Crowder v. Lyle

• Decision Date: 11 March 1964
• Citation: 225 Cal.App.2d 439,37 Cal.Rptr. 343
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
• Parties: Leroy Lee CROWDER, Executor of the Estate of Ida Belle Clark, Deceased, Plaintiff, Cross-Defendant and Respondent, v. Darryle W. LYLE, Virginia Lyle, Gertrude Abbott, formerly Gertrude Gremley, Defendants, Cross-Complainants and Appellants, Bonnie McDow, Cross-Complainant and Appellant. Civ. 276.

Page 343

37 Cal.Rptr. 343

225 Cal.App.2d 439

Leroy Lee CROWDER, Executor of the Estate of Ida Belle Clark, Deceased, Plaintiff, Cross-Defendant and Respondent, v. Darryle W. LYLE, Virginia Lyle, Gertrude Abbott, formerly Gertrude Gremley, Defendants, Cross-Complainants and Appellants Bonnie McDow, Cross-Complainant and Appellant.

Civ. 276.

District Court of Appeal, Fifth District, California.

March 11, 1964.

Rehearing Denied April 8, 1964.

Mazzera, Snyder & DeMartini, and Robert A. Haughwout, Stockton, for appellants.

Robert E. Laughlin, Chico, for respondent.

CONLEY, Presiding Justice.

This is an appeal from a judgment quieting title in respondent, Leroy Lee Crowder as executor of the estate of Ida Belle Clark, deceased, to two parcels of land in Tuolumne County originally patented by the United States Government to Darryle W. Lyle and Edward Gremley, and more particularly described as Lots 23 and 15 in Section 32, Township 2 North, Range 16 East, M. D. B. & M., according to the official plat on file in the Bureau of Land Management. These two lots were within the exterior boundaries of the Cherokee Placer Mining Claim filed by Joseph Sivori in 1897. Mr. Sivori and his successors in interest constructed thereon a large wooden building adapted for hotel purposes with necessary outbuildings; they used the premises as a family home and as a commercial vacation resort. Jessie Sivori inherited the property. In the years 1951 and 1952, Ida Belle Clark and her husband, Warren P. Clark, loaned $1,500 and $4,872 to Jessie Sivori evidenced by her promissory notes and secured by a deed of trust upon the mining claim. Mr. Clark subsequently assigned all of his interest to his wife.

Jessie Sivori died in 1954 and her father, Charles L. Crowder, was appointed administrator of the estate. The administrator agreed to sell the commercial resort, known as the 'Totem Pole Lodge', to Ethel Weimer for $15,000; she took possession of the premises and later agreed orally to sell the entire parcel to Darryle W. Lyle, Virginia Lyle, Gertrude Gremley and Edward Gremley for the sum of $22,000; on May 31, 1956, an escrow was set up for the purpose of effectuating the sale and the prospective purchasers actually took possession of the resort in July of 1956; but they never completed the transaction or made payment of the agreed consideration.

About August 1, 1956, Ida Belle Clark gave due notice of default and of her election to sell under the deed of trust, but she died on August 13, 1956; thereafter, Leroy Lee Crowder, the plaintiff herein, was appointed executor of her estate. The second amended complaint in the first quiet title suit hereinafter referred to was based on allegations that the Lyles and the Gremleys agreed with plaintiff to carry out the terms of their agreement with Mrs. Weimer and to complete the purchase from plaintiff, and inasmuch as they would become the ultimate owners of the land, to apply to the United States Bureau of Land Management in their own names for leases and options to purchase lots 15 and 23 pursuant to the Small Tract Act of 1938. (52 Stat. 609, 43 U.S.C.A. § 682a.) Edward Gremley and Darryle Lyle then filed applications with the land office in Sacramento for leases on the respective parcels with options to purchase; Gremley sought title to a 2.29 acre tract (lot 23), which included the 'Totem Pole Lodge', and Lyle applied for an undeveloped tract of the same size adjoining Gremleys (lot 15); on November 1, 1957, the land office issued leases to them respectively with options to purchase.

In the meantime, the Cherokee Placer Mining Claim was sold under the terms of the deed of trust to respondent Crowder, as executor of the estate of Ida Belle Clark.

On April 29, 1958, the United States instituted Contest 5430 in the Sacramento Land Office against Charles L. Crowder as administrator of Jessie Sivori's estate, Leroy L. Crowder, as administrator [sic] of Ida Belle Clark's estate, Edward Gremley, Gertrude Gremley, Darryle Lyle, Virginia Lyle, and Ethel Weimer, alleging that the Cherokee Placer Mining Claim was in fact nonmineral in character, and praying that the claim be adjudged null and void because minerals had not been found therein in sufficient quantities to constitute a valid discovery.

