Rundell

This is an action to enforce performance of an oral contract made by plaintiff with his aunt—who, as his father’s widow, was likewise plaintiff’s stepmother—whereby the latter promised to devise to plaintiff, by her last will and testament, the parcel of land in controversy. It is sought to impress the property with a trust in favor of plaintiff and thus to secure to him the benefit of the contract pursuant to which he deeded the land to his stepmother on the strength of her promise to give it back again by devising it to him. She did, indeed, make a will whereby she devised the land to plaintiff as she had agreed—a holographic will duly executed by her on May 7, 1914—but this will, by reason of the provisions of section 1300 of the Civil Code, was revoked by her subsequent marriage to appellant and was never thereafter republished. The name of the stepmother at the date of the conveyance from her stepson was Mary Ann Rundell, she being at that time the surviving wife of plaintiff’s deceased father. Subsequently she married the defendant and appellant, Albert W. McDonald. Judgment passed for plaintiff and the defendant McDonald appeals.

This is the second time the cause has been…