Cheek v. Zerbe

2002 WY 130, 53 P.3d 113, 2002 Wyo. LEXIS 139, 2002 WL 2012440
CourtWyoming Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 4, 2002
DocketNo. 02-30
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 2002 WY 130 (Cheek v. Zerbe) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wyoming Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cheek v. Zerbe, 2002 WY 130, 53 P.3d 113, 2002 Wyo. LEXIS 139, 2002 WL 2012440 (Wyo. 2002).

Opinion

GOLDEN, Justice.

[¶ 1] John Cheek appeals from a verdict issued after a bench trial denying several petitions protesting various aspects of the probate of an estate. One petition specifically sought to prove a lost will. Finding no grounds to support his alleged errors, we affirm.

ISSUES

[¶ 2] Appellant presents two issues for our review:

A. Whether Appellant was entitled to, a jury trial?
B. Whether the trial court erred in finding that appellant failed to meet the requirements of W.S. § 2-6-207 in establishing a lost will?

Appellees accept this characterization of the issues.

FACTS

[¶ 3] Harold Cheek, Jr., died in 1999. John Cheek is Harold's brother and sole heir at law. After Harold's death, Martha and David Zerbe introduced a will for probate dated 1996 naming them as primary heirs and executors. John Cheek claims that Harold gave him a will dated 1998. Mr. Cheek alleges that he briefly looked over the will when Harold gave it to him and noted that it made him the sole heir and executor of the estate. Mr. Cheek then put the will away someplace and cannot now find it.

[T4] The will dated 1996 was presented by the Zerbes and was admitted for probate. Mr. Cheek filed a Petition to Revoke Probate, Petition to Restrain Personal Representatives, Motion to Stay Further Actions of Executor, Petition for Removal of Personal Representative for Waste and Embezzlement, Petition to Prove Last Will and Testament as Lost, and a Request for Jury Trial. The Request for Jury Trial was stricken upon motion of the Zerbes. The Petition to Restrain Personal Representative and the Motion to Stay Further Actions of Executor were denied after hearing. All other petition demands were denied after a bench trial

DISCUSSION

[T5] As his first issue on appeal, Mr. Cheek argues that the trial court erred in striking his request for a jury trial. Mr. Cheek argues that he was entitled to a jury [116]*116trial as a matter of law; therefore, our review is de novo. Arch of Wyoming, Inc. v. Sisneros, 971 P.2d 981, 983 (Wyo.1999) ("We review issues of law de novo.")

[T6] Mr. Cheek first invokes the Seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution, as applied to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.1 The problem with this argument is that the Seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution was not incorporated into the Fourteenth Amendment and is not applicable to state court proceedings. "A trial by jury in suits at common law pending in the State courts is not ... a privilege or immunity of national citizenship, which the States are forbidden by the Fourteenth Amendment to abridge." Walker v. Sauvinet, 92 U.S. 90, 92, 23 L.Ed. 678 (1875). See also In re Adoption of KJD, 2002 WY 26, 23, 41 P.8d 522, 528 (Wyo.2002); Matter of GP, 679 P.2d 976, 988 (Wyo.1984).

[17] Mr. Cheek next attempts to invoke W.R.C.P. 38 in support of his argument that he is entitled to a jury trial. W.R.C.P. 88(a) states:

Issues of law must be tried by the court, unless referred as hereinafter provided; and issues of fact arising in actions for the recovery of money only, or specific real or personal property, shall be tried by a jury unless a jury trial be waived, or a reference be ordered. All other issues of fact shall be tried by the court, subject to its power to order any issue to be tried by a jury, or referred.

Mr. Cheek presents a very simple argument. He argues that, essentially, his action is focused on gaining the personal and real property of his deceased brother; the action is therefore an action for "specific real or personal property" within the terms of W.R.C.P. 38(a) and therefore "shall be tried to a jury."

[¶ 8] Unfortunately for Mr. Cheek, his argument skips a critical step. In order to achieve his goals, he either had to get the will that already had been admitted to probate set aside, as he requested in his Petition to Revoke Probate, or he had to prove a lost will that superseded the will admitted to probate, as he requested in this Petition to Prove Last Will and Testament as Lost. Those, along with a petition to remove the personal representative, were the issues before the district court and for which Mr. Cheek sought a trial by jury. There were no "actions for the recovery of money only, or specific real or personal property" and so W.R.C.P. 38 simply does not apply.

[¶ 9] Mr. Cheek's final argument essentially is that he is entitled to a jury trial under common law. A right to a jury trial, even under the federal constitution, is preserved only as it existed at common law. 50A CJ.S. Juries § 8 (1997). At common law, a right to a jury trial is recognized in cases triable at law, while there is no right to a jury trial in cases in equity. See generally Davidek v. Wyoming Inv. Co., 77 Wyo. 141, 154-55, 308 P.2d 941, 946 (1957). This remains the general rule in Wyoming. Hyatt Bros., Inc. ex rel. Hyatt v. Hyatt, 769 P.2d 329, $38 (Wyo.1989) ("[UInder W.R.C.P. 38, purely equitable actions remained triable by the trial court unless it ordered an issue tried to a jury."); True v. Hi-Plains Elevator Machinery, Inc., 577 P.2d 991, 1008 (Wyo.1978) ("The adoption of [W.R.C.P. 88], however, does not alter the long-established precept that cases purely equitable 'in character are triable by the court."); Lellman v. Mills, 15 Wyo. 149, 176, 87 P. 985, 994 (1906) ("The case at bar is one of equitable cognizance, in which a jury was not demandable as a matter or right.").

[¶ 10] Mr. Cheek argues that because he is seeking the recovery of real and [117]*117personal property, his is an action at law and therefore he is entitled to a jury trial. Again, the critical flaw in Mr. Cheek's argument is that he mischaracterizes his petitions. His petitions were all petitions in a probate proceeding. He did not have any direct action for the recovery of real or personal property. Onee set in the proper context-that of a probate proceeding-it is clear that Mr. Cheek is not entitled to a trial by jury.

[¶ 11] Probate proceedings are not proceedings at law or in equity but rather are unique proceedings. "[UJnder our codes probate proceedings are entirely separate and distinct from actions either at law or in equity." Gaunt v. Kansas University Endowment Ass'n of Lawrence, Kan., 379 P.2d 825, 826 (Wyo.1963). The general rule regarding the right to jury trials in probate proceedings is as follows:

The right to demand a trial by jury in decedent estate administration proceedings was not given by the common law, and is not within a general constitutional guaranty, but exists only when, and to the extent that, it is conferred by statute. Thus, in probate proceedings, there is no constitutional right to jury trial.

50A C.J.S. Juries § 110 (1997) (footnotes omitted). More specifically:

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2002 WY 130, 53 P.3d 113, 2002 Wyo. LEXIS 139, 2002 WL 2012440, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cheek-v-zerbe-wyo-2002.