Worthington v. Crapser

• Decision Date: 01 June 1911
• Citation: 63 Wash. 380,115 P. 849
• Court: Washington Supreme Court
• Parties: WORTHINGTON v. CRAPSER et al.

115 P. 849

63 Wash. 380

WORTHINGTON v. CRAPSER et al.

Supreme Court of Washington

June 1, 1911

Department 1. Appeal from Superior Court, Pierce County; M. L. Clifford Judge.

Action by T. T. Worthington against Charles M. Crapser and others. From a judgment for plaintiff, defendants appeal. Affirmed.

Boyle Warburton & Brockway, for appellants.

Burdick & McQuesten, for respondent.

PARKER J.

This is a suit to quiet title to lots 11 and 12 of block 9, and lots 1 and 2 of block 3, in Mechanic's addition to Tacoma. A trial before the court resulted in a decree in favor of the plaintiff, from which the defendants have appealed. Appellants claim an interest in the lots under the will of Phoebe Worthington, the deceased wife of respondent, and base their claim upon the ground that the lots were the community property of respondent and Phoebe Worthington at the time of her death, thus enabling her to dispose of her interest therein by will. Respondent claims the lots as his separate property.

Respondent and Phoebe Worthington were married in 1893. At that time he had a small store and stock of notions therein, amounting to a few hundred dollars. She had no property at that time. During their marriage respondent's income from his store and other sources did not exceed $500 a year which was no more than sufficient to provide a living for himself and wife. In 1897 he received about $700 from his father. At that time he purchased lot 12, and a little later he purchased lot 11. He paid for these lots $775, and we think the evidence warrants the conclusion that at least about $700 of the purchase price was paid by the money received about that time from his father. This money appears to have come to him as an advance from his father's estate, and was his separate property. There was probably a small part of the purchase price of these lots made from a loan which he then procured. This loan we think was shown to have been repaid from money which he afterwards received from his father's estate in 1898, when his father died. At that time he received $400 or $500 from his father's estate, and he then bought two other lots for $300 with that money. These he sold in 1905 for $650, and about the same time bought lots 1 and 2 here involved, which he says he paid for with this money. There may be some room for believing that at that time he procured a loan to pay a balance on their purchase price, the amount of which balance is not shown, but, in any event, must have been very small. His wife died in ...