Court Opinion

ID: 9685195
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 14:25:48.723567+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:03.148585
License: Public Domain

*587CARTER, J.
I dissent.
I believe that the sale of property by an executor is subject . to the caveat emptor rule. The majority opinion reasons that a sale by an administrator not preceded by a court order therefor, but followed by confirmation, is not a judicial sale and, therefore, caveat emptor is not applicable. That is a non sequitur for the application of caveat emptor is not based upon whether it is judicial sale or not. It arises from other factors. Hence, the turning point is not whether the sale is or is not a judicial one. It was said in the first case in this state on the- subject: “The only effect of an administrator’s deed is to convey to the purchaser the title of the deceased. Such a deed can contain no warranty of the title. The purchaser must know the law. The notice was of a probate sale. The bidder, therefore, knew the character of the sale, the effect of the deed, and was bound to examine the title for himself. The language of the notice put him upon his guard. In these sales, caveat emptor is the rule.” (Halleck v. Guy. 9 Cal. 181, 197 [70 Am.Dec. 643].) In Miller & Lux v. Gray, 136 Cal. 261, 263 [68 P. 770], it is said: “It is well settled that an administrator in making sales of real estate is the mere instrument of the law to transfer such title, and only such title as is held by the estate. His deed is in fact but a quitclaim deed, and so it is uniformly held touching such sales that the doctrine of caveat emptor applies. The same principle applies in case of lease. It is but an estate for years, carved out of and dependent upon the sufficiency of the title of the larger estate of the deceased. In this respect there is no distinction between a lease by an administrator and lease by a guardian; and it is uniformly held that a guardian’s lease does not imply any covenant of quiet enjoyment. . . . Moreover, an administrator cannot contract so as to make his estate liable, except as authorized by statute . . . Gray, as administrator, had the power to make this lease . . . but in leasing he carved out an estate for years from such title and interest only as were in the estate of Turner.” [Emphasis added.] As late as 1935, this court said in Texas Co. v. Bank of America etc. Assn., 5 Cal.2d 35, 44 [53 P.2d 127] (not cited in the majority opinion): “Appellant invokes the doctrine of caveat emptor to defeat respondent’s recovery. This doctrine is applicable insofar as the estate’s title to the demised property is concerned. Appellant leased such title . as the decedent Jiad at his death and it was respondent’s *588duty to ascertain before bidding, the nature of that title, for it could not, after confirmation, complain of any defects therein.” [Emphasis added.] (See, also, Blankenship v. Whaley, 124 Cal. 300 [57 P. 79]; Estate of Verwoert, 177 Cal. 488 [171 P. 105].)
Thus it is clear that the basis for the caveat emptor rule is that the administrator cannot sell or convey anything except the interest of the deceased at the time of his death; he is the mere instrumentality who, under supervision of the court (confirmation is indispensable) by which the deceased’s interest is transferred; he has no authority to make any warranties unless authorized by the court; the purchaser is charged with knowing the quality of deceased’s title. In other words when one purports to sell the property of another hy authority of law there is no warranty of title, or, as expressed by Williston: ‘‘The commonest illustration of the principle referred to in the preceding section is found in sales by those who purport to sell" by virtue of authority in fact or law. Such persons unless they expressly warrant title are not liable for the lack of title of the person who is supposed to own the goods ... So in cases of sales made by a sheriff, or other judicial officer, or an auctioneer, or mortgagee, or assignee in bankruptcy, or executor or administrator, or guardian, or simply an agent, as such. If the seller either has authority in fact from a principal to make the sale, or if the principal is bound for any other reason by the agent’s act in making the sale, well-known principles of agency will impose the same obligation upon the principal as if he had made the sale directly himself. The agent is not wholly free from implied obligation, but all that he warrants is his authority to act for the principal, and if he has not the authority which he assumes to have he will be liable. If the seller’s authority is conferred upon him by law, as in the case of a sheriff, there can, of course, be no implied warranty by the owner of the goods any more than by the officer who makes the sale. Moreover such officers, unlike agents whose power is derived from authority in fact, do not warrant the validity of the authority which they purport to exercise. They are, however, liable for actual representations, fraud, or negligence in the exercise of their duties.” (Williston on Sales [rev. ed.] § 220, p. 566.) [Emphasis added.] All these things are for the benefit and protection of the creditors and beneficiaries of the estate and they are as certainly safeguarded by a confirmation after sale as by an order authorizing a sale. Hence, *589the question should not hinge on a technical definition of a judicial sale—whether an order for sale and confirmation after are required, or only confirmation. Rather, it depends upon the nature of the agent making the sale. To say that the Legislature, merely by simplifying the sale procedure by eliminating the prior order, intended to wipe out the long and firmly established rule of caveat emptor is hardly reasonable. Indeed, the Probate Code still retains the provision which long existed, that the deed by an administrator conveys all the “right, title, interest and estate of the decedent ... at the time of his death.” (Prob. Code, § 786.) Nothing more may be conveyed.
In my opinion the trial court followed the correct rule of law in holding that plaintiff was entitled to the full purchase price paid for the property, and the judgment should be affirmed.
Respondent’s petition for a rehearing was denied January 26,1950. Carter, J., and Traynor, J., voted for a rehearing.