Union Oil Co. v. Reconstruction Oil Co‪.‬

CURTIS, J. The principal question involved in this case is whether a letter written by the mother of the plaintiff stating that she had arranged with his two sisters, the defendants, to pay to him certain money upon her death was admissible in evidence against the two sisters to show a promise on their part to pay to the brother said sums of money. The mother on February 18, 1926, executed and delivered two deeds in which she conveyed by one of said deeds the title to certain real property in San Francisco to one of the defendants and by the other she conveyed another piece of real property to the other defendant. On the same day, she executed and delivered an assignment of a mortgage to the two defendants. Upon her death there was found in her safe deposit box a letter, bearing date February 18, 1926, being the same date on which she executed the two deeds and the assignment of mortgage to the plaintiffs sisters, in which the mother stated that she had arranged with them that they should pay to him on her death the sum of $500, and certain monthly payments of $25. There was further evidence that the mother on January 10th in the following year was taken by the defendant, Mrs. Bulkley, to the attorney of the latter for the purpose of making her will. Mrs. Sethman, the mother, showed the attorney the letter of February 18, 1926, and directed the attorney