Gleason

Ejectment to recover certain lots in the town of Alturas, Modoc County. Trial before the court without a jury; judgment for defendants, from which and an order denying a new trial plaintiffs appeal.

The court found and adjudged that the principal instrument, in the form of a deed absolute, relied upon herein for a recovery was intended and accepted as a mortgage; and that the same, having been executed by the husband alone while the property in controversy was a homestead, was void and of no effect.

The defendant J. D. Spray, while the owner of and residing with his wife upon the property, on October 20, 1884, made, acknowledged, and caused to be recorded a declaration of homestead embracing the same property. And on April 7, 1885, while the homestead thus created was still subsisting, he, Spray, executed and delivered to George M. Gleason, one of the plaintiffs, a general warranty deed, absolute in form, embracing the homestead, with other real property. This deed the court found was intended as a mortgage. Thereafter, on May 25, 1885, the defendants, Spray and wife, by a joint declaration to that effect duly filed in the proper office, abandoned the homestead. On May, 26,…