Jones

Defendant Sinclair (hereinafter referred to as the defendant) appeals from a judgment in a quiet-title suit whereby the trial court, sitting without a jury, decreed that plaintiff was possessed of a lien on certain land in San Bernardino County, apparently securing a debt in the sum of $1,000, together with interest thereon at the rate of 7 per cent per annum from May 5, 1939, and that such lien is superior to a lien possessed by the defendant, likewise to secure an indebtedness of $1,000 with interest, and evidenced by a deed of trust. The plaintiff’s rights accrued by virtue of a deed to him from a predecessor in interest to whom the land had been conveyed by a deed absolute in form but found by the trial court to have been intended as a mortgage. The defendant’s trust deed was executed prior to the deed to plaintiff’s predecessor and was recorded prior to the deed to plaintiff but subsequent to recordation of the deed to his predecessor. We have concluded that the trial court must be sustained in its determination of the respective rights of the two claimants.

The pertinent facts, as found by the trial court, are as follows:

On or about December 21, 1936, one W. C. Simpson,…