Jirka v. Prior

243 N.W.2d 754, 196 Neb. 416, 1976 Neb. LEXIS 806
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedJune 30, 1976
Docket40380
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 243 N.W.2d 754 (Jirka v. Prior) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jirka v. Prior, 243 N.W.2d 754, 196 Neb. 416, 1976 Neb. LEXIS 806 (Neb. 1976).

Opinion

McCown, J.

This appeal involves an alleged resulting trust in certain Sarpy County real estate. Appellants, George H. and Betty J. Pester, by cross-petition, claimed a one-third interest in the property against the other defendants involved in the original action to quiet title. Motion for summary judgment was filed by the appellants, George H. and Betty J. Pester. An opposing motion for summary judgment was filed by the defendants holding interests acquired through Lester V. Prior, deceased. The District Court overruled the Pester motion for summary judgment; sustained the Prior motion for summary judgment; and dismissed the Pester cross-petition with prejudice. George H. and Betty J. Pester have appealed.

In 1957 or 1958, Charles R. and Mary M. Hannan, husband and wife, and Lester V. and Bertha M. Prior, husband and wife, contracted to purchase, and later took by deed, certain farm land in Mills County, Iowa, known as Folsom Farms. On March 27, 1959, the Hannans and the Priors entered into a contract with George H. Pester under which Pester purchased an undivided one-third interest in Folsom Farms, which included about 1,212 acres of land. The purchase price of Pester’s one-third interest was $100,000, payable $10,000 down, and the balance payable $3,333.33 annually, plus interest at 5 percent on the unpaid balance until fully paid. After the parties entered into this contract a corporation known as Folsom Farms, Inc., was formed in which an undivided one-third stock interest was held by the Han-nans, the Priors, and the Pesters respectively. Much' of the land was thereafter cleared of timber and made tillable and otherwise improved. The corporation owned certain buildings and managed the operation of the *418 farm. It did not own the land and the corporation was dissolved in 1966, following the sale of the Folsom Farms property.

Lester V. Prior, during his lifetime, was engaged in the real estate business in Council Bluffs, Iowa, specializing in farm management and sales. Charles R. Hannan was a banker in Council Bluffs, and George H. Pester was a physician and surgeon.

By a written offer dated January 18, 1966, the Han-nans, the Priors, and Dr. Pester agreed to sell the Folsom Farms property, and the offer was duly accepted by Arlie J. and Mary L. Suhl. The agreement involved an exchange of the Folsom Farms for farm land owned by the Suhls in Sarpy County, Nebraska, known as the Bellevue Farms, plus the payment by the Suhls of a substantial amount of cash. Pursuant to the agreement, the Hannans, the Priors, and the Pesters conveyed the Folsom Farms property to the Suhls by warranty deed dated April 21, 1966. Because of tax considerations, the Suhls were directed to, and did, convey the Bellevue Farms property to Charles R. and Mary M. Hannan and Lester V. and Bertha M. Prior, the record owners of the Folsom Farms property.

Lester V. Prior made the arrangements for the sale and exchange of the properties and for the mortgages on both of them, and managed the financial affairs of Folsom Farms and Bellevue Farms until the time of his death. It was the intention of Hannan, Prior, and Pester that the same relationship with respect to the operation and ownership of the Folsom Farms property would carry over to the Bellevue Farms property, and a partnership was set up with respect to the Bellevue Farms operation. A bank account was established for the partnership, and liability insurance on the Bellevue Farms property was taken out in the name of Bellevue Farms Partnership. Lester V. Prior managed the financial affairs of the partnership until his death, and thereafter Charles R. Hannan managed the financial affairs. Part *419 nership income tax returns for the Bellevue Farms were filed for each year from 1967 through 1973. Those returns all showed a one-third interest each in Charles R. Hannan, George H. Pester, and Lester V. Prior or his estate. Copies of the returns were given to each taxpayer.

Lester V. Prior died April 8, 1967. An ancillary proceeding for determination of heirship was conducted in Sarpy County, Nebraska, following his death. With respect to the Bellevue Farms the decree found that he died seized of a one-fourth interest in the Bellevue Farms property, and that his only heirs-at-law were his wife, Bertha M. Prior, and four daughters. Although Dr. Pester’s name was not on the record title of the Bellevue Farms property, he was kept advised of various negotiations for sales of portions of the property and joined in the execution of a contract for sale of part of the property to Bellevue Industrial Foundation, and was also included as a grantor in an easement to the Omaha Public Power District in February of 1968.

On October 6, 1971, the Hannans and Bertha M. Prior entered into a contract for the sale of part of the Bellevue Farms property to Adolph J. Jirka and others without the knowledge or consent of the Pesters. Upon being informed of the sale by Charles R. Hannan, George H. Pester executed and recorded an affidavit in the office of the register of deeds on October 13, 1971, claiming an undivided one-third interest in the land.

On May 10, 1974, the Jirkas brought this action against all the defendants to quiet the title to the land purchased by them, subject to the payment of the purchase price as provided by the contract. By stipulation of all parties, partial summary judgment was entered directing all defendants to execute a deed to the Jirkas, and providing for the escrow of payments due on the Jirka contract, under jurisdiction of the court, pending determination of the rights of the defendants among themselves. That judgment and the Jirka contract are not *420 involved in this appeal. The cross-petition of the Pesters which initiated the litigation now on appeal was filed on July 5, 1974.

Dr. Pester made all payments which were demanded of him under the March 27, 1959, contract. There is also evidence that the 1959 contract was subsequently orally modified by agreement between Charles R. Han-nan, Lester V. Prior, and George H. Pester so that additional payments were not needed. It is admitted that in addition to the downpayment of $10,000, Dr. Pester made payments of more than $21,000 up to and including April 28, 1964, on the original contract with the Hannans and Priors dated March 27, 1959. Dr. Pester also claims payments of more than $7,000 in 1967 and 1968. In addition, the Suhls obtained a judgment against the Hannans and Dr. Pester and the estate of Lester V. Prior, growing out of a boundary line dispute on the Folsom Farms property. The judgment was in the amount of $9,565.50, plus costs. George H. Pester and Charles R. Hannan each paid $5,000 in full satisfaction of that judgment. In another action by the Suhls against the Hannans, Dr. Pester, and the estate of Lester V. Prior, for a deficiency in the acreage of the Folsom Farms property, the Prior estate was dismissed on motion on the grounds of the statute of limitations with respect to claims against the estate. That action was also settled by Charles R. Hannan and Dr. Pester by the payment of $20,099.35 each. That amount was paid by Dr. Pester in October 1972. No contribution on these partnership obligations has been paid by the Prior estate, nor any of the heirs.

The evidence does not disclose whether any part of the cash consideration received for the Folsom Farms sale was applied or credited to Dr.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
243 N.W.2d 754, 196 Neb. 416, 1976 Neb. LEXIS 806, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jirka-v-prior-neb-1976.