The herald., 1896-12-12
AN ENTANGLED MORTGAGE
In Which an Evangelist Figures as De-
fendant-A Son Causes Trouble.

An opinion in the suit of C. M. Worth
ing VS.. L. T. Graves ct al was handed
down by Judge Shaw in department five
yesterday.
The action was to foreclose mortgage
executed March 25th, 1889. by L. T.
Graves and Mrs. A. P. Graves to Mary
A. Gaylord, for $4,000, due March 20, 1892,
on two parcels of land, one in Riverside
county and one in Los Angeles county.
The mortgager died testate in 1891, and
her will ramed L. T. Graves as executor
without bonds.
In 1893, as executor, he executed and
acknowledged release of the mortgage
on the margin of the records in the fol-
lowing words: II hereby acknowledge
full payment and satisfaction of the
within mortgage" The mortgage debt
was never paid nor accounted for by
the executor, and the only consideration
for the release was the substitution of
other security, consisting of certain
shares of capital stock of the South Riv-
erside Land and Water stock. This re-
lease and substitution was made with
out any order of court or authority from
heirs, devisees or creditors. The stock
was then declining in value, but it was
still worth more that the debt, and the
executor believed it to be as good Sc
curity as the land, and made the re-
lease in good faith without intending to
injure the estate.
The facts in the case have added in
terest, inasmuch as L. T. Graves is the
son of A. P Graves, so well known as
an Evangelist and author of several re-
ligious works, and who, with Mrs. A. p.
Graves. are party defendants to the suit.
The title to the land in Los Angeles
county was in Mrs. A. p. Graves, and
that to the land in Riverside county was
in l.. T. Graves, from the time the mort
gage was executed until after the release
was made. The Los Angeles county
property, known as the Steel ranch prop
erty, was on April "a, 1894 conveyed by
Mrs. A. p. Graves to L. T. Graves: and
| by him was on October II, 1895, conveyed
to the defendant Mrs. F. A. Summers
| Before doing so, however, on May 49,
| 1894, l.. 7. Graves mortgaged the ranch
| to J. Sayles Brown for $4,000, which money
| was used to pay off a prior mortgage for
| a like sum to NJ. L. Steel, given for the
| purchase money due on the purchase
| of the lot by Mrs. Graves from Steel
| Mrs. Summers. as a part of the price of
| the land, assumed and paid the Brown
mortgage. Neither Brown nor Sum-
| mers had any actual knowledge of the
| real nature of the considera ton for the
! release of the Gaylord mortgage. nor any
| knowledge or notice whatever other than
what was disclosed by the records. Upon
these facts is the land in the hands of
Mrs. Summers subject to the lien Of the
| Gaylord mortgage?
In passing upon this intricate tangla
| of interests the court says, among other
things. that 1.-The title to the property
| of a deceased person does not vest.abso-
lutely in the administrator, but passes
| at once to the heirs, subject to the con-
troll of the probate court and to the DOS
session of the administrator for the pur.
poses of administration and for no other
purpose; and testamentary dispositions
Of property vest the title in the devisee
or legatee at the testator's death. II
| follows that the naming of L. T. Graves
as executor and his subsequent uualif1
cation as such did not discharge the debt