Beyers | Costin Wins Victory for Elderly Homeowners

July 28 , 2008

SANTA ROSA, CA - Beyers | Costin recently won a resounding victory on behalf of an elderly couple after a six-day court trial in a dispute over ownership of their home.

Litigation associate Suzanne Babb represented the plaintiffs, a Cambodian couple who fled the Khmer Rouge in the early 1980s. They were granted asylum in the U.S. and started a new life in the town of Sonoma, where they raised their six children. For fourteen years, plaintiffs worked and saved their money. In 1996, after most of their children were grown, plaintiffs decided to use this money for a down-payment on a home. However, since plaintiffs did not have the credit history to obtain financing, their loan broker suggested that they place title in the names of relatives. Plaintiffs followed this advice, made the down-payment for the property, paid all the monthly mortgage installments, property taxes and insurance premiums over the twelve year time period.

In early 2007, plaintiffs learned that the relatives who held title to the property were having financial difficulties, and that they had decided to claim the house as their own, sell it, and take the proceeds. To prevent that, plaintiffs brought suit to establish their ownership of their home. Plaintiffs were faced with several challenges at trial. First, in order to overcome the legal presumption that real property is owned by the person on the deed, plaintiffs had to prove by “clear and convincing” evidence that they had paid all the purchase money for the home. (The “clear and convincing” standard requires a higher degree of proof than the typical standard used in civil litigation, i.e. a “preponderance of the evidence”). Making their burden even harder was the fact that, due to the passage of time, the loan broker, real estate agent, title company and bank had destroyed most of their documentation concerning the transaction. Plaintiffs were therefore required to piece together, through the testimony of over a dozen witnesses, the evidence necessary to demonstrate plaintiffs were the true owners of the property, and that defendants had merely taken title to the property as “trustees.”

In ruling for plaintiffs, the Court held that, notwithstanding the dearth of documentary evidence, plaintiffs had established their ownership rights to the property by “clear and convincing” evidence. The Court ordered the defendants to transfer title to the home into plaintiffs’ names. Plaintiffs, who are now in their early 70s, were elated with the outcome. It was an especially sweet feeling of justice for this family who, nearly 30 years ago, lost everything to one of the cruelest totalitarian regimes in modern times.