In Re Estate of Wheeler

958 So. 2d 1266, 2007 WL 1815855
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedJune 26, 2007
Docket2005-CA-01614-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 958 So. 2d 1266 (In Re Estate of Wheeler) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Mississippi primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re Estate of Wheeler, 958 So. 2d 1266, 2007 WL 1815855 (Mich. Ct. App. 2007).

Opinion

958 So.2d 1266 (2007)

The ESTATE OF Charles WHEELER, Deceased.
Gary Robberson, Appellant
v.
Nancy Lena Wheeler Fikes, Rickey Dewayne Fikes and Jewel Wheeler Burton, Appellees.

No. 2005-CA-01614-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

June 26, 2007.

Jak McGee Smith, Tupelo, attorney for appellant.

C. Michael Malski, attorney for appellees.

Before LEE, P.J., BARNES and CARLTON, JJ.

CARLTON, J., for the Court.

¶ 1. This is an appeal concerning whether a grantee of a deed was a bona fide purchaser. The trial court voided the deed to the grantee. Finding no error, we affirm the decision of the chancellor to void the deed.

FACTS

¶ 2. The circumstances from which this litigation derived have already been detailed by this Court. See Robberson v. Burton, 790 So.2d 226 (Miss.Ct.App.2001) (referred to in this opinion as Robberson 1). The relevant facts to the current appeal, and as stated in Robberson 1, include the following:

Claiming to own an undivided one-fourth interest in certain real property, Gary Robberson filed a "Petition for Sale of Land for Partition" against Jewel Wheeler Burton, Ricky Fikes and Nancy Wheeler Fikes in the Chancery Court of Itawamba County, Mississippi. Later, the chancellor granted Robberson *1268 leave to add Edsel Burton and Lena Shae Gray as party defendants to his petition for partition. The property which is the subject of this appeal consists of two tracts of land lying in Itawamba County. The first tract (Tract I) is made up of twenty-two acres and located on the property is the home of Jewel and Edsel Burton. Tract II consists of twenty-seven acres of farm land. Both tracts were purchased by Jewel Wheeler Burton and her now deceased first husband, Charles Wheeler, in the 1960's. Charles executed a will in 1982; he died in 1988. In the will he bequeathed to his wife, Jewel, his share of two acres of the subject property containing their home and surrounding area on which they resided. Also in the will, Charles left equal shares of his interest in the couples' remaining acreage to his wife and daughter, Nancy, giving Nancy Wheeler a one-fourth interest in the total of Tract I and Tract II, not including the two acres specifically designated to Jewel. That will was never probated.
In 1991, Jewel remarried. Subsequently, she deeded all of her interest in both tracts of land to Lena Shae Gray, Nancy's daughter and Jewel's granddaughter. She retained a life estate in the home and the two acres devised to her in the as-yet unprobated will.

Robberson, 790 So.2d at 227-28 (¶¶ 2-3).

¶ 3. Nancy and Fikes were married on February 12, 1995. Nancy executed a deed to Lena Shae Gray on February 17, 1995. This deed conveyed Nancy's undivided one-fourth interest in the property and reserved a life estate for Nancy. Nancy hid this deed from Fikes but disclosed the deed to her daughter. On, March 13, 1995, Nancy conveyed her one-fourth interest in the entire property to Fikes. On August 28, 1995, Robberson, first cousin of Fikes, acquired a deed from Fikes giving him record title to one-fourth interest in all of the property. The deed from Nancy to her daughter was not recorded until September 19, 1995.

¶ 4. In Robberson 1, the chancellor:

confirmed title of the two acres of land and the home located on the subject property in Jewel Wheeler Burton and Edsel Burton with the remainder to Lena Shae Gray. In making this ruling, the chancellor relied on the last will and testament of Charles Wheeler to vest title to this part of the property in Jewel Wheeler Burton. The chancellor went on to state as follows:
An examination of the various other documents which have been introduced into evidence reveals that Gary Robberson owns an undivided one-forth (1/4) interest in the remaining acreage, i.e., the 49 3/4 acres less the home and two (2) acres upon which the home stands. The remaining undivided three-quarters (3/4) interest is owned by Lena Shea Gray, subject to a life estate owned by Jewel Wheeler Burton and Edsel Burton.
The chancellor declined to order the sale of the property and instead ordered that the property, not including the two acres on which the home sits or the home itself, be appraised. The chancellor ordered that once a value is assigned to the property Jewel Wheeler Burton was required to pay Robberson one-fourth of the appraised value of the property. Robberson was thereafter required by the order to convey by deed his one-fourth interest in the property to Jewel for life with the remainder interest to be vested in Lena Shae Gray.

Robberson, 790 So.2d at 227-28(¶ 5).

¶ 5. In Robberson 1, we concluded the following:

In attempting to fashion an equitable remedy, the chancellor erred in confirming *1269 title to the property and ordering an appraisal with directions for Jewel to pay Robberson an amount representing one-fourth interest in the real property. Although it was a commendable attempt to resolve this dispute, the statute does not provide for such a remedy. Because the whole property was the proper subject of partition (not diminished by the home and two acres), the chancellor was therefore required to partite the property either in kind or by sale. We agree on the present state of the record title that Lena Shae Gray owns three-fourths of the two tracts of land, subject to a life estate in Jewel and Edsel Burton, and Robberson owns a one-fourth interest in the two tracts of property, just as the chancellor ruled in regard to the land minus the home and two acres. Therefore, we remand this matter to the chancery court for a determination of whether a partition in kind is appropriate or whether a sale and division of the proceeds according to the respective interests of the parties is required.
In order to avoid any potential confusion over the effect of our ruling, we observe that there is, in Mississippi, no statute of limitations on the probate of a will. Further, there is authority for the proposition that one taking title to land with knowledge that an unprobated will exists may not obtain good title as against the named beneficiaries in the will. See Belt v. Adams, 125 Miss. 387, 87 So. 666, 668 (1921) (holding that a purchaser buying with knowledge of a will cannot assert a claim that would defeat the will). Whether these, or other related legal and equitable principles, may ultimately be brought to bear to resolve the title to the house and two acres is a matter that is not before the Court at this time. Those matters can only be litigated after the will of Charles Wheeler is successfully admitted to probate in the county where the land lies. Nothing we have decided in this opinion should be read as an attempt to foreshadow the outcome of future litigation affecting the title to this property flowing from the successful probate of the will, if such event should ever occur.

Id. at (¶¶ 13-14).

¶ 6. The appeal in Robberson 1 was in response to cause number 97-0207 which was initiated on July 1, 1997, by Robberson seeking partition of the land. That cause was ruled upon by the chancery court on October 8, 1999. Robberson appealed that ruling and received a favorable outcome from this Court as stated above on July 7, 2001. The will of Charles Wheeler was probated on May 14, 2002. The validity of the will was never challenged within the two-year statute of limitations.

¶ 7.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
958 So. 2d 1266, 2007 WL 1815855, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-estate-of-wheeler-missctapp-2007.