Court Opinion

ID: 9563319
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 18:38:33.018359+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:17:47.857711
License: Public Domain

TRAYNOR, J.
I concur in the judgment but for reasons other than in the majority opinion.
The majority opinion rejects plaintiff’s contention that decedent revoked the legacy to his widow by executing the property settlement agreement, on the ground that the decree of distribution operates as a bar to this cause of action, that “ancillary to and incident of the probate court’s jurisdiction it had power to determine, as it did, the effect of the agreement on the will and to whom the property of the estate was to be distributed.” In concluding that the probate court decided the issue concerning the revocation of the legacy as an incident of the distribution of the estate, the majority opinion relies upon the finding in the distribution decree that the *496spouses had effected a reconciliation and that their agreement was not in effect at the time of decedent’s death. It is my opinion that this finding has no bearing on the issue of revocation. If decedent revoked the legacy by executing the agreement, the subsequent suspension of the agreement by reconciliation would not revive the legacy. (In re Lones, 108 Cal. 688 [41 P. 771]; see, Ferrier, Revival of a Revoked Will, 28 Cal.L.Rev. 265, 266.) The finding in question simply indicates that the agreement did not prevent defendant from asserting rights to her husband’s estate as a legatee under his will. The question whether the agreement had become inoperative before decedent’s death was within the jurisdiction of the probate court, for that court may refuse to distribute any part of the estate to a legatee claiming under a valid will, if the legatee by a previous agreement or otherwise is estopped to assert his rights under the will. (Estate of Crane, 6 Cal.2d 218 [57 P.2d 476, 104 A.L.R. 1101].) The probate court, however, has no jurisdiction, in a proceeding directed to the distribution of the estate, to determine whether the will was revoked. Since this question concerns the validity of the will submitted to probate, it can be litigated and decided only in a will contest. (Estate of Parsons, 196 Cal. 294 [237 P. 744].) If no contest is initiated within the period allowed in sections 380 and 384 of the Probate Code, the order admitting the will to probate is conclusive under section 384 as to the validity of the will. (Estate of Parsons, supra; Estate of Baker, 170 Cal. 578, 585 [150 P. 989]; Estate of Duraind, 51 Cal.App.2d 206, 213 [124 P.2d 330].) Plaintiff did not institute a will contest within the six-month period allowed by section 380, and is therefore bound as to the issue of revocation by the finality of the order admitting the will to probate.
The question remains whether plaintiff in seeking to impress a trust on the property received by defendant from the estate can rely on the theory that she seeks specific performance of the property settlement agreement as a third party beneficiary. It is settled that a contract of a person to dispose of his property by will in a particular manner can be given effect as against the will, not by the probate court but by a court of equity, and that the remedy to impress a trust on the property received by the legatee is in the nature of specific performance of the contract. (Estate of Rolls, 193 Cal. 594 *497[226 P. 608]; Wolf v. Donahue, 206 Cal. 213, 220 [273 P. 547]; Notten v. Mensing, 3 Cal.2d 469, 473 [45 P.2d 198].) This remedy applies also to a contract between testator and legatee in which the legatee renounces the right to take under the will. (Weinstein v. Moers, 207 Cal. 534 [279 P. 444].) Since the remedy is in the nature of specific performance, it does not depend, as suggested in the majority opinion, upon extrinsic fraud. For another reason, however, plaintiff cannot have a trust impressed upon the property. She cannot have such relief without showing that the executory provisions of the agreement were in effect at the time of decedent’s death. She is precluded from so doing by the probate court’s finding that as a result of a reconciliation of the spouses, the agreement was not in effect at the time of decedent’s death. This finding, though made upon another cause of action, is conclusive upon plaintiff as to this previously litigated issue, since a decision rendered between the same parties on the same issue estops either party from relitigating the issue even in another court or on a different cause of action. (English v. English, 9 Cal.2d 358 [70 P.2d 625, 128 A.L.R. 467]; Sutphin v. Speik, 15 Cal.2d 195, 201 [99 P.2d 652, 101 P.2d 497] ; Johnson v. Fontana County F.P. Dist., 15 Cal.2d 380, 389 [101 P.2d 1092]; see Restatement, Judgments, § 68.)