Steiner

Action to set aside a deed. After an extended trial, the court made findings and ordered the deed annulled. Defendant appeals from the judgment and has noticed an appeal from the denial of his motion for new trial.

The facts found by the court were those alleged in the complaint. Plaintiff alleged as follows: The parties were living together as husband and wife. Plaintiff owned an unimproved lot on La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles. On September 24, 1953, she executed a grant deed of the lot to defendant as his separate property; defendant gave no consideration for the deed. An office and a residence were subsequently built on the lot and the parties resided on the premises until April 1955, when plaintiff separated from her husband. Defendant has continued to reside thereon and to use the office in his business.

The complaint alleged that plaintiff executed the deed and parted with its possession in reliance upon defendant’s representations that “by so executing said deed it would not be necessary to probate her estate in order to make him the owner of said property in the event of plaintiff’s death before the death of the defendant; that notwithstanding the execution of said…