On May 26, 1958, the respondent Leroy Lee Crowder, as executor of the estate of Ida Belle Clark, filed Action No. 8636 in the Superior Court of Tuolumne County against the Gremleys and Lyles seeking to quiet title to the Cherokee Placer Mining Claim and for unlawful detainer.

On June 30, 1958, the respondent Leroy Lee Crowder, as executor of the estate of Ida Belle Clark, filed a complaint against the Gremleys in the Sacramento Land Office (Private Contest 5461) alleging that the Gremleys had been guilty of fraud in making claim to a patent and seeking to set aside the application.

On July 18, 1958, the land office filed a final decision in contest 5430 declaring the Cherokee Placer Mining Claim null and void because of its nonmineral character; in this connection, it should be noted that none of the defendants named in the contest made an appearance.

The Gremleys filed a supplemental answer in superior court action No. 8636, setting up the decision in land office contest 5430 as a bar to the action; and Leroy Lee Crowder, as executor, filed an amended complaint in the quiet title action alleging that, by reason of the agreements, acts, and omissions of the defendants, a constructive trust arose in favor of the plaintiff; in the amended pleading Crowder alleged that the defendants were let into possession of the land and improvements within the Cherokee Placer Mining Claim as prospective purchasers under an oral agreement with Charles L. Crowder, administrator of the Sivori estate, and that it was agreed among the parties that the title should be perfected by applications to the United States under the Small Tract Act, in the names of the defendants as they would become the ultimate purchasers. A demurrer having been sustained to the amended complaint, Crowder filed a second amended complaint on April 16, 1959. The Gremleys answered. The cause was tried by the court sitting without a jury, and on June 29, 1960, the trial judge filed a memorandum opinion in which he expressed his conviction that the charges of fraud against the Gremleys and the Lyles were true. The findings include the court's determination of facts as follows:

'That it is true that prior to May, 1956, the administrator of the Jessie Sivori Estate had orally agreed to sell the property in question to one Ethel M. Weimer for the sum of $15,000.00; that the said Mrs. Weimer moved onto said property and remained there until July, 1956.

'That it is true that on or about July, 1956, the defendants were let into possession of said property by the administrator of the Jessie Sivori Estate and by Mrs. Weimer, as prospective purchasers and upon their oral promise to pay the sum of $22,000.00 for said property. * * * that at said time the defendants were informed that the ownership of said property and improvements was by the possessory right of a mining claim. * * * that it was thereupon agreed between the said Charles L. Crowder and the defendants that the fee title to the real property embraced within the description of said mining claim should be perfected by application to the United States Government under the Small Tracts Act; * * * that it was further agreed that said application should be made in the names of the defendants inasmuch as the defendants intended to become the ultimate purchasers of said land and improvements.

'That it is true that pursuant to said agreement defendants did, on January 2, 1957, file applications with the Bureau of Land Management to acquire title to said land and improvements and did, by reason of said application obtain from the United States, in the name of defendants, a lease of said land and improvements with an option to purchase the same. * * * that on or about the 25th day of April, 1957, plaintiff advised the defendants of plaintiff's interest in said property and the defendants promised plaintiff and agreed with plaintiff to complete the purchase of said property as soon as defendants obtained title thereto under said Small Tracts Act. * * * that at all times herein mentioned plaintiff relied upon defendants to complete the purchase of said improvements from plaintiff as soon as defendants obtained the fee title to said land from the United States.

'That it is true that prior to the commencement of this action, the defendants repudiated their said agreement to purchase said land and improvements and claimed, and they now claim, ownership thereof to the exclusion of plaintiff and plaintiff's predecessor in interest by reason of the said lease and option to purchase from the United States. * * * that defendants have paid nothing to plaintiff or plaintiff's predecessor in interest on account of the agreed purchase price. * * * that in reliance upon the agreements, as aforesaid, plaintiff and plaintiff's predecessor in interest permitted defendants to remain in possession of said land and improvements and to obtain said lease and option to purchase from the United States.

'That it is true that by reason of the premises defendants should be declared constructive trustees of said lease and option to purchase for the benefit of plaintiff.'

The judgment was filed on August 22, 1960; it determined that any legal title or interest which defendants, or any of them, held in or to the property described by metes and bounds was held in trust for the plaintiff, and further directed that within ten days thereafter the defendants should execute and deliver to plaintiff a quitclaim deed or other appropriate instrument conveying title in all of the real property to the plaintiff and that the defendants should be forever enjoined from asserting any right, title, or interest therein; the judgment...