Kershaw v. Maryland Casualty Co‪.‬

In this action to have defendant declared the constructive trustee for plaintiff of an undivided one half interest in real property, plaintiff appeals from a judgment which decrees that he has no interest in such property. Plaintiff alleged and the trial court found facts sufficient to raise a constructive trust under the view of Notten v. Mensing (1935), 3 Cal. 2d 469, 473-477 [1-6] [45 P.2d 198], and Ryan v. Welte (1948), 87 Cal. App. 2d 897, 901-903 [4-6] [198 P.2d 357]; i.e., plaintiffs father and stepmother orally agreed that all their property would go to the survivor for life and that the survivor would will such property one half to plaintiff and one half to those relatives of the stepmother whom she chose; in reliance on the oral agreement the spouses put their property in joint tenancy and plaintiffs father forbore to make any testamentary or other disposition of his property to members of his own family which would have been effective in the event the stepmother survived him, which she did; the stepmother took the subject realty as surviving joint tenant, conveyed it to herself and defendant, her relative, as joint tenants, and on her death defendant took as surviving joint tenant. But defendant alleged and the trial court found that he gave "good and valuable consideration" for the conveyance and took as a bona fide purchaser.