102 Cal. 254 | Cal. | 1894
No. 15411 is an appeal by the Blythe Company, a corporation, from a judgment rendered in favor of the respondent, Florence Blythe; and No. 15528 is an appeal from an order denying a motion for a new trial in the same case. Both appeals are here considered and determined. A number of other appeals, taken by various other defendants, were argued and submitted at the time of the argument and submission of said appeals Nos. 15411 and 15528; and said other appeals will follow and be determined by the conclusions arrived at in this present opinion.
The proceeding upon which these appeals arose was instituted and prosecuted to judgment by the respondent, Florence Blythe, under 'the provisions of section 1664 of the Code of Civil Procedure, to establish her right to the estate of Thomas H. Blythe, deceased. Nearly two hundred defendants appeared claiming to be collateral kin of the said decedent, Thomas H. Blythe, and as said kin entitled to his estate. They were mostly associated in certain groups, as the “ Williams” claimants; the "Jones” claimants; the “London Savage” claimants; the “ Gypsy” claimants, etc. Their claims to heirship were mostly inconsistent with, and hostile to, each other; each group contending that the deceased, Thomas H. Blythe, was descended from parents different from those alleged by either of the other groups. The court found that the respondent, Florence Blythe, was the daughter and heir of the deceased. I*
We do not deem it' necessary to pass upon the contention of respondent that appellant’s notice of appeal should have been served on all the parties to the proceeding. Neither is it necessary to pass upon the contention that, as appellant was allowed to appear in the Williams appeal, and did file an argument therein, it is bound by the decision on that appeal. But on these present appeals respondent contends that the appellant, the Blythe Company, who was substituted for the Jones claimants, is not a “ party aggrieved,” and, therefore, has no standing as an appellant, because it did not except to and does not attack the said findings XVIII and XX; and that the fact being established and unassailed, that none of the defendants except the Williams claimants are “ in anywise related to, or in any manner akin to, said Thomas H. Blythe, deceased,” the appellant is in no position to inquire about any errors which the trial court may have committed in arriving at the conclusion that respondent is the rightful heir, and entitled to the estate. Appellant’s predecessors based their right to contest for the estate upon their certain alleged kinship to the deceased; but when it appears by an unchallenged finding that there is no such kinship, what, asks the respondent, does it matter to appellant where the estate goes, and how can it be prejudiced or aggrieved by any ruling made by the court in favor of
Section 1664 was clearly intended to provide the means by which, where there are hostile claimants to an estate, all the conflicting rights thereto may be summarily and finally determined in one proceeding. (In re Burton, 93 Cal. 459, 461.) The first step in the proceeding is taken by a claimant filing a petition (not a complaint), “ praying the court to ascertain and declare the rights of all persons to said estate, and all interests therein, and to whom distribution thereof should be made.” Thereupon the court is to make an order that notice be served on all persons “ interested, in said estate” to appear on a day named, in which notice shall be set forth, among other things, “the names of. all who may have appeared claiming any interest in said estate in the course of the administration of the same up to the time of the making of said order, and such other persons as the court may direct; .... and requiring all persons named, or not named, having or claiming any interest in the estate of said decedent, .... to appear and exhibit, as hereinafter provided, their respective claims of heirship, ownership, or interest in said estate tó said court”; and upon proof of service of the notice, “the court shall thereupon acquire jurisdiction to ascertain and' determine the heirship, ownership, and interest of all parties in and to the property of said deceased, and such determination shall be final and conclusive in the administration of said estate, and the title and ownership of said property..” All persons desiring to appear shall, within the time limited, “file their written appearance”; and, after the expiration of the time, the court shall enter an order adjudging the default of all persons not appearing. Within twenty days thereafter “ any of such persons so appearing” may file his complaint, “setting forth the facts constituting his claim of heirship, ownership, or interest in said estate with such reasonable particularity as the court may requireand it must be served on ihe other parties appearing.
It will be observed that while of the “parties appearing” the one who chooses to proceed first and file a complaint is for convenience to “be treated” as plaintiff, and the others as defendants, the provision as to what the pleading of each party—whether plaintiff or a defendant—is to contain is exactly the same. The plaintiff is to file a complaint “setting forth the facts constituting his claim of heirship, ownership, or interest in said estate, with such reasonable particularity as the court may require”; and the defendants “shall set forth in their respective answers the facts constituting their claim of heirship, ownership, or interest in said estate with such particularity as the court may require.” It is clear, therefore, that the alleged right of each party, whether nominally a plaintiff or defendant, is as much
The foregoing views are determinative of these two appeals against the appellant; but as it is claimed in one or two of the other appeals which are to be determined by this opinion that sufficient exceptions were there taken to said findings XVIII and XX, we will notice some of the other’s points argued by counsel for the various appellants.
Very powerful arguments are made to the point that the evidence is insufficient to warrant the finding that respondent is the child of the decedent. These arguments were, no doubt, presented in all their force by the very able counsel to the learned judge of the trial court. The question here, now, is not whether the judge of that court weighed the evidence with absolute accuracy, and arrived at the only conclusion justly pos
The foregoing views also apply to the contention that there is not sufficient evidence that certain letters of the decedent were written and signed in the presence of the witness W. H. H. Hart. Hart testified to the fact; and it would be going beyond all precedent for us to hold here that he should not have been believed by the trial judge. It is to be observed, also, that the motions for new trials now pending here on appeal were denied in the lower court, long after the decision of this court in Blythe v. Ayres, 96 Cal. 632, had been rendered, which placed respondent’s right upon section 1387, and was dependent, of course, upon the finding of the lower court on that point based on the testimony of said Hart.
With respect to the two main propositions of law in the case, to wit: 1. Was respondent adopted by the decedent under section 230 of the Civil Code? and 2. Did decedent constitute her his heir under section 1387 of said code? we do not desire to add any thing to what was said in the opinions delivered in Blythe v. Ayres, 96 Cal. 532. Those questions were as elaborately argued in that case as in the present appeals, and were there most carefully considered by the court. Nothing has occurred since to shake our confidence in the correctness of the decision in that case. We need not consider the elaborate arguments of counsel to the point that the complaint does not state facts sufficient to show an adoption of respondent under section 230. As to that question, the justices of the court were divided in opinion at the time of the decision of Blythe v. Ayres, 96 Cal. 532; and there is still a division of opinion upon that subject. Indeed, it is doubtful whether, under the peculiar language of section 1664, strict rules of pleading apply to the proceeding instituted by that section. But all the justices qualified to act in the case agree, as all the justices acting in Blythe v. Ayres, 96 Cal. 532,
There is also submitted with the others an appeal of Alice Edith from the judgment; but that appeal presents no new points.
There was also a brief filed, by leave of court, on behalf of the state, claiming an escheat of the Blythe estate. But if the state could be heard at all on this appeal, to which it is not a party, its contention is covered by the foregoing views.
There are no other points presented in the briefs and arguments which call for special attention.
In the appeal No. 15411 the judgment is affirmed;
Paterson, J., Garoutte, J., Fitzgerald, J., and De Haven, J., concurred.
Beatty, C. J., and Harrison, J., being disqualified took no part in the foregoing decision.