Thomas

This was an action to quiet title. Judgment was rendered in favor of plaintiff, and the defendants appealed, Clarence G. Thomas being thereafter substituted for C. S. Thomas, one of the original defendants.

The defendants in the action claimed title to the property described in the complaint by virtue of an instrument dated December 30, 1913, purporting to be a deed from plaintiff: Nelson to C. S. Thomas and Ella Thomas, his wife, and which property they claimed to have received from Nelson as a gift. Nelson, on the other hand, while admitting that he signed and acknowledged this paper, supported his claim of title by evidence that in signing it he supposed he was executing his will, and therefore denied that on December 30th, or at any other time, he either made or intended to make or deliver a deed of the property to the defendants. The court accepted this view-of the transaction, and entered judgment accordingly quieting plaintiff’s title.

The circumstances attending the execution of the instrument in controversy are briefly these: About the year 1879 Nelson acquired a small ranch in the southern portion of Humboldt County, at a place known as Elk Ridge, where he engaged in…