Conrady v. Conrady

550 A.2d 231, 379 Pa. Super. 426, 1988 Pa. Super. LEXIS 3189
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedOctober 31, 1988
DocketNo. 1709
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 550 A.2d 231 (Conrady v. Conrady) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Conrady v. Conrady, 550 A.2d 231, 379 Pa. Super. 426, 1988 Pa. Super. LEXIS 3189 (Pa. Ct. App. 1988).

Opinion

TAMILIA, Judge:

This is an appeal from an Order granting appellee John Conrady’s petition for enforcement of settlement agreement.

On April 7, 1977, appellant Elva Conrady filed an accounting action in the Court of Common Pleas of Beaver County against her husband, appellee. In that action, appellant sought an accounting from appellee for one-half the value of various jointly owned savings bonds which appellee had appropriated. Following a trial on the matter, judgment was entered in favor of appellant, on November 1, 1977, in the amount of $2,350.

In September, 1982* appellee filed a complaint in divorce against appellant in the Court of Common Pleas of Allegher ny County. Appellant filed an answer in which she raised claims for equitable- distribution, alimony, counsel fees and costs. The parties filed affidavits of consent and on October 6, 1983, a divorce Decree was entered which incorporated an earlier property settlement agreement dated September 26, 1983.

In 1987, appellant sought to enforce the Beaver County judgment entered against appellee in November, 1977. In response, appellee filed a petition for enforcement of settlement agreement in which he requested the court order the judgment be marked satisfied based on language in the property settlement agreement. By an Order of court, dated October 1, 1987, the trial court granted appellee’s petition by construing the property settlement agreement as a release of the Beaver County judgment. Following the denial of appellant’s post-trial motions, the court below entered its October 1, 1987 Order as a final Order of court and final judgment. This timely appeal followed.

Appellant raises two issues on appeal. First, appellant argues the trial court erred in not holding that the judgment entered in her favor and against appellee was intangible personal property which was not subject to the release language of the parties’ marriage settlement agreement. Second, appellant claims the trial court erred in not inter[429]*429preting the marriage settlement agreement against the party who prepared it.

In her first argument, appellant asserts the 1977 judgment entered in her favor against appellee acted as a legal division of a portion of the parties’ marital property. Appellant claims the verdict awarded her in 1977 converted the marital property, which was the subject of the accounting action, into separate nonmarital property which was not subject to equitable distribution in the subsequent divorce action. Appellant further argues the release of claims language contained in the parties’ property settlement agreement did not release appellee from the effectiveness of the judgment against him. We agree with appellant that the Beaver County judgment transferred entireties property into separate property, but we do not agree the property is not subject to equitable distribution under the Divorce Code of 1980, 23 P.S. § 101 et seq., and the provisions of the parties’ property settlement agreement.

The question presented in this appeal is whether an existing or prior Order partitioning entireties property pursuant to an accounting action, acts to remove the separate property from consideration in fashioning a later equitable distribution award in a subsequent divorce action.

The law in Pennsylvania on the partitioning of entireties property is well settled:

It is a general principle of the law of this Commonwealth that neither spouse may partition entireties property prior to divorce. Shapiro v. Shapiro, 424 Pa. 120, 136, 224 A.2d 164, 173 (1966); Livingston v. Livingston, 288 Pa.Super. 22, 430 A.2d 1193 (1981). An exception exists where one spouse has wrongfully appropriated entireties property for his or her own use and to the exclusion and detriment of the other spouse. Shapiro, supra; Stemniski v. Stemniski, 403 Pa. 38, 169 A.2d 51 (1961); Berhalter v. Berhalter, 315 Pa. 225, 173 A. 172 (1934); Gray v. Gray, 275 Pa.Super. 131, 418 A.2d 646 (1980); Vento v. Vento, 256 Pa.Super. 91, 389 A.2d 615 (1978). Such an appropriation ‘works revocation of the [430]*430estate by the fiction of appropriation’s being an offer of an agreement to destroy the estate and an acceptance of that offer when the spouse starts suit; the property is then fit for accounting and division.’ Stemniski, supra 403 Pa. at 42, 169 A.2d at 53. The entireties property subject to partition is then divided equally, Lindenfelser v. Lindenfelser, 396 Pa. 530, 534-35, 153 A.2d 901, 905 (1959), with each spouse becoming the sole owner of his or her partitioned share of the property. Stemniski, supra; Fitzpatrick v. Fitzpatrick, 181 Pa.Super. 581, 124 A.2d 709 (1956).

Goldstein v. Goldstein, 354 Pa.Super. 490, 493, 512 A.2d 644, 646 (1986); see Clingerman v. Sadowski, 513 Pa. 179, 519 A.2d 378 (1986) (reaffirming the concept that a partition action constitutes an implied agreement to terminate a tenancy by the entireties resulting from a misappropriation of entireties property by one co-tenant).

Since the advent of the equitable distribution provisions of the 1980 Divorce Code, our courts have reconciled the consequences a partition of entireties property has on the dissolution of the marital estate. Most notably, in Marinello v. Marinello, 354 Pa.Super. 471, 512 A.2d 635 (1986), and Goldstein, supra, we dealt with the procedural connection between an independent partition of entireties property and equitable distribution under the Code.

In Goldstein, prior to separation, the husband brought an action to partition entireties property allegedly misappropriated by the wife. The wife brought a subsequent divorce action seeking, inter alia, equitable distribution of the marital property. The trial court sustained the wife’s objections to the partition action and dismissed it on the grounds that the partition action was superseded by the equitable distribution request of the divorce action. We reversed, holding a pending action in equity to partition property owned by the entireties is not superseded or preempted by a subsequent action in divorce containing a request for equitable distribution of marital property. Goldstein, supra 354 Pa.Super. at 498, 512 A.2d at 649.

[431]*431Similarly, in Marinello, the husband filed a complaint in divorce in one county and subsequently brought an action for partition of certain entireties property in a second county. After the filing of the partition action, the parties amended their pleadings, with the wife requesting equitable distribution.

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Bluebook (online)
550 A.2d 231, 379 Pa. Super. 426, 1988 Pa. Super. LEXIS 3189, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/conrady-v-conrady-pasuperct-1988.