Kranitz v. Hoyt

610 S.W.2d 300, 1980 Mo. App. LEXIS 2843
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 3, 1980
DocketNo. WD 31181
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 610 S.W.2d 300 (Kranitz v. Hoyt) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kranitz v. Hoyt, 610 S.W.2d 300, 1980 Mo. App. LEXIS 2843 (Mo. Ct. App. 1980).

Opinion

FLANIGAN, Special Judge.

This action, which originated in the probate division of the circuit court of Buchanan County, involves a claim by J. Ruth Hoyt (“Joan”) against the estate of Louis Kran-itz, deceased, (“Louis”). Theodore M. Kran-itz, the executor of the estate, filed a counterclaim. Sitting without a jury, the trial court allowed some items of the claim and the counterclaim and denied other items. Both Joan and the executor have appealed.

On her appeal Joan presents two points: (1) The trial court erred in denying her claim to a share1 of the proceeds of the sale of Arizona real estate; and (2) The trial court erred in admitting certain evidence in support of a $1,300 item in the executor’s counterclaim based on a loan in that amount made by Louis to Joan.

On his appeal the executor presents three points: (1) The trial court erred in allowing any item of Joan’s claim, including recovery on a $1,700 note made by Louis to Joan, because all claims of Joan were barred by reason of a contract which Louis and Joan entered into in 1974; (2) The trial court erred in awarding a microwave oven and a music box to Joan because those items were assets of the estate; and (3) The trial court erred in denying the item of the executor’s counterclaim which sought reimbursement from Joan for bills of Joan which Louis paid during his lifetime.

Because Joan’s first point and the executor’s first point are interlocked, they will be considered together.

Louis, a lawyer, died in 1979. For several years prior to his death he had a close social relationship with Joan. It was Joan’s testimony that she was “living with Louis.” The brief of the executor states that Louis “entered into some form of symbiotic relationship with Joan which continued until he died.” The record shows that Joan and Louis cohabited for several years but never married.

In July 1974 Joan and Louis went to a convention in Chicago. Louis’s son, who is a lawyer and is executor of Louis’s estate, drafted an agreement, set out marginally,2 [303]*303mailed it to Joan and Louis, and both of them signed it.

On January 13, 1976, Joan and Louis obtained title, as tenants in common, to some real estate in Arizona. The deed, in which they were co-grantees, described Louis as “an unmarried man” and Joan as “an unmarried woman.” The deed was silent as to the respective interests of Joan and Louis. The deed also recited that “the grantee (sic) herein agrees to assume and pay” a certain mortgage. Also on January 13, 1976, Louis, alone, executed a promissory note in the amount of $6,855 payable to the sellers of the Arizona land and secured the note by a second mortgage which Louis alone executed. Joan’s evidence showed that she was the source of some of the mortgage payments.

In the summer of 1977 Joan and Louis sold the real estate and the proceeds of that sale, after payment of encumbrances (including $1,688.84 on the second mortgage) and other expenses, amounted to $15,016.10. A check in that amount, payable to Louis and Joan, was sent by the handler of the transaction to St. Joseph, Missouri, where Louis and Joan then jointly resided. A copy of the front of that check, which was cashed, was introduced in evidence but a copy of the back of it was not introduced.

As the brief of the executor points out, the record is silent with respect to the following: the original purchase price of the Arizona real estate; the respective amounts contributed by Joan and Louis to its acquisition; the amount of the respective contributions of Joan and Louis to improvements, maintenance costs, taxes, and mortgage payments; the value of any services rendered by Joan or Louis with respect to the real estate.

The record leaves much to be desired with respect to tracing the proceeds of, the $15,016.10 check. At the trial the executor stated that the 1977 income tax return of Louis was “prepared in our office and taxes were paid on the transaction. That was recorded on his 1977 tax return. He did pay taxes on the entire gain on that transaction. But, what happened to the money, we have never been able to find.” There was no claim by the executor that Joan made a gift3 to Louis of her share of the proceeds. There was evidence that Joan did not receive any of the proceeds.

In Thompson on Real Property, 1979 Replacement, Vol. 4, § 1797, p. 150, it is said:

“Tenants in common are presumed to take equal shares unless the instrument creating the tenancy specifies otherwise. Tenants in common are considered to own equal shares unless there is contrary evidence. If the deed to two persons is silent as to their respective interests, there is a presumption that the interests are equal.... ” To similar effect see 20 Am.Jur.2d Cotenancy and Joint Ownership § 118, p. 215; Anno. 156 A.L.R. 515.

In Brooks v. Kunz, 597 S.W.2d 183 (Mo.App.1980), in commenting on the foregoing presumption, the court said at p. 187: “Although supported by logic and fairness this presumption has not been recognized in Missouri cases, which require evidence of the proportionate contribution of each of the grantees toward the acquisition of the property.”

In addition to Brooks, the following cases dealt with the respective rights of a man and a woman, who cohabit while unmarried, to real estate to which they acquire title as tenants in common: Anderson v. Stacker, 317 S.W.2d 417 (Mo.1958); Atkinson v. Dasher, 588 S.W.2d 215 (Mo.App.1979); and Keller v. Porchey, 560 S.W.2d 257 (Mo.App.1977). In each case separation of the re[304]*304spective interests was sought, either by partition or by an action to quiet title.

In Anderson the man furnished all of the funds used to acquire the real estate. The woman did not furnish any of the funds nor did she perform any services “such as a woman living with a man ordinarily renders.” The supreme court affirmed the action of the trial court which awarded all the land, in a quiet title action, to the man.

In Atkinson the man contributed $19,000 and the woman contributed $1,000 to a down payment of $20,000. Although both signed a note for the balance of the purchase price, all payments on the note were made by the man. The court affirmed the judgment of the trial court which awarded the woman, out of the proceeds of a partition sale, only the $1,000 contributed by her and awarded the balance to the man.

In Brooks and Keller the record did not show the respective financial contributions of the man and the woman to the acquisition of the land. In each instance the court of appeals refrained from making a determination of their respective interests and remanded the case to the trial court for that determination. In Brooks the Missouri rule, basing division of the proceeds upon the proportionate contributions of the co-tenants, was held applicable to the division of proceeds of the sale of Missouri land and of land located in Montana.4

As pointed out in Capoferri v. Day, 523 S.W.2d 547

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Bluebook (online)
610 S.W.2d 300, 1980 Mo. App. LEXIS 2843, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kranitz-v-hoyt-moctapp-1980.