In Lathrop v. Kellogg, 158 Cal. App. 2d 220, 322 P.2d 572, (Cal. Ct. App. 1958), competing claimants to a piece of property brought suit to quiet title. It was undisputed that title to the property was vested in 1916 in one Ettie A. Sprague. Id. at 222, 322 P.2d at 574. The record indicated that on July 2, 1937, a tax deed to the state of California was recorded. Next, a November 14, 1939 deed from the state to Warren and Frank Kellogg was recorded. Id. The instrument recorded after the deed to the Kelloggs was a quitclaim deed from Ettie L. Sprague, Marian L. Sprague, John H. Sprague, and George P. Low to Wilbert Lee Lathrop and Mable Lathrop, husband and wife, who eventually came into possession. Id. There was no record that Ettie A. Sprague was ever divested of her interest. Id. However, the same Ettie A. Sprague died in 1936 (before the tax deed to the state was recorded), leaving her husband John H. Sprague and two children, Marian L. Sprague and George P. Low as heirs. Id. Ettie A. Sprague's estate was never probated. Id. at 226, 322 P.2d at 576. The issue was whether a plaintiff in possession makes a prima facie case of ownership sufficient to withstand judgment of nonsuit. In California, once the plaintiff establishes ownership, the burden shifts to the defendant to establish that title vests in him through the tax deed. The Kellogg court held that the Lathrops, the successors in interest to Ettie A. Sprague's heirs, made a prima facie case when they were in possession and derived title from the decedent's intestate heirs. Id. at 223, 322 P.2d at 574. The appellate court's rationale was that at death, title vests immediately in the heirs, subject only to administration; that the heirs may maintain an action to quiet title; and that the right extends to a grantee of an heir. Id. at 225, 322 P.2d at 576.