Harnedy

I. INTRODUCTION

This is an appeal from a judgment, entered after a two-day court trial, by which the trial court rescinded and cancelled a purported quitclaim deed to certain property and declared that property to be owned by a trust created by the deceased original settlor. We affirm.

H. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

This litigation involves a dispute between a brother and sister regarding the ownership of the property of their deceased parents, property originally put into a trust by those parents but then, after the death of the mother, quitclaimed to the daughter by a very sick father a few weeks before his death. The son is plaintiff and respondent William J. Harnedy, hereafter respondent. The daughter is defendant and appellant Mary Harnedy Whitty, hereafter appellant. At all times relevant hereto, they had two siblings, Michael Harnedy and Noreen Harnedy. The parents of all four were Mary and William Harnedy of Dublin, Alameda County. They died in, respectively, October 1999 and January 2000.

In October 1991, the parents created a revocable inter vivos trust called the Harnedy Family Living Trust; it held all their assets, including their home in Dublin.…