Watts v. Gallagher

Citations

• 97 Cal. 47
• 31 P. 626
• 1892 Cal. LEXIS 753

Syllabus

<p>Homestead — Separate Property of Husband — Rights of Wife. — The filing, by a husband, of a declaration of homestead upon his separate property vests the wife with an interest in the premises of which she cannot be divested by any act of her husband alone, or by any action taken against him alone.</p> <p>Id.—Mortgage Prior to Homestead Claim — Foreclosure—Parties — Decree Void against Wife—-Right of Possession.—Where a husband, after having mortgaged premises which were held by him as nis separate estate, filed a declaration of homestead thereon, his wife is thereby rendered a necessary party defendant to an action to foreclose the mortgage; and a judgment in an action against the husband alone for the foreclosure of the mortgage, directing the sale of the homestead premises, is void as against the wife, and a sale thereunder confers no rights of possession against her.</p> <p>Id.—Ejectment by Wife — Defense — Non-payment of Mortgage — Subrogation. — Where the grantee of the purchaser at such foreclosure sale took possession of the land after the sale, it is no defense to an ac. tion of ejectment by the wife of the mortgagor that the mortgagor had not paid the mortgage debt, nor that such grantee is subrogated to the rights of the mortgagee, if the mortgage conferred no right of possession upon the mortgagee prior to the expiration of the time for redemption from a valid foreclosure sale.</p>