Soden v. Carr

426 P.2d 213, 91 Idaho 492, 1967 Ida. LEXIS 215
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedApril 10, 1967
DocketNo. 9870
StatusPublished

This text of 426 P.2d 213 (Soden v. Carr) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Soden v. Carr, 426 P.2d 213, 91 Idaho 492, 1967 Ida. LEXIS 215 (Idaho 1967).

Opinion

TAYLOR, Chief Justice.

Plaintiff (appellant) was married to Jackson E. Soden in 1939. The marriage continued until the death of Jackson E. Soden, April 19, 1960. Plaintiff commenced this action April 17, 1963, to obtain an adjudication that certain real property was community property belonging to herself and Jackson E. Soden during the marriage and that she had become the sole owner thereof as the surviving member of the community. The property consisted of three forty-acre tracts, less a portion of one of such tracts which lay within the town-site of New Meadows, all in Twp. 19 N., Rge. 1 E., B.M. in Adams County. In her complaint plaintiff alleges that Jackson E. Soden acquired all of such real property, other than excepted tracts (A) and (C), prior to the marriage. Tract (A) was a parcel of land lying in the NEj4 NWJ4 of Section 24, containing approximately five acres. Tract (C) was a parcel lying within the same section and containing .48 of an acre.

The parties have agreed that the title to tract (A) is not in issue on this appeal.

Tract (B) was a strip of land running diagonally across two of the forty-acre tracts. Almost all of tract (C) was included within the boundaries of tract (B).

The community interest now asserted by plaintiff was alleged to have arisen out of an expenditure of community funds on the purchase price and in improvements on the property acquired by the husband before the marriage.

November 4, 1946, Jackson E. Soden, treating the land as his separate property, conveyed tracts (B) and (C) to the defendant Village of New Meadows, for use as an aircraft runway. Plaintiff (wife) did not join in the conveyance.

June 18, 1951, Jackson E. Soden conveyed all of the property described in the complaint, except tracts (A), (B), and (C), to defendant Carr. Plaintiff did not join in that conveyance.

• August 26, 1948, Jackson E. Soden commenced an action against the plaintiff for a divorce. That action is hereinafter referred to as Civil No. 1241. In his amended complaint in addition to the grounds for divorce, Mr. Soden alleged that the land here involved was his separate property. Mrs. Soden, plaintiff herein, answered denying the allegations of grounds for divorce; denied that the land involved was the separate property of Jackson E. Soden; admitted that Soden had acquired the land prior to marriage; and alleged that by reason of expenditure of community funds in payment of debts incurred by Soden in improving the property and by the expenditure of work and labor by herself and her husband, and the expenditure of community funds during the marriage, in the improvement of the property, the community had acquired an interest in the property which had become so commingled with the separate interest of Jackson E. Soden, that the property had all become community property. In that action plaintiff prayed that divorce be denied; that the property be decreed to be the community property of plaintiff and her husband, and that the husband’s warranty deed purported to convey tracts (B) and (C) to the Village of New Meadows be declared null and void on the ground that she did not join therein; that Mr. Soden be enjoined and restrained from encumbering or disposing of any of the property; and that all of the community real property be “allowed and set apart to the [494]*494defendant for her use, management, control and support.”

By its decree in the divorce action, filed August 10, 1951, the court denied a divorce to Soden and gave the plaintiff herein a decree for separate maintenance. The court found that the evidence was insufficient to establish the amount of community funds invested in the deceased’s separate property or the value of any community work and labor expended in the improvement thereof. The court found and decreed that the property here involved, except as to tract (C), was the separate property of deceased Soden; that tract (C) was community property of the parties, and that decedent’s purported conveyance thereof to the village was void. The decree gave the deceased a lien upon the land determined to be community property to secure repayment to his separate estate of the amount ($4900) of his separate property invested therein. The decree also fixed the amount of the allowance to be paid by the husband for the separate maintenance of the wife, and gave her a lien upon the community property to secure the payment thereof.

The deceased, Mr. Soden, executed and delivered a subsequent conveyance of tract (B) to the Village of New Meadows, and the village subsequently acquired title to tract (C) by condemnation (Civil No. 1305) and later conveyed that tract to the State of Idaho.

No appeal was taken from the judgment in Civil No. 1241. However, Mrs. Soden, the plaintiff here, refused to accept the findings and judgment of the court in that case, and remained in possession of the land conveyed to defendant Carr. Thereupon, Carr commenced an action (Civil No. 1307) against plaintiff herein to quiet his title and recover possession of the property. By her answer in Civil No. 1307 the plaintiff herein reasserted that the land was community property, basing her claim upon the same facts which she had alleged in Civil No. 1241, and contended that the deed from Soden to Carr was void because of her failure to join therein. The court, in Civil No. 1307, found that the issues had been determined against plaintiff in Civil No. 1241 and quieted title in defendant Carr on the ground of res judicata. Plaintiff herein did not appeal from that judgment.

April 17, 1963, after the death of her husband, plaintiff Mrs. Soden commenced this action claiming title to the property as the survivor of the community of herself and Jackson E. Soden. Defendants’ motions for summary judgment were heard and granted by the trial court and judgment was entered against plaintiff on the ground that the issues herein were adjudicated in Civil No. 1241, Civil No. 1305, and in Civil No. 1307.

On this appeal plaintiff contends that the earlier decisions were not res judicata because: (1) the court in Civil No. 1241, in holding the property to be the separate property of Mr. Soden effected a “division” of the community property, since it was admitted that community effort and funds had been invested therein, and the court lacked jurisdiction or authority to divide community property in a separate maintenance decree; (2) the husband did not ask for a “division” of the community property and the court had no jurisdiction or authority to grant relief which was not prayed for; (3) the jurisdiction and authority of the court in the separate maintenance action was limited to a determination of the nature of the property, for the sole purpose of fixing and securing the award of separate maintenance, and the court had no jurisdiction or authority to, in effect, quiet title in the husband; (4) plaintiff was not bound by the judgment in Civil No. 1307 because her husband was not joined as a defendant in that action; and (5) the judgment in Civil No. 1307 was not binding on the plaintiff because it was founded upon the erroneous premise that the issues were determined against the plaintiff in Civil No. 1241, and the judgment in Civil No. 1241, being void for lack of jurisdiction, the judgment in Civil No. 1307 based thereon was likewise void.

[495]*495Martin v. Soden, 81 Idaho 274, 340 P.2d 848 (1959), was an action brought by an assignee of decedent Jackson E. Soden to foreclose the lien upon community real property given to Jackson E.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Martin v. Soden
340 P.2d 848 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1959)
Radermacher v. Radermacher
87 P.2d 461 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1938)
Walker v. Manson
289 P. 86 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1930)
Richardson v. Ruddy
98 P. 842 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1908)
Wayne v. Alspach
116 P. 1033 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1911)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
426 P.2d 213, 91 Idaho 492, 1967 Ida. LEXIS 215, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/soden-v-carr-idaho-1967.