Caldwell v. Taylor

In Caldwell v. Taylor (1933) 218 Cal. 471, the decedent devised his entire estate to his wife, whom he had married shortly before dying. (Caldwell, supra, 218 Cal. at p. 473.) The decedent's son claimed that the wife prevented him from contesting the will in a timely manner because she misrepresented her true name and prevented him from discovering that she was married to another man when she married the decedent. (Id. at pp. 474, 478.) The court found that the son was entitled to equitable relief due to the wife's extrinsic fraud. To remedy the fraud, the widow was declared an involuntary trustee of the decedent's estate for the son's benefit. (Id. at pp. 478-481.)