not be objected that the finding was not within the issue; and 2ndly, that the plaintiff was entitled to the relief prayed for, only upon the terms of paying to the defendant the amount paid by him in satisfaction of the mortgage.</p> <p>Id.—Id.—Id.—In an action to set aside a deed which is only constructively fraudulent, a Court of Equity will protect the purchaser as well as the creditor, where both can be protected without injury to either.</p> <p>Id.—Id.—Id.—Where the fact of fraud is established in a suit at law, the buyer loses the property; but where the proceeding is in equity, the Court will deal with the subject according to the equities of the case; the cardinal principle, in all such cases, being that the property of the debto