Ballard v. Slyfield

• Decision Date: 18 September 1907
• Citation: 47 Wash. 174,91 P. 642
• Court: Washington Supreme Court
• Parties: BALLARD et al. v. SLYFIELD et al.

91 P. 642

47 Wash. 174

BALLARD et al. v. SLYFIELD et al.

Supreme Court of Washington

September 18, 1907

Appeal from Superior Court, King County; George E. Morris, Judge.

Action by Irving M. Ballard and others against Sarah Slyfield and others to quiet title and recover rents and profits. Judgment for defendants, and plaintiffs appeal. Affirmed.

F. A Gilman, for appellants.

Harold Preston, for respondents.

RUDKIN, J.

Irving Ballard and Lucinda M. Ballard intermarried on the 20th day of December, 1870, and continued to reside together as husband and wife until the death of the husband in the city of Seattle on December 30, 1880. On the 15th day of April 1875, Edward A. Thorndyke and wife conveyed the property now in controversy to Lucinda M. Ballard, the wife of Irving Ballard. The present action was instituted on the 30th day of January, 1906, by the heirs at law of Irving Ballard deceased, against the grantees of Lucinda M. Ballard, to quiet title to an undivided one-half interest in the property and to recover the rents and profits for the six years next preceding the commencement of the action. The defendants had judgment below, and the plaintiffs appeal.

The court found, among other things: 'That the consideration of said conveyance was the sum of $900 then and there paid to the grantors therein by the said Irving and Lucinda M Ballard. That said sum of $900 was made up, either wholly or in large part, of money which was then and there the separate property of the said Lucinda M. Ballard, and which she had previously received as an inheritance from the estate of her maternal grandfather; and the remainder, if any, of said sum was paid out of the community funds of the said Irving and Lucinda M. Ballard. That at the time of said conveyance it was the intention of both the said Irving Ballard and the said Lucinda M. Ballard, then expressed, that the conveyance should operate to vest the title to said property in the said Lucinda M. Ballard as her sole and separate estate, and, if any part of the purchase price therefor was paid out of community funds, it was then and there the intention of the said Irving Ballard to make a gift thereof to his said wife, and to make a gift to her of said property so far as any part of the consideration therefor may have been contributed out of the community funds, and the deed was made to run to the said Lucinda M. Ballard by the express direction, at the time, of the said Irving Ballard, and said conveyance then and there operated to vest the title to said property in the said Lucinda M. Ballard as her sole and separate...