Kittrell v. Kittrell

409 S.W.2d 179, 56 Tenn. App. 584, 1966 Tenn. App. LEXIS 237
CourtCourt of Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedApril 26, 1966
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 409 S.W.2d 179 (Kittrell v. Kittrell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kittrell v. Kittrell, 409 S.W.2d 179, 56 Tenn. App. 584, 1966 Tenn. App. LEXIS 237 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1966).

Opinion

McAMIS, P.J.

Ellis Ardell Kittrell filed the bill in this case seeking a decree of absolute divorce and the custody of a daughter of the parties, 16 years of age. A further purpose of the bill was to have defendant’s title to 21 acres of land held by the parties as tenants by the entirety divested out of her and vested in complainant.

Prom a decree granting all of the relief sought by the bill Mrs. Kittrell has appealed, challenging only that part of the decree divesting her title to the land. The assignments make the insistence that T.C.A. sec. 36-825, based upon Chapter 90, Acts of 1953, as amended by Chapter 192, Acts of 1959, if construed to justify this action, is unconstitutional as authorizing a taking of property in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and Article One, Section Eight, of the Constitution of Tennessee.

The property in question was conveyed to Mr. and Mrs. Kittrell as tenants by the entirety in 1947.

In 1953, Chapter 90, Acts of 1953, was enacted in the following language:

“Transfer of property when decree for husband. In all cases of either divorce or separation, where the relief therein to be decreed by the court is decreed to the *587 husband on Ms petition, the court may, upon a proper showing of fact, adjust the respective rights of the parties with regard to property jointly owned so as to preserve for such a husband that portion of such joint property as for which he contributed and paid, and for this purpose the court is hereby empowered to divest and vest title to either real or personal property and, where appropriate, to divest out of a defendant wife any residual title to property prior thereto held by the entireties between her and complainant. ’ ’

In 1959, by Chapter 192, Acts of 1959, the Act (now T.C.A. sec. 36-825) was amended to read:

“Adjustment of interests in jointly owned property. In all actions for divorce or separate support and maintenance, the court having jurisdiction thereof may, in its discretion, adjust and adjudicate the respective rights and interests of the parties in all jointly owned property, so as to preserve for each or either party, that portion of such jointly owned property as may be just and reasonable under the facts and circumstances of the case, regardless of how the court may grant or refuse to grant relief in such case; and to this end the court shall be empowered to effectuate its decree by divesting and reinvesting title to such property and, where deemed necessary, to order a sale of such property and to order the proceeds divided between the parties.”

Since T.C.A. sec. 36-825 was enacted after title to the property became vested, we hold that it can not be applied in a manner to effect a complete divestiture of title upon a dissolution of the marriage solely because of the wife’s fault.

Article 1, Section 8, of the Constitution of Tennessee provides:

*588 “That no man shall be taken or imprisoned, or dis-seized of bis freehold, liberties or privileges, or outlawed, or exiled, or in any manner destroyed or deprived of bis life, liberty or property, but by the judgment of bis peers or by the law of the land.”

The phrase “law of the land” as used in this Section and the phrase “due process of law” as used in the first section of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution are synonymous and a statute which violates one is violative of the other. Harbison v. Knoxville Iron Co., 103 Tenn. 421, 431, 53 S.W. 955, 56 L.R.A. 316; Motlow v. State, 125 Tenn. 547, 145 S.W. 177, L.R.A.1916F, 177; Southern Bell, etc. v. Tennessee Pub. Ser. Com., 202 Tenn. 465, 304 S.W.2d 640.

In Humphreys v. Humphreys, 39 Tenn.App. 99, 124, 281 S.W.2d 270, 282, it was said:

“It is true that the bill of complainant [husband] prays that the Court declare the rights of the parties in the property held by petitioner and defendant as tenants by the entireties, and it might be contended that under authority of Chapter 90, Pub. Acts of 1953 [TCA 36-825] which amends Code Section 8446, the interest of Mrs. Humphreys might be divested out of her and vested in Dr. Humphreys. This Court has no disposition to grant such relief. It is quite probable that the Act in question, if so applied, would be held unconstitutional. The Supreme Court of Tennessee has held that an estate by the entireties is a vested interest, and that even adultery by a wife does not forfeit such interest in property held by her and her husband as tenants by the entireties. Keicher v. Mysinger, Adm., 184 Tenn. 226, 232, 198 S.W.2d 330.”

*589 Hill v. Hill, 46 Tenn.App. 329, 329 S.W.2d 840, contains the same intimation that, if construed to authorize the divestiture of the wife’s title as tenant by the entirety which became vested prior to 1953, the 1953 Act giving her nothing in return would be unconstitutional.

If so construed and applied we think the 1953 Act would clearly sanction the taking of a vested property right without due process of law and otherwise than by the law of the land in contravention of the 14th Amendment to the Federal Constitution and Article 1, Section 8, of the Constitution of Tennessee. (It should be noted that we are not here concerned with the right and power of the courts to subject a husband’s interest in jointly held property to the payment of alimony.)

In Grant v. Grant, 39 Tenn.App. 539, 286 S.W.2d 349, decided in 1954, the appeal was prosecuted by the husband from the refusal of the Court to divest the wife’s title and there was no occasion to consider the constitutionality of the Act.

In Wilson v. Andrew, 213 Tenn. 173, 375 S.W.2d 650, it does not appear that the wife’s title as tenant by the entirety became vested prior to 1953 and again the constitutionality of the Act was not determined.

As originally enacted the statute appears to have been designed to enable the Courts in cases where a separation or divorce is due to the fault of the wife to restore to the husband on an equitable basis sums which he has invested in jointly owned property. By the amendment of 1959, the purpose is broadened to include adjustments in favor of the wife, as well as the husband, which the Court in its discretion may think right and proper, coupled, as in the original act, with the power to vest and *590 divest title. In tlie amendment the dominant purpose seems to he to permit an “adjustment” of the interests of the parties in jointly owned property, not merely the divesting' of the title of one of them.

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Bluebook (online)
409 S.W.2d 179, 56 Tenn. App. 584, 1966 Tenn. App. LEXIS 237, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kittrell-v-kittrell-tennctapp-1966.