Court Opinion

ID: 9605974
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 02:44:39.806463+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:54:36.307251
License: Public Domain

CARTER, J.
I dissent.
This case involves the construction of section 1272a of the Code of Civil Procedure and section 1027 of the Probate Code. I see no sound reason for the view taken by the majority of this court.
The portions of section 1027 of the Probate Code which are here applicable read as follows:
“If the money or other personal property belonging to an estate has been deposited in the county treasury prior to the date of distribution to the State of California, upon the rendition of the decree of distribution, any money so distributed shall forthwith be delivered to the State Treasurer by the county treasurer, and all other personal property so distributed shall forthwith be delivered to the State Controller for deposit in the state treasury. . . .
“The property so distributed shall be held by the State Treasurer for a period of five years from the date of the decree making such distribution, within which time any person may appear in the superior court for the county of Sacramento and claim the estate or any part thereof. . . .
*511“Any person who does not appear and claim, as herein required, shall be forever barred, and such property, or so much thereof as is not claimed, shall vest absolutely in the State.”
Section 1272a of the Code of Civil Procedure, in part, is as follows:
“When the estate, or any portion thereof, of any decedent has been received by or deposited with the State Treasurer pursuant to a distribution thereof to the State of California, . . . and, except as otherwise provided by law, when there is in the possession of the State or its officers any money or other property, real or personal, which is to be held for third persons or the title to which has vested in the State subject to the rights of third persons, the superior court of the county of Sacramento, State of California, shall have full and exclusive jurisdiction to determine the title to the property and all claims thereto.
“Any person entitled to succeed to the property or to take title thereto or possession thereof, and not a party or privy to any proceedings had under any of the foregoing sections of this title, may, unless otherwise barred, file a petition in the superior court of the county of Sacramento showing his claim or right to the property, or the proceeds thereof, or to any portion thereof.”
The construction placed upon these portions of the code sections by the majority is an unnecessarily strict one, and one with which I cannot, in good conscience, agree. The majority place emphasis on the latter clause of a sentence contained in section 1027 of the Probate Code, and, in effect, ignore the first part of the same sentence. “The property so distributed shall be held by the State Treasurer for a period of five years from the date of the decree making such distribution.” (Emphasis added.) But we also have another phrase to contend with: “The property so distributed shall be held by the State Treasurer for a period of five years from the date of the decree making such distribution. ...” Here the property was held by the county treasurer from some time prior to the decree which is dated May 6, 1940, until it was turned over to the State Treasurer January 26, 1946. Respondents, whose relationship to the deceased is undisputed, commenced these proceedings on February 13, 1946, less than one month after the State Treasurer had received the property. The majority of this court reach the result that respondents *512are barred because the statute of limitation began to run from the date of the decree making such distribution.
This result is reached despite the provisions of section 1272a of the Code of Civil Procedure which outlines the procedure which must be followed by any claimant seeking to establish his relationship to a deceased person. That section clearly states that “When the estate, or any portion thereof, of any decedent has been received by or deposited with the State Treasurer pursuant to a distribution thereof to the State of California, . . . and, . . . when there is in the possession of the state or its officers any money or other property, real or personal, which is to be held for third persons or the title to which has vested in the state subject to the rights of third persons, the superior court of the county of Sacramento, State of California, shall have full and exclusive jurisdiction to determine the title to the property and all claims thereto. ’ ’
The majority opinion defines the word “held” as embracing two meanings—one, actual physical possession, and the other as being invested with legal title or right to hold or claim possession, and then says that clearly the Legislature must have intended the latter meaning. This does not take into consideration the latter part of the same sentence which provides that “when there is in the possession of the state or its officers . . . etc.” It seems to me that a far more plausible construction would be that it was intended that the five-year period was to run from the time the state obtained possession pursuant to the decree of distribution. Construing the two sections together, which is the usual procedure, there is nothing inconsistent and no “insertions” or “omissions” are required. The provision that, after the decree of distribution, the money or property should be delivered “forthwith” to the State Treasurer was undoubtedly meant to have a practical effect—that the county treasurer should deliver the property without delay, thus obviating such a state of affairs as existed in this case.
The majority say that it can hardly be contended that “by amending section 1027 [Prob. Code] in 1939 to require the immediate delivery of certain estate assets, the Legislature intended to provide for a period of limitation different from that previously established, for the wording of the limitation provision remained unchanged.” I submit that in view of the entire section, it can be so contended. Statutory amendments are usually intended either to correct ambiguities in the *513language or meaning, or to carry the law a step or two farther. Why is it any less reasonable to say that the Legislature intended that the money should be delivered to the State Treasurer as soon as was possible after the decree of distribution, so that the period of the statute would begin to run without delay! The evil which it was enacted to correct was the practice of holding property of such decedents in the county treasury for long periods of time and the right to claim the funds became interminable. In 1933, section 1027 (Prob. Code) was enacted as a new section providing for the possession by the State Treasurer and the bar of a claimant’s right much as at present. But the prompt payment of the funds to the State Treasurer was not provided for. In 1939, the section was amended to require the executor or administrator of an estate to pay such funds held by him directly into the state treasury, and further provided that where such funds were already in the possession of the county, the county treasurer should pay them forthwith to the State Treasurer.
As was pointed out by the learned trial judge when deciding this case, it would be manifestly impracticable for a person, an “unknown” heir, who might be living in any part of the world, to inquire from time to time of the various county treasurers throughout the state as to the presence therein of any possible estate he or she might inherit. He would know that if any long lost relative of his had died the property would escheat to the state. Furthermore, this must have been the theory which prompted the Legislature to provide that his action, in the nature of a declaratory judgment settling title, was against the state, not against any county in which the deceased may have been domiciled at the time of his death.
It appears to me that there is merit in respondent’s contention that if appellant’s position is sound, their cause of action is barred before it ever arose. Escheat statutes and statutes of limitation are statutes of forfeiture and should be strictly construed against the one asserting either, or both of them—in this instance, the state. Since the statute provides that respondent’s exclusive remedy was one against the state, it would seem that the provisions of section 1027 of the Probate Code should be so construed as to make it harmonious with section 1272a of the Code of Civil Procedure. In order to achieve a just result, it is only necessary that these two see*514tions be construed together, liberally, in the light of the obvious intention of the Legislature.
For the foregoing reasons I would affirm the judgment of the trial court.
Shenk, J., concurred.
Respondents’ petition for a rehearing was denied March 24, 1949. Shenk, J., and Carter, J., voted for a rehearing.