Walters v. Boosinger

2 Cal.App.5th 421

205 Cal.Rptr.3d 895

Scott WALTERS, as Administrator, etc., Plaintiff and Appellant

v.Valerie A. BOOSINGER, Defendant and Respondent.

D069255

Court of Appeal, Fourth District, Division 1, California.

Filed August 12, 2016

Craig A. Sherman for Plaintiff and Appellant.

Rosenberg, Shpall, & Zeigen, Tomas A. Shpall and Amy C. Lea, San Diego, for Defendant and Respondent.

AARON, J.

I.INTRODUCTION

The case involves a dispute over the ownership of certain real property (the Property) between appellant Scott Walters (Scott), as the administrator of the estate of his father, Randy Walters (Randy), and Randy's former girlfriend, respondent Valerie Boosinger. A 2003 deed named Randy and Boosinger as owners in joint tenancy of the Property. Upon Randy's death in 2013, Boosinger claimed sole ownership of the Property as the surviving joint tenant.¹ Scott brought a quiet title claim premised on the theory that the grant deed was void ab initio . We reject Scott's claim on appeal that such a claim may be brought “at any time.” We conclude that the claim is subject to a statute of limitation and that Scott has failed to demonstrate that the trial court erred in concluding that his quiet title cause of action is time barred.

Scott also contends that he properly stated a claim for quiet title premised on the alternative theory that Randy and Boosinger severed their joint tenancy in the Property prior to Randy's death. We conclude that Scott failed to sufficiently allege facts demonstrating such severance and that he has not demonstrated that he could amend his complaint to properly allege a severance of the joint tenancy. Accordingly, we conclude that Scott has not properly stated a quiet title claim pursuant to this alternative theory.

II.FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

A. Proceedings related to Randy's original complaint²

Randy filed the original complaint in this action against Boosinger in April 2013. In his complaint, Randy brought a single cause of action for partition. Randy alleged that he owned a 66.7 percent interest in the Property and that Boosinger owned a 33.3 percent interest. Randy requested that the court require Boosinger to purchase Randy's interest in the Property or conduct a forced sale of the Property in order to liquidate Randy's interest.

After Boosinger filed her initial answer to the complaint, Randy died. The trial court thereafter granted Scott's motion to be substituted into the case as the named plaintiff.

Boosinger filed an amended answer and a cross-complaint. In her cross-complaint, Boosinger alleged that the parties owned the Property as joint tenants pursuant to a February 2003 deed, and that upon Randy's death, the Property passed to Boosinger through her right of survivorship. Boosinger also filed a motion for judgment on the pleadings. In a supporting brief, Boosinger argued that because Randy and Boosinger owned the Property as joint tenants, the Property automatically transferred to Boosinger pursuant to her right of survivorship upon Randy's death. Accordingly, Boosinger contended that Scott had no ownership interest in the Property upon which to bring a partition claim. Boosinger also requested that the court take judicial notice of the 2003 grant deed reflecting Randy and Boosinger's ownership of the Property as joint tenants.

The trial court granted Boosinger's request for judicial notice and her motion for judgment on the pleadings, with leave to amend. In its order, the court stated that “[t]o the extent [Scott] asserts that there was no joint tenancy and/or the joint tenancy was severed, no such facts are alleged in the complaint.” The court granted Scott leave to amend the complaint in order “to allege facts supporting a right to relief with respect to the ... [Property].”

B. Scott's first amended complaint

Scott filed a first amended complaint in which he brought claims for quiet title and partition. In his quiet title cause of action, Scott alleged that Randy and Boosinger purchased the Property as tenants in common in 1997, with Randy obtaining a 66.7 percent interest in the Property based upon his larger down payment and an agreement with Boosinger.

Scott acknowledged the existence of a 2003 grant deed for the Property that was recorded as a result of Randy and Boosinger's decision to refinance a loan on the Property. The 2003 deed, which Scott attached to his first amended complaint, grants ownership of the Property from “[Randy], an Unmarried Man as to an undivided 2/3 interest, and [Boosinger], a Single Woman as to an Undivided 1/3 interest as tenants in common,” to “[Randy], an Unmarried Man and [Boosinger], a Single Woman as Joint Tenants .” (Italics added.)

Despite the language in the 2003 deed, Scott alleged that Randy and Boosinger never owned the Property as joint tenants. In support of this allegation, Scott alleged that Randy never intended to create a joint tenancy with Boosinger. In addition, Scott alleged that Boosinger's friend, Susan O'Connor, who served as the broker's representative in connection with the 2003 refinancing, “breached her duty to Randy ... because [she] knew, or should have known, that Randy ... was chemically dependent and an alcoholic during the 2003 refinancing process.” Scott alleged that O'Connor failed to ensure that Randy understood the nature of the documents that he signed in connection with the refinance. Scott contended that Randy had not intended to create the joint tenancy and that the “purported conveyance of ownership and transfer into a joint tenancy [was] void.”

Alternatively, as discussed in greater detail in part III.B., post , Scott alleged that, if the joint tenancy had been created, Randy unilaterally severed the joint tenancy by way of the filing of the original complaint in this action, or that Randy and Boosinger jointly severed the joint tenancy through the combined operation of Randy's filing of the initial complaint and Boosinger's filing of an answer.

Scott further alleged that, upon Randy's death, Randy's two-thirds interest in the Property had passed to Randy's estate to be probated by Scott as the administrator of Randy's estate.

In his partition cause of action, Scott requested that Boosinger either purchase Scott's two-third's interest in the Property or that a forced sale of the Property be held such that Scott's interest would be liquidated.

C. Boosinger's demurrer to the first amended complaint

Boosinger demurred to both claims in the first amended complaint. In a supporting brief, with respect to Scott's claim for quiet title, Boosinger argued that any claim that the joint tenancy was void was barred by the statute of limitations. In support of this contention, Boosinger argued that Scott's claim was premised on “[Randy's] mistake or fraud in getting him to sign a grant deed conveying the Property to himself and Boosinger as Joint Tenants,” and thus, the three-year statute of limitations contained in section 338, subdivision (d) applied to Scott's claim. (See Code Civ. Proc., § 338, subd. (d) [providing a three-year statute of limitation for “[a]n action for relief on the ground of fraud or mistake”].) Boosinger contended that Scott's cause of action had accrued no later than April 2007 when judicially noticeable documents demonstrated that Randy had actual notice “that Boosinger claimed half of the Property as joint owner, a fact which [Randy] disputed.”³ (See ibid. [“The cause of action in that case is not deemed to have accrued until the discovery, by the aggrieved party, of the facts constituting the fraud or mistake”].) Boosinger claimed that the statute barred Scott's quiet title claim premised on the theory that the 2003 deed was void because the claim had not been brought prior to April 2010.

Boosinger also argued that Scott had not adequately stated a quiet title claim premised on the theory that the joint tenancy had been severed by virtue of the parties' filing of the pleadings in the action. Finally, Boosinger maintained that Scott could not properly state a cause of action for partition because he had no interest in the Property.

D. Scott's opposition

Scott filed an opposition brief in which he argued, among other contentions, that the 2003 grant deed was void ab initio and that “[a] three[-]year statute of limitations does not apply.” Scott argued, in the alternative, that the parties had jointly severed any joint tenancy through the filing of their pleadings in this case.

E. The trial court's ruling on the demurrer

After further briefing and a hearing, the trial court sustained Boosinger's demurrer to Scott's quiet title cause of action on the ground that the claim is barred by the three-year statute of limitations in Code of Civil Procedure section 338. The court reasoned in part:

“In this case, the theory of relief sought by [Scott], despite his protestations, is fraud. Therefore, the three[-]year statute of limitations set forth in [Code of Civil Procedure section] 338 [applies]. [Citation.] [Scott] alleges his father was defrauded into signing a grant deed naming the owners as joint tenants instead of tenants in common. [Citation.] However, [Randy] became aware [Boosinger] was claiming a joint interest in the [P]roperty as of 2007. Based upon [Boosinger's] request for a domestic violence TRO and [Randy's] response, it is clear [Randy] was aware [Boosinger] was claiming an equal and joint interest in the [P]roperty. [Citation.] Since [Randy] was aware in 2003^{[ 4 ]} of [Boosinger's] adverse claim arising from alleged fraud, the three[-]year statute of limitations applies. Further, since [Scott] failed to file his complaint within the three-year period, the statute of limitations bars his claim.”

The trial court also sustained Boosinger's demurrer to Scott's cause of action for partition on the ground that Scott had no interest in the Property after the death of Randy. In its order, the trial court granted all of the parties' requests for judicial notice.

Thereafter, the court entered a...