O'MARRA v. MacKool

204 S.W.3d 49, 361 Ark. 32
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedFebruary 24, 2005
Docket04-1052
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 204 S.W.3d 49 (O'MARRA v. MacKool) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
O'MARRA v. MacKool, 204 S.W.3d 49, 361 Ark. 32 (Ark. 2005).

Opinion

Jim Gunter, Justice.

Appellant, Robert O’Marra, brings this appeal from a ruling granting appellees’ motion for summary judgment in Pulaski County Circuit Court. The circuit court denied his curtesy interest after his wife, Gail O’Marra, executed a quitclaim deed and an agreed court order in favor of her ex-husband, appellee Michael MacKool. We reverse and remand.

When Michael and Gail MacKool were divorced in October 1991, the trial court gave the parties ninety days to sell the house and equally divide the proceeds. They failed to do so. In September 1992, Gail married appellant. In August 1995, she quitclaimed her interest in the home to Michael MacKool. On the same date, an agreed order was executed and approved by the signature of both Gail MacKool O’Marra and Michael MacKool. The order was signed by the Saline County Chancery Judge on December 13, 2001, and was filed on December 14, 2001.

Appellant filed a complaint on January 2, 2004, requesting that the court either set aside the quitclaim deed or distribute his allotment of curtesy interest in the property. Thereafter, appellees filed a motion for summary judgment. The trial court granted appellees’ summary judgment motion, finding that the deed and agreed order conveyed all interest in the house to Michael MacKool. In granting the summary judgment motion, the trial court relied on an agreed order entered in the divorce case in Saline County four years after the decree of divorce and on the quitclaim deed signed by appellee, as Gail MacKool O’Marra’s husband. The trial court further found that Robert O’Marra had no curtesy interest. From this order, appellant brings his appeal.

Summary judgment should be granted only when it is clear that there are no genuine issues of material fact to be litigated, and the party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Riverdale Development Co. v. Ruffin Building Systems Inc., 356 Ark. 90, 146 S.W.3d 852 (2004); Craighead Elec. Coop. Corp. v. Craighead County, 352 Ark. 76, 98 S.W.3d 414 (2003); Cole v. Laws, 349 Ark. 177, 76 S.W.3d 878 (2002). The burden of sustaining a motion for summary judgment is the responsibility of the moving party. Pugh v. Griggs, 327 Ark. 577, 940 S.W.2d 445 (1997).

Once the moving party has established a prima facie entitlement to summary judgment, the non-moving party must meet proof with proof and demonstrate the existence of a material issue of fact. Id. On appellate review, we determine if summary judgment was appropriate based on whether the evidence presented by the moving party in support of its motion leaves a material fact unanswered. George v. Jefferson Hosp. Ass’n Inc., 337 Ark. 206, 987 S.W.2d 710 (1999). We view the evidence in the light most favorable to the non-moving party, resolving all doubts and inferences against the moving party. Adams v. Arthur, 333 Ark. 53, 969 S.W.2d 598 (1998). With this standard of review in mind, we turn to appellant’s argument on appeal.

Appellant first argues that the trial court erred in granting summary judgment in favor of the appellees. Specifically, appellant argues that upon his marriage to Gail MacKool O’Marra, he became seized in the curtesy rights to the real property at issue. Appellant contends that relinquishment of curtesy rights is controlled by Ark. Code Ann. § 18-12-402 which provides:

A married person may relinquish dower or curtesy in any of the real estate of a spouse by joining with the spouse in the deed of conveyance thereof, or by a separate instrument executed to spouse’s grantee or anyone claiming tide under the spouse, and acknowledging it in the manner prescribed by law.

Id.

We have long upheld this statutory requirement. We have held that acknowledgment of a deed, without joining in the deed, is not sufficient, Witter v. Biscoe, 13 Ark. 422 (1853), and that a spouse could not release dower in favor of her husband; she could only release it by joining with the husband in a deed to a third party. Countz v. Markling, 30 Ark. 17 (1875) (emphasis added); see also Pillow v. Wade, 31 Ark. 678 (1877). Similarly, a property- settlement agreement between the husband and wife is insufficient to convey dower rights. Whitener v. Whitener, 227 Ark. 1038, 304 S.W.2d 260 (1957). Conversely, we have held relinquishment proper when the husband’s deed is followed by a paragraph relinquishing dower, and then is supported by signatures of both husband and wife. Meyer v. Gossett, 38 Ark. 377 (1882) (emphasis added).

Here, on August 17, 1995, Gail O’Marra executed a quitclaim deed and an agreed order conveying her interest in the marital home to Michael MacKool. A review of this deed and order show that no such release of rights was executed by appellant. Therefore, because appellant did not join in the deed with his wife when she conveyed her interest in the property, we hold that the requirements under Ark. Code Ann. § 18-12-402 were not satisfied.

For his second point on appeal, appellant argues that the trial court erred in finding that an agreed order, which was entered some ten years later, modified the original divorce decree. Specifically, appellant argues that Ark. R. Civ. P. 60(a) and (c) bar the present modification of the original divorce decree. Appellees claim that Ark. R. Civ. P. 60 does not apply because Gail O’Marra and Michael MacKool agreed to the modification and that the argument is barred by res judicata and collateral estoppel. We agree with the appellant.

Arkansas Rule of Civil Procedure 60(a) provides that a “court may modify or vacate a judgment, order or decree on motion of the court or any party, with prior notice to all parties within ninety days of its having been filed with the clerk.” Id. (emphasis added). Arkansas Rule of Civil Procedure 60(c) provides the grounds for setting aside a judgment, other than a default judgment, after ninety days. The court may vacate or modify such judgment or order:

(1) By granting a new trial where the grounds therefore were discovered after the expiration of ninety (90) days after the filing of the judgment, or, where the ground is newly discoverable evidence which the moving party could not have discovered in time to file a motion under Rule 59(b). . . [.]
(2) By a new trial granted in proceedings against defendants constructively summoned, and who did not appear. . . [.]
(3) For misprisions of the clerk.
(4) For misrepresentation or fraud (whether heretofore denominated intrinsic or extrinsic) by an adverse party.

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Bluebook (online)
204 S.W.3d 49, 361 Ark. 32, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/omarra-v-mackool-ark-2005.