Steele v. Cross

366 S.W.2d 434, 1963 Mo. LEXIS 823
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedMarch 11, 1963
Docket49215
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 366 S.W.2d 434 (Steele v. Cross) 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
Steele v. Cross, 366 S.W.2d 434, 1963 Mo. LEXIS 823 (Mo. 1963).

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

The plaintiffs in this case are the brothers and sisters, or their successors in interest (except Hugh H. Pixlee), of William T. Pixlee who died testate, a resident of Clay County, Missouri, on November 28, 1921. At the time of his death he owned 4,400 acres of land in Lyon and Greenwood Counties, Kansas, most of which was oil producing land. In a manner hereinafter detailed decedent’s only child, Maude Pixlee Shoemaker, shortly after her father’s death, became a life tenant in an undivided one half of said land. From that time until her death on December 23, 1950, she, or her guardian, collected the royalties for oil produced from said undivided interest in that land under various leases. By 1934 the amount so received totaled $130,308.48. The total amount received thereafter has not been ascertained. Briefly stated, it is the contention of plaintiffs in this case that said life tenant was entitled only to the earnings or interest income from said royalties during her lifetime and at her death they, as remaindermen, were entitled to receive the corpus thereof.

Defendants herein are Gerald Cross in his capacity as administrator of the estate of Maude Pixlee Shoemaker, deceased; Gerald Cross in his capacity as executor of the estate of Thomas J. Shoemaker, deceased (Thomas J. Shoemaker was the husband and only heir of Maude Pixlee Shoemaker) ; and Gerald Cross in his capacity as trustee under the last will and testament of Thomas J. Shoemaker, deceased. (It will be noted that there is only one defendant, but since he is sued in three different representative capacities, we will refer to him by the plural designation “defendants”.) After filing an answer which set up various defenses the defendants, on June 20, 1961, filed a motion for summary judgment. Briefly summarized, it alleged as grounds for judgment (1) that this suit is barred under the nonclaim provisions of the probate code; (2) that the issues here tendered have been finally adjudicated in two prior suits hereinafter more fully described; and (3) that these plaintiffs have split their cause of action by a failure to tender this claim in one or both of the two prior suits mentioned in ground (2). The *436 motion was supported by certain affidavits and exhibits which establish the facts upon which the defendants’ contentions of law are founded. The trial court sustained the motion for summary judgment and entered judgment for defendants and against plaintiffs. Plaintiffs have duly appealed therefrom.

By his will William T. Pixlee left all of his real estate to his wife Eva for life, and then to his only child Maude and her bodily heirs. The will further provided that if Maude died without bodily heirs the real estate would descend to testator’s brothers and sisters and their descendants per stirpes. Hugh H. Pixlee was made executor of the will and was appointed trustee of a trust created therein. In regard to that trust the will provided that all personal property not otherwise bequeathed would become a part thereof, and it was specified that the income from said trust was to be used mainly for the care of testator’s wife during her lifetime, and after her death such should be used for the care and comfort of Maude, and, at Maude’s death, without bodily heirs, the corpus should be distributed absolutely to testator’s brothers and sisters or their descendants per stirpes.

In regard to the real estate the will provided that in managing the same testator’s wife and Hugh “may lease for oil in the usual manner, if they .think best,” the proceeds to go to the trust fund hereinabove described.

The widow renounced the will and elected to take outright an undivided one-half interest in the estate. She thus became the owner in fee of an undivided one-half interest in the Kansas real estate, and upon her death on December 3, 1922, that undivided one-half interest descended to her only child Maude. The income from that one-half interest is not here involved, but that interest is referred to from time to time in connection with the issues before us.

The legal effect of the renunciation of the will by the widow was to accelerate the vesting of the life estate of Maude in the other one-half interest in the Kansas land. In that connection it may be here stated that a serious question thereafter arose as to whether, under the terms of the will, Maude received an estate tail or a life estate in said undivided interest. Apparently, if it was an estate tail, under Kansas law such could be transformed into a fee simple estate by a conveyance from the dev-isee to a third party and a subsequent re-conveyance to the devisee. In the year 1934, Maude and her husband, by conveyance to one Nicholas, and a reconveyance on the same day to Maude, attempted to so transform her interest into a fee simple estate. However, in litigation subsequent to Maude’s death, the Kansas Supreme Court held that Maude’s interest was a life estate. Steele v. Pedroja, 178 Kan. 441, 289 P.2d 738.

In July 1925, Maude conveyed the Kansas land to Hugh H. Pixlee, and Hugh recon-veyed to her the half interest which she inherited from her mother, and retained the half interest here involved in trust under an agreement with Maude. He apparently collected the oil royalties and placed them in the trust estate which had been created by the will of William T. Pixlee. Thereafter, Maude filed a suit in Kansas against Hugh Pixlee and his wife in which she sought to set aside the deed she had made to Hugh, and to recover the oil royalties he had collected therefrom. The court granted the relief plaintiff sought, set aside the deed, and ordered that Hugh, after deducting certain expenses, deliver to Maude certain specifically described government bonds in the face amount of $130,000.00 from the trust estate heretofore mentioned which had been bought with royalties received, and cash in the sum of $308.48 — all of which represented in the aggregate the net amount due to Maude for royalties theretofore collected from the half interest here involved. Maude had also filed a suit in Clay County, which went on change of venue to Lafayette County, in which she sought similar relief insofar as the oil in *437 come was concerned as that sought in the Kansas case, which suit was terminated insofar as it related to the oil income by a judgment similar to the one entered in the Kansas court.

On October 17, 1925, Maude was adjudged to be a person of unsound mind. On May 18, 1932, she was found to be of sound mind and her guardian was discharged. She was, however, again adjudged to be of unsound mind on September 8, 1943, by the Probate Court of Clinton County and Gerald Cross was appointed her guardian and continued in that capacity until her death on December 23, 1950. On December 27, 1950, Gerald Cross was appointed domiciliary administrator of Maude’s estate and duly qualified in that ■capacity. On February 21, 1951, Edward E. Pedroja was appointed ancillary administrator of her estate by the Probate Court of 'Greenwood County, Kansas. In 1934, as heretofore stated, Maude received from Hugh Pