116 P. 34 | Cal. | 1911
Plaintiff claiming to be the owner of an undivided one-half interest in two hundred acres of land situate in Modoc County, brought this action against defendants to obtain a decree adjudging that they have no interest therein, and adjudging that a certain deed and certain powers of attorney under which defendant Walker claims to be the owner of such land are void. This land has been granted by United States patent to plaintiff and the legal representatives of the estate of Patrick Reddy, deceased, in lieu of a portion of certain land owned by them situated within the limits of the Sierra Forest Reserve. Walker claims to have acquired in good faith and for a valuable consideration all of the interest of said patentees in said land by the deed and powers of attorney sought to be held of no effect, and also their interest in other parcels aggregating 1760 acres selected in lieu of other lands owned by them and situate within said Forest Reserve. Findings and judgment were in favor of plaintiff upon the issues made by the pleadings, and we have before us an appeal by Walker and Hovey from the judgment, and an appeal by Walker from an order denying his motion for a new trial. *787
The plaintiff makes many general charges of fraud and conspiracy in the manner of the obtaining of the execution by her of instruments under which Walker claims, and in regard to some of these charges the testimony of plaintiff's witnesses was such that it cannot be held that there was not a substantial conflict in the evidence. But there is no conflict at all in the evidence as to certain facts, which, in our view of the law, establishes the right of Walker to prevail in this action.
In the year 1900 plaintiff was the owner of an undivided one half of about 9600 acres of land in Inyo and Tulare counties, known as the "Monache land," which had originally been acquired by her husband from the United States government. Patrick Reddy was the owner of the other undivided one half which, on his death in the early part of the year 1900, passed, subject to administration, to his widow, Emily M. Reddy, and his brother, Edward A. Reddy. This land was all within the Sierra Forest Reserve, which had been set apart by the president of the United States prior to the year 1900. Under an Act of Congress, the owners of the land so situated were authorized to relinquish the same to the government, and select in lieu thereof land open to settlement situated elsewhere. To accomplish such a substitution it was essential that the owners convey the reserve land, termed in such transactions the forest reserve base or base land, to the United States by a deed recorded in the proper county recorder's office, and file such deed, with an abstract of title showing title in the government, in the local land-office, with an application for other specifically described land in lieu thereof, the land so selected being termed in such transactions lieu land. Under the law, if the land so selected is found to be open to location and the application is approved by the local land-office, the papers are forwarded to the general land-office, and, if there approved, a patent is issued to the original owner by the government for the selected or lieu land. Plaintiff and the Reddys were desirous of selling their Monache land. In July or August, 1900, a meeting was held in the private office of J.C. Campbell of the law firm of Campbell, Metson Campbell, for the purpose of determining what should be done in the matter of these lands. There were present, among others, Mr. Campbell, Mr. John A. Benson, one of the defendants, plaintiff, and Mrs. Reddy. Mr. Campbell was one of the attorneys for the *788 Reddys, and, as must be assumed in view of the findings, he was also an attorney for Mrs. Conklin in this matter. She claims, and it is not susceptible of serious doubt, that he had her absolute trust and confidence. It was decided at this meeting that the land should be disposed of by sale. It was claimed by plaintiff and one of her witnesses who was present at the meeting that the parol understanding was that Benson should buy the base land outright for $3.80 per acre, and that deeds therefor were to be executed and placed in escrow, where or with whom or by whom not being expressly specified, but it appears to have been understood by plaintiff that Mr. Campbell was to see to this, and it was alleged in plaintiff's complaint that the agreement was that the deeds should be placed in escrow "under the supervision of plaintiff's said attorney, J.C. Campbell." It was further claimed that the understanding was that said deeds should be taken up from time to time as to various parcels thereof upon payment of the purchase price by Benson, all of the land to be so taken within ninety days. It is not disputed that it was contemplated by all parties that Benson was to obtain the money wherewith to pay for the land from persons to whom he should sell it. Subsequently, papers looking to the disposition of the land were prepared by Benson, and, through Mr. Campbell, submitted to plaintiff and the Reddys for execution. They consisted of deeds to the United States of the Monache lands, powers of attorney, authorizing the attorney in fact to select and apply for lieu lands or applications for such lieu lands, and powers of attorney authorizing the attorney in fact to convey the lieu land for such sum or price as he might deem proper. According to the evidence of plaintiff, these papers were sent from the office of Mr. Campbell to her for signature, and she, relying entirely upon him and believing that they were simply deeds to Benson, signed them and returned them to his office. There was no deposit in escrow of any of these papers, and they were apparently all placed in Benson's possession. The deeds to the United States of the base land were recorded in the proper counties. Benson thereupon proceeded in an endeavor to sell such land as might be selected as lieu land. Defendant Hovey was the agent of defendant Walker, who was making large investments in public lands. He had already had dealings with Benson in such transactions, and in the particular *789 transactions as to Monache lands followed a very ordinary course of business in such matters, viz.: selected lieu land as specified by his principal, Walker, indicated such selection to Benson, and upon the production by Benson of proof of the filing of a proper application for lieu lands in the local land-office and the delivery of a power of attorney of the owners appointing him, Hovey, attorney in fact to convey the land, paid to Benson the agreed price, subsequently conveying to Walker the selected lands. The powers of attorney bore certificates of acknowledgment by the owners before a notary public, but plaintiff testified that she had never appeared before the notary or acknowledged any of the instruments. Both the other principals, Mrs. Reddy and Edward A. Reddy, and the notary public died prior to the trial. The evidence is sufficient to support the conclusion of the trial court that so far as the naming of an attorney in fact is concerned, the powers of attorney were blank at the time of the signing by the owner and the placing of the same in Benson's hands, and that Benson on making a sale would put in such blank the name of such person as attorney in fact as was desired by the purchaser. It is not claimed that the evidence warrants the inference that Hovey had any reason to suspect that Benson was not acting in all respects as authorized by the owners of the land, or any notice whatever as to any infirmity in the papers delivered to him, except that it is claimed that he knew that Benson filled in his, Hovey's name, as the attorney in fact, in the power of attorney, after such instruments had been signed by the owners and placed in his possession, in other words, that he knew that the owners had executed the powers of attorney in blank so far as the name of the attorney in fact was concerned. It is unnecessary to consider what would be the effect of such knowledge on his part, for we are of the opinion that the evidence furnishes no foundation for any such claim. Fairly considered, the evidence is without conflict upon the proposition that all his knowledge upon the question was consistent with the conclusion that the various powers of attorney delivered to him in the matter of the purchase of plaintiff's lands were signed and acknowledged by the owners after his name had been inserted as attorney in fact, and was inconsistent with any other conclusion. Upon giving to Benson a description of the lieu land he desired to have selected, *790 he would also instruct him as to the name of the person to be designated in the power of attorney as attorney in fact, and when some days or weeks thereafter Benson had obtained the proof of filing the necessary application in the land-office and was ready to close the transaction, he delivered to Hovey a power of attorney complete in every respect, purporting to have been acknowledged by the owners thereof before a notary public. So far as we can understand from the record the powers of attorney delivered to Hovey indicated by the date of both instrument and certificate of acknowledgment that both signing and acknowledgment were subsequent to the time when he gave to Benson a description of the lieu land desired and instructions to have himself specified as the attorney in fact. He had no other information than that afforded by the papers delivered to him by Benson. Walker had no notice of any kind except such as is imputed to him by reason of the knowledge of his agent, Hovey. Hovey paid to Benson from $3.62 to $3.75 per acre for 1960 acres of land selected in lieu of so much of the Monache land, amounting to a little over seven thousand dollars. The price so paid by him was the price ordinarily paid by him for land of the character of that purchased, and was certainly a valuable consideration. The two hundred acre-tract involved in this action was a part of this. The tract was attempted to be conveyed by Hovey, as attorney in fact for the owners, to Walker, by deed dated December 10, 1901, and recorded in the county recorder's office of Modoc County upon December 12, 1901. It appears that nearly eleven thousand dollars has been paid by Benson to the owners on account of the Monache lands, $2750 of which was received by plaintiff from Campbell and over eight thousand dollars by the Reddys, and this was much more than the price agreed upon for the 1960 acres. So far as we can determine from the record, all moneys paid by Benson were delivered by him to Mr. Campbell. It is not shown by the record that any of the Monache land other than the 1960 acres has been finally disposed of by Benson and thus placed beyond the reach of the owners. It is not shown by the record that the United States ever approved any of the selections of land in lieu of Monache lands except the selections made for Walker. Sometime in 1903, plaintiff notified Walker that she revoked the power of attorney given to *791 Hovey, and in the same year commenced a contest in the United States land-office looking to a rejection of the claims of all persons claiming under papers signed by her. Having first offered to pay to Benson the sum of $2750 which she had received, upon the restoration to her of her title to all of the Monache land formerly owned by her, plaintiff commenced this action on December 10, 1904. The owners of the other undivided one half did not join in the action and were not made parties defendant.
There is no foundation in the facts above set forth for the conclusion that the papers signed by plaintiff were forgeries, and absolutely ineffectual even to serve as a basis for the application of the doctrine of estoppel. The theory of the learned judge of the trial court appears to have been that all of these papers, including the deeds of the Monache lands to the United States, were in effect forgeries and absolutely void. The idea underlying this apparently was that plaintiff was so deceived in the matter of executing these instruments as to bring her within the doctrine of certain cases which substantially hold that where a person who has no intention of selling or encumbering his property is induced by some trick or device to sign a paper having such effect, believing that paper to be a substantially different instrument, the paper so signed is just as much a forgery as it would have been had the signature been forged. These decisions are not such as to sustain plaintiff's claim in this regard. The distinguishing feature between all such cases and the case at bar is that here plaintiff fully understood and believed that she was signing papers which, when delivered, would convey all her interest in the Monache lands. She intended to execute papers having this effect. The difference between the papers she thought she was signing, according to her evidence, and the papers she actually signed, was merely one of detail and in no degree material, one set of papers having precisely the ultimate effect of the other, the conveyance of her interest in this land. Her real and only complaint upon her own testimony was her failure to personally receive full payment for her land claimed to have been occasioned by reason of the failure of her agent to place the papers in escrow, to be taken up as payments were made, and the delivery thereof to Benson without payment first having been made. This failure could not make the *792
papers "forgeries" in any sense of the word. She voluntarily and consciously signed papers effectually disposing of control of such land and delivered them to her attorney for the purpose of ultimate delivery to the purchasers upon payment of the purchase price. An example of the kind of case where an instrument actually signed by the defrauded party is held to be a forgery, notwithstanding the genuineness of the signature, is Marden v.Dorthy,
Under such circumstances as are disclosed by the record in this case, the rule established by the overwhelming weight of authority is that the equities of innocent purchasers are protected, even if injury be done to the party who has been imposed upon or defrauded by her agent or original grantee. As originally said in McNeil v. Tenth Natl. Bank,
In addition to this, so far as this record shows, there was no injury resulting to plaintiff by reason of any departure by her agents from the arrangement as she understood it, so far as the lands conveyed to Walker are concerned. We have already adverted to the condition of the record from which it must be assumed that the full agreed price of the lands conveyed to Walker, $3.80 per acre, was in fact paid by Benson to the agent of the owners. The money so paid to the agent was apparently all delivered to the owners, plaintiff acknowledging that she received from Campbell $2750, and it being undisputed that the remainder was delivered to the Reddys. Why the money received was not equally divided by the common agent between the two sets of owners does not appear, but manifestly the receipt of the money by plaintiff's agent was, under the circumstances of this case, receipt by her so far as Walker is concerned. Even under plaintiff's understanding of the agreement, Benson was entitled to take any portion of the land upon payment of $3.80 per acre therefor, and the complaint and evidence both indicate that she contemplated that Campbell might receive for her moneys paid for the lands as the deeds were taken out of escrow. She alleged in her complaint that she had received "of said Benson, through her attorney, J.C. Campbell, the sum of $2750," and that "she understood that said sum was in payment for lands, . . . the deeds for which had been taken out of escrow, and the said money paid into the escrow for the lands described therein." If she has been *796 injured at all, such injury has been wholly caused by the failure of her own agent to pay over her portion of the money received from Benson. That is a matter solely between herself and her agent. So far as the record shows, there was no injury caused plaintiff in the matter of the disposition of the lands conveyed to Walker, by reason of any failure to follow the method of disposition that she claims was agreed upon. Her injury, if any, resulted from an entirely different cause, one in no degree affecting the right of Walker to retain the land.
In view of what we have said, it is unnecessary to discuss any other point made for reversal. Considering, however, that portions of this opinion may be alleged to imply that charges of fraud made by plaintiff against Mr. Campbell are well based, it is only fair to say that the only matters as to which there is any evidence at all to support the conclusion of a departure by him from the agreement as plaintiff understood it, aside from the apparently unequal division between plaintiff and the Reddys of the money received from Benson (a matter as to which the record furnishes no solution whatever), was in approving the papers, which were submitted to her for execution and which were different from those contemplated by her, submitting such papers to her for execution, and failing to place the executed papers in escrow for delivery as the money was paid. Even upon these matters the evidence was sharply conflicting. Wherever the truth lies as to these matters, there was absolutely nothing in the record upon which to found the conclusion that there was any design on Campbell's part to defraud plaintiff, or any collusion with any other party looking to that result, or that the course pursued by him resulted in obtaining any less money for the benefit of the owners than would have been obtained had the method understood by plaintiff to have been agreed upon been followed.
The judgment and order denying a new trial are reversed.
Shaw, J., Sloss, J., Melvin, J., Henshaw, J., and Lorigan, J., concurred.
Rehearing denied. *797