Marshall

BACKGROUND

The General Setting: The Parties and the Property Leonard Hester Sr. and Parthena Hester were husband and wife and had eight children, five of whom would become parties in the litigation here:

1 Larry, Leonard Jr., Ernest, Mark, and Michael.1 In 1972 Parthena and Leonard Sr. purchased a property on Lakeshore Avenue, Oakland (the property), taking ownership as joint tenants. Leonard Sr. died in 1985 at which point Parthena became the sole owner. Some years later, apparently in 1993, Parthena conveyed the property to the Parthena Hester Trust. As indicated, Parthena married Marshall, and she conveyed the property out of her trust to herself and Marshall as joint tenants. Parthena died in March 2018, at which point Marshall became the sole owner of the property. On March 15, 2018, Marshall executed a grant deed, which deed was referred to below as the “First Deed.” The First Deed had been prepared by Michael, drafted after a “family meeting” that did not include Marshall. In fact, Marshall was not told what the meeting was about and did not know, even by the time he testified at trial, who had drafted the First Deed. Larry testified that Marshall had discussed with him a…