Hogevoll

Defendant appeals from a judgment quieting plaintiff’s title to a parcel of improved real property located in San Francisco.

The parties were married in 1912. They were admittedly husband and wife at the time of trial in June of 1942, but were living separate and apart, and had been so doing for some time prior to that date. In 1932 the wife secured an interlocutory decree of divorce on the grounds of desertion, but did not secure the final decree. Later she obtained another interlocutory decree of divorce but again failed to obtain a final decree.

Upon the trial plaintiff introduced as her source of title to the property a commissioner’s deed naming her as grantee and dated September 25, 1941. This deed was issued following a sale upon a mortgage foreclosure. The deed recites that a foreclosure sale was had on September 17, 1940, at which plaintiff purchased the property for $2,800. Plaintiff testified that she obtained all of the cash used to buy the property from her half-brother; that she had given him her unsecured promissory note for $2,800; that the note was due a year from its date; that she had paid nothing on the note; that her half-brother had not pressed her for the…