Estate of Reap v. Malloy

727 A.2d 326, 1999 D.C. App. LEXIS 75, 1999 WL 177229
District of Columbia Court of Appeals·Decided April 1, 1999·No. 97-PR-461·Published·Cited by 5 cases

Opinions

FARRELL, Associate Judge:

This appeal arises from a dispute over whether the decedent, Norah Boyle Reap, died intestate because her will, executed during her marriage to John R. Reap, III, was impliedly revoked by their subsequent divorce and property arrangement, as well as his remarriage. The trial judge granted summary judgment to Norah’s aunt (and challenger of the will), Anastatia McG. Mal-loy, and denied summary judgment to Mr. Reap.1 Mary B. Reap, personal representative of John R. Reap, III, appeals these decisions. We reverse the grant of summary judgment and remand for trial on the issue of whether the Reaps had a property settlement agreement at the time of their divorce.

I.

The Reaps were married on January 17, 1970, separated in the summer of 1982, and divorced on May 3, 1991. John’s complaint for divorce asserted in part that “[tjhere are no property rights to be adjudicated between the parties.” Norah’s answer agreed, and they executed a praecipe that the divorce was “uncontested as to all matters.” The divorce judgment echoed the above-quoted language from John’s complaint. John remarried before Norah died.

Norah had executed a will in 1976 naming John and two others as beneficiaries. She never modified the will. In December 1992, John was appointed the personal representative of Norah’s estate, and her will was admitted into probate. Anastatia, Norah’s closest living relative, filed a complaint challenging the will, alleging that it had been revoked by implication of law pursuant to D.C.Code § 18-109 (1997) when the Reaps divorced in 1991.

John and Anastatia filed cross motions for summary judgment. Although they agreed about most material facts, including that the Reaps had not entered into a written property settlement agreement upon their divorce, they disputed whether the couple had reached an oral agreement. As evidence, Anastatia pointed to John’s representation to the court that no property rights had to be adjudicated, and to a 1993 claim that John had filed against Norah’s estate for waste, in which he referred inter alia to the parties’ “understanding that [Norah] would reside in the premises and maintain the property.” Attached to John’s motion, by contrast, was his affidavit explaining the Reaps’ amicable and flexible relationship during their nine-year separation and later divorce.2 He asserted that, although the Reaps had lived apart starting in 1982, their lives remained intertwined; consequently, they never “finally settle[d] [their] respective rights in [their] marital property” but instead continued to share some property and individually use other jointly-held property. “At the time of our divorce,” John concluded, “we agreed not to divide our marital property. We had been separated for nine years and comfortably shared our property with each other. Because we did not want to determine which property would belong to Norah or to me individually, we did not enter into any property settlement agreement or ask the court to divide our property.”

The trial judge granted Anastatia’s summary judgment motion on three grounds. First, while admitting that the Reaps had not contested their property rights in the divorce proceeding, he found that the divorce complaint and answer stating that there were no [329] property rights to be adjudicated “evidenced] such a[ ] [property] agreement.” This inference also was based on D.C.Code § 16-910 (1997), which the judge read to mandate court assignment and distribution of all marital property unless there is a property settlement agreement. He reasoned that because the divorce judge was required to distribute any unassigned marital property, and had not done so, the Reaps must have reached an agreement. Second, the judge found that, in view of John’s earlier representation to the court that there were no property rights to be adjudicated, John was collaterally estopped from asserting that the property rights had not been settled. Finally, even if the first two grounds failed, the judge ruled that John’s divorce and subsequent remarriage were sufficient changed circumstances to revoke Norah’s will, since it was “highly unlikely” that Norah would have wanted John’s new wife to receive any benefits from her estate in the event John predeceased his current wife.

II.

We agree with appellant that summary judgment was improperly granted to Anasta-tia, but conclude that the critical material fact in the case — whether there was a property settlement — remains in dispute. We therefore remand for trial on that issue.

A.

Summary judgment is proper if there are no genuine issues of material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Super. Ct. Civ. R. 56(c) (1998); Hendel v. World Plan Executive Council, 705 A.2d 656, 660 (D.C.1997). The evidence must be viewed in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party, who is entitled to “all favorable inferences which may reasonably be drawn from the evidentia-ry materials.” Id. (citation omitted). In essence the test, like that for a directed verdict, is “whether the evidence presents a sufficient disagreement to require submission to a [trier of fact] or whether it is so one-sided that one party must prevail as a matter of law.” Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 251-52, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). On appeal from summary judgment, we conduct an independent review of the record using the same substantive standard employed by the trial court. Hendel, 705 A.2d at 660.

B.

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Estate of Reap v. Malloy, 727 A.2d 326, 1999 D.C. App. LEXIS 75, 1999 WL 177229 (D.C. 1999).

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Estate of Reap v. Malloy
727 A.2d 326 (District of Columbia Court of Appeals, 1999)