In Lindsay-Field v. Friendly, the California Court of Appeal held that a co-owner has no authority to bind another co-owner’s interest without that owner’s agreement, so a deal approved by most of the owners, but not all, bound no one.
In Capuccio v. Caire (1922), the California Supreme Court held that co-owners who moved property into a revived company without a co-owner’s consent could not defeat her partition. The company at most stepped into their shoes as a co-owner.
In Capuccio v. Caire, the California Supreme Court held that a partition plaintiff’s attorney’s fees for the common benefit are shared by all owners, even when the other owners fight the case, and even before the fees are paid.
A quiet title action asks a court to decide who owns property. In co-ownership disputes, it is often paired with a partition action, which ends the co-ownership.
Legal title is who appears on the deed. Equitable title can belong to someone else. The difference often matters when a partition action involves a quiet title dispute.
Code of Civil Procedure section 872.620 lets the court determine the state of the title as part of the partition action.
Code of Civil Procedure section 872.120 gives the partition court power to decide every motion, report, and account in the case and to make any order needed to carry out the partition.
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