Dillingham v. Dillingham

688 S.E.2d 499, 202 N.C. App. 196, 2010 N.C. App. LEXIS 189
CourtCourt of Appeals of North Carolina
DecidedFebruary 2, 2010
DocketNo. COA09-507
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 688 S.E.2d 499 (Dillingham v. Dillingham) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of North Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dillingham v. Dillingham, 688 S.E.2d 499, 202 N.C. App. 196, 2010 N.C. App. LEXIS 189 (N.C. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinion

MARTIN, Chief Judge.

Judy Dillingham (“petitioner”) and Clarence Dillingham (“respondent”) were married on 31 December 1983. Prior to their marriage, on 30 December 1983, petitioner and respondent entered into a prenuptial agreement. As part of this agreement, both parties were allowed to “purchase, acquire, own, hold, possess, encumber, lease, dispose of, convey and deal in any and all classes and kinds of property, real, personal, or mixed, as though he or she were single and had never been married.” The agreement also provided that “[n]othing contained in this Agreement shall be construed as preventing the parties from acquiring, owning, holding, selling and otherwise dealing in property ... in their joint names ... as tenants by the entirety.”

On 23 July 1984, a son, David Drew Dillingham (“Drew”), was born of the marriage. Shortly thereafter, petitioner and respondent began to acquire various properties in Buncombe County, North Carolina, in order to put “back together the property that was Dillingham property.” The first of these properties was a .78 acre lot (“Marital Home”) which was conveyed to them by Lorene and Mabel Dillingham in 1986. That same year petitioner and respondent also acquired a 47.89 acre tract of land (“Foster Farm”) from Vernice M. Gragg Foster and a 67.87 acre tract of land (“Dillingham Farm”) from Lorene and Mabel Dillingham. In 1992, the parties acquired a .43 acre tract of land (“Fender Tract”) from Josephine Gragg Fender and Fate Fender and a .92 acre tract of land (“Gragg Tract”) from Rosa Lee Gragg. That same year, respondent deeded a 1.09 tract of land (“Equipment Bam”), which he owned prior to the marriage, to himself and petitioner as tenants by the entirety. In 1995, the parties acquired a one acre tract of land (“Randall Drive Property”) from Doyle H. Frisbee, Jr. and Louise A. Frisbee. Finally, in 1996, respondent and petitioner acquired a 2.43 acre tract of land (“Rental Home”) from respondent’s father, C.B. Dillingham. All eight of these properties (“the properties”) were deeded to petitioner and respondent as tenants by the entirety.

[198]*198On 17 June 2004, petitioner and respondent separated. Following their separation, petitioner filed a complaint for, inter alia, post-separation support, alimony, writ of possession, attorney fees, equitable distribution, preliminary distribution, and injunctive relief. In respondent’s answer, he asserted that the premarital agreement barred petitioner’s claim, or, in the alternative, that he was entitled to equitable distribution. On 21 July 2005, a Consent Order: Post-Separation Support (“Consent Order”) was filed, which acknowledged the validity of the parties’ prenuptial agreement and awarded petitioner post-separation support and $1500 per month as an advance on her share of the marital estate. That same month, the parties were divorced. On 1 October 2007, petitioner filed a Motion to Dismiss Equitable Distribution Action (“Motion to Dismiss”), which was subsequently granted.

On 31 October 2007, petitioner filed a Petition for Partition of Real Property (“Partition Petition”) in which she claimed that she was entitled to a partition in kind of the properties, which she then held as a tenant in common with respondent. On 26 November 2007, respondent filed an Answer to Petition for Partition, Affirmative Defenses, and Counterclaims (“Petition Answer”). In this Petition Answer, respondent asserted the equitable defenses of laches and estoppel. He also counterclaimed by requesting a declaratory judgment that he was the sole owner of the properties and a ruling that petitioner held the properties in a resulting or constructive trust for respondent. Respondent subsequently filed a Motion to Transfer the case to Buncombe County Superior Court, which was allowed on 11 January 2008.

Petitioner responded to respondent’s Petition Answer by making a Motion to Strike Affirmative Defenses and a Motion to Dismiss Counterclaims. On 16 January 2008, respondent served an Amended Answer to Petition for Partition, Affirmative Defenses, and Counterclaims, alternatively, Motion to Amend Answer to Petition for Partition, Affirmative Defenses, and Counterclaims (“Amended Petition Answer”), and the following day he filed a Motion to Remand, and alternatively, Motion to Continue. The trial court subsequently denied petitioner’s Motion to Strike Affirmative Defenses and Motion to Dismiss Counterclaims and respondent’s Motion to Remand. The parties then conducted discovery.

Petitioner filed a Motion for Summary Judgment, which she later amended on 21 October 2008. In support of this motion, petitioner offered the pleadings, Respondent’s Response to Petitioner’s First Set [199]*199of Interrogatories and Request for Production of Documents (“Respondent’s Response to Interrogatories”), Petitioner’s First Request for Admissions to Respondent (“Request for Admissions”), deeds for the properties, the pre-trial depositions, petitioner’s affidavit, and various documents from the parties’ equitable distribution case. In her affidavit, petitioner swore that the parties intended for the properties to be deeded to the parties as tenants by the entirety and that she never agreed that respondent would be the sole owner. She also averred that the properties were purchased with either her personal funds or the parties’ joint funds. In support of this contention, petitioner provided letters from Mabel and Lorene Dillingham gifting the down payment and first and second year mortgage payments on the Dillingham Farm to both respondent and petitioner. Petitioner also attached to her affidavit checks made out to mortgage companies from the parties’ joint checking account as well as from her individual checking account.

In her deposition, petitioner reaffirmed the statements made in her affidavit by asserting that she too provided consideration for the properties. She also stated that the parties agreed that “[t]he Dillingham property that we got from [respondent’s] aunts, that was going to go to Drew, had we stayed together as a couple,” but otherwise the intention was for the properties to be titled in both parties’ names. Contrary to petitioner’s assertions, respondent stated in his deposition that he paid the full consideration for the Dillingham Farm, the Rental Home, the Fender Tract, and the Gragg Tract, either through services, inheritance, or his personal funds. He also stated it was the intent of the parties that the properties would “pass to [him], and ultimately be passed to [the parties’] son Drew.”

Similar to respondent’s assertion, Drew stated in his deposition that respondent told him numerous times that the properties had historically belonged to their family and that he eventually wanted them to go to Drew. Respondent’s Response to Interrogatories also indicated that the parties entered into an agreement in 1985, which provided that the properties would “pass to [p]etitioner’s and [respondent's only son and [respondent's only child, Drew Dillingham, with the intention of preserving the old Dillingham family farm legacy of a succession of properties that began in 1785.”

Respondent filed his Reply to Amended Motion for Summary Judgment and Motion in Limine (“Summary Judgment Reply”) on 31 October 2008. To support his contention that a genuine issue of fact [200]*200existed, respondent relied on the evidence supplied by petitioner as well as the Amended Respondent’s Responses to Petitioner’s First Request for Admissions (“Answers to Admissions”) and three affidavits provided by his employee Joe Meyer (“Mr. Meyer”), and his sisters, Joyce Dillingham (“Ms.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
688 S.E.2d 499, 202 N.C. App. 196, 2010 N.C. App. LEXIS 189, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dillingham-v-dillingham-ncctapp-2010.