2017-00218295-CU-OR

Lee Lawson vs. Alvin Dean Bourn

Nature of Proceeding: Default Hearing

Filed By: Lawson, Lee

Appearance required.

Plaintiff Lee Lawson brought this action for quiet title alleging that the subject property was owned by the Apple Road Trust as to which he was the sole beneficiary. Defendants had been the trustees of the Apple Road Trust. In a 2010 lawsuit, Plaintiff was determined to be the sole beneficiary/owner of the subject trust. Plaintiff named a new trustee as a result of Defendants resignation from the trust. In January 2014 Plaintiff alleges that the Apple Road Trust transferred the property to him as an individual. Plaintiff thereafter obtained an unlawful detainer judgment against the Defendants. In April 2016 Defendant Alvin Dean Bourn recorded a grant deed conveying the property as trustee of the Apple Road Trust to himself. Plaintiff alleges that the County Recorder invalidated the grant deed after he provided the relevant information and that a fraud alert was placed on the property. Plaintiff now seeks to quiet title in his name alone. No evidence of stipulation is provided.

“The Legislature has not left anything to the imagination about whether a trial court can enter a default judgment in a quiet title action. “The court shall not enter judgment by default” is unequivocal. Moreover, unlike the ordinary default prove-up, in which a defendant has no right to participate (see, e.g., Garcia v. Politis (2011) 192 Cal.App.4th 1474, 1479), before entering any judgment on a quiet title cause of action the court must “in all cases” “hear such evidence as may be offered respecting the claims of any of the defendants” (§ 764.010). Accordingly, evidence must be taken and it must “hear such evidence as may be offered respecting the claims of any defendants, other than claims the validity of which is admitted by the plaintiff in the complaint.” (Id.)

Plaintiff shall be prepared to offer evidence of his title.

Plaintiff must also dismiss all Doe defendants prior to entry of judgment.