State Ex Rel. Ashauer v. Hostetter

127 S.W.2d 697, 344 Mo. 665, 1939 Mo. LEXIS 627
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedMay 2, 1939
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 127 S.W.2d 697 (State Ex Rel. Ashauer v. Hostetter) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State Ex Rel. Ashauer v. Hostetter, 127 S.W.2d 697, 344 Mo. 665, 1939 Mo. LEXIS 627 (Mo. 1939).

Opinion

*667 PER CURIAM:

This ease is in certiorari to quash the record and opinion by the St. Louis Court of Appeals in Peer v. Ashauer, 102 S. W. (2d) 764. The term relator, instead of relatrix, is used for the most part in the pleadings and briefs and we use it here. The Peer ease was to construe the will of Charles Ashauer, deceased, and to partition. It is claimed by relator that respondents’ opinion, construing said will, is in conflict with the latest controlling decisions of this court in two respects. First, it is contended that the ruling that clause 4 of the will should be construed to devise to relator and her sister, Adelia Ashauer Peer, as tenants in common, conflicts -with the rulings of this court in Grace v. Perry et al., 197 Mo. 550, 95 S. W. 875; Gardner v. Vanlandingham et al., 334 Mo. 1054, 69 S. W. (2d) 947; Nichols v. Boswell, 103 Mo. 151, 15 S. W. 343; Garth v. Garth, 139 Mo. 456, 41 S. W. 238. Second, it is contended that the ruling that the will did not create a life estate in relator in the real property at 2733 Chippewa Street, St. Louis, conflicts with the ruling by this court in Barkhoefer v. Barkhoefer et al. (Mo.), 204 S. W. 906. The eases cited on the first alleged ground of conflict all hold to *668 the effect that in construing a will the intention of the testator controls if such does not violate some rule of law. The Barkhoefer case, cited on the second alleged ground of conflict, concerns the question of whether or not a life estate was devised.

For the facts we look to the opinion, and from the opinion it appears that Adelia Ashauer Peer and Mathilda S. Ashauer, relator, are daughters of the testator. Mrs. Peer filed the suit against Mathilda, and Mathilda filed demurrer to the petition, alleging that it did not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action. The demurrer was sustained, and the petition was dismissed. The plaintiff, Mrs. Peer, appealed to this court, but the cause, for lack of jurisdiction here, was transferred to the St. Louis Court of Appeals. [Peer v. Ashauer, 92 S. W. (2d) 154.]

The first count of the petition alleges that the testator died in St. Louis, August 16, 1932, seized in fee of certain real property in St. Louis, including the real property known as 2733 Chippewa Street, with the improvements thereon consisting of a house, garage, and other buildings; that his sole heirs at law were his two daughters, Adelia and Mathilda; that the will was ambiguous, uncertain, and indefinite; that the plaintiff, Adelia, was “unable to determine her interests in testator’s real estate without the construction of said will by the court. ’ ’

The fourth clause of the will reads as follows: “Fourth: I give, bequeath and devise all my real estate to my two beloved daughters, Mathilda S. Ashauer and Adelia Peer, as tenants ly the entirety; with proviso that if my daughter, Adelia Peer, survive my daughter, Mathilda S. Ashauer, then she shall hold the same for her sole and separate use and benefit and free and clear of any and all marital rights of her present husband, Joseph Peer; and with the further proviso that my beloved daughter, Mathilda S. Ashauer, shall have the sole right to occupy the house on lot one in city block No. 164.0 of the City of St. Louis, State of Missouri, being now known as 2733 Chippewa Street, so long as she shall live.” (Italics ours.)

The fifth clause was: ‘ ‘ Fifth: I hereby direct that all rents and income from all my other real estate shall be collected by my daughter, Mathilda S. Ashauer, and applied by her toward the payment of the costs of administering my estate, taxes, insurance, and all obligations necessarily incurred for the upkeep of said real estate, except the real estate located at 2733 Chippewa Street, unless my said daughter, Mathilda S. Ashauer, shall choose to live elsewhere and rent out the same. The balance of said rents and income shall be equally divided between my said daughters, Mathilda S. Ashauer ánd Adelia Peer, once each year, commencing one year after my death, if there is sufficient cash on hand at that time from such rents and income. For the service rendered by my said daughter, Mathilda S. Ashauer, in collecting the rents and income from the aforesaid real estate, she may retain 5 per cent of the gross receipts therefrom. ’ ’

*669 Tbe opinion as to tbe second count.of tbe petition states: “Tbe second count (partition) of plaintiff’s petition adopts by reference the allegations of the first count, and alleges in addition thereto that the administration of the estate has not been completed; that the personal property in the estate is' not sufficient to pay the debts proven against tbe estate; and that the real estate therein described ‘will be required to settle said obligations, and that, therefore, plaintiff makes Mathilda S. Ashauer, in her capacity of executrix of Charles Ashauer, a party defendant;’ that ‘plaintiff is informed and believes, and therefore alleges, that by virtue of the will of said Charles Ashauer, deceased, duly probated, she and defendant Mathilda S. Ashauer are each seized of an undivided one-half interest in the real estate hereinbefore described as tenants in common; that the location, condition and improvements of said real estate are such that partition thereof in kind cannot be made without great injury to same and damage to the owners thereof . . .’ ”

The grounds of the demurrer to the second count were that the petition ‘ ‘ on its face shows that the property described therein is not subject to partition, and that it does not state facts sufficient to constitute any cause of action against defendant, and that the court is without jurisdiction to order the sale of tbe real estate described in the petition to satisfy the debts of said estate.”

As to clause 4 of the will respondents ruled: ‘ ‘ By paragraph 4 of the will the testator gives his two daughters his real estate ‘as tenants by the entirety,’, but it needs no citation of authorities that the attempted creation of an estate by tbe entirety in the two daughters is unavailing since such an estate can exist only between husband and wife, and since Section 3114, Bev. St. of Mo. 1929 (Mo. Stat. Ann., sec. 3114, p. 1940) provides that ‘every interest in real estate granted or devised to two or more persons, other than-executors and trustees and husband and wife, shall be a tenancy in common, unless expressly declared, in such grant or devise, to be in joint tenancy,’ the plaintiff and defendant cannot be held to have been devised the land in joint tenancy,” citing Philbert v. Campbell et al., 317 Mo. 556, 296 S. W. 1001; Cohen et al. v. Herbert et al., 205 Mo. 537, 104 S. W. 84, 120 Am. St. Rep. 772; Lemmons v. Reynolds et al., 170 Mo. 227, 71 S. W. 135, 136.

Bespondents, speaking (102 S. W. (2d) l. c. 768) of the provisos of the Ashauer will said that they were evidently inserted by the testator “in the belief that upon the death of either of his daughters the survivor would continue owner of the fee.” (Italics ours.) Belator says that by this language respondents found from the will itself that testator intended that his two daughters should hold the real estate devised in joint tenancy, and that, notwithstanding such finding, respondents held that the two daughters, under the will, held as tenants in common.

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Bluebook (online)
127 S.W.2d 697, 344 Mo. 665, 1939 Mo. LEXIS 627, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-ashauer-v-hostetter-mo-1939.