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30 Cal. 666

Kent v. Snyder

California Supreme Court

Decided October 15, 1866

California Supreme Court · decided 1866-10-15

<p>Demurrer.—Brown v. Martiny 25 Cal. 82, in relation to a demurrer to the complaint on the ground that it does not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action, commented on.</p> <p>Demurrer to Complaint for want of Cause of Action.—A demurrer to the complaint on the ground that it does not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action, is sufficient, without a specification of the reasons why it does not state 1 such facts, unless the defense relied on is one which, to he made available, must he specially pleaded.</p> <p>When Demurrer must specify Grounds thereof.—A demurrer to the complaint for any reason except an objection to the jurisdiction of the Court, or that the complaint does not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action, must distinctly specify the grounds upon which any of the objections to the complaint are taken.</p> <p>Relief in Equity on the Ground of Fraud.—A hill in equity to obtain relief on the ground of fraud is not sufficient if it charge fraud in general terms; but the facts constituting the fraud should ho stated.</p> <p>Complaint for Relief in Equity on the Ground of Fraud.—A complaint in equity to have a deed absolute on its face reformed so as to become a deed of trust, which avers that the deed does not express the trusts and conditions upon which ib was agreed the property should bo transferred, but that such conditions were by the defendants fraudulently suppressed, without any statements of what acts of fraud were practised, docs not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action.</p>

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1866-10-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 22 later decisions — most recently May 1944

22 state decisions

60186618701880189019001910192019301940decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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By the Court, Sawyer, J., on petition for rehearing:

¶1In the fifth point of the petition for rehearing, the appellants insist, firstly, that their complaint discloses a trust in the *675nature of a security, and that parol testimony would be admissible to show that the conveyance, absolute on its face, was nevertheless intended as a security; secondly, that the interest " conveyed is not an interest in land, and therefore not within the sixth section of the Statute of Frauds. Concede both points for the purposes of the argument and the defect in the complaint is not obviated. The «appellants do not pretend that there was in fact a parol trust—that the trusts were not intended to be disclosed by the conveyance. On the contrary, they say that it was intended to, put the entire agreement in writing. The deed of conveyance was to cover the entire ground and be the evidence of the trusts, as well as of the conveyance; but that the trusts were suppressed by the defendants, and the agreement is not the agreement entered into and designed to be put in writing. They rely upon a fraudulent suppression of a part of the agreement, and not upon a parol trust. It is sought to reform the instrument and then enforce it as reformed. The fraud in suppressing a part of the contract is the entire gravamen of the action, and we are clearly of the opinion that the facts constituting the fraud are not sufficiently stated. The whole averment as to the fraud consists in stating that the name of the true party and the conditions and trusts are not expressed in the written con- \ tract set out, “ but instead thereof the said conditions were by the said defendants, A. J. Snyder and Daniel Frazier, fraudulently suppressed.” Such a general averment of fraud does not disclose the facts which constitute the cause of action.

¶2It is unnecessary to again discuss the other points made in the petition for rehearing; our former opinion fully covers them.

¶3Rehearing denied.

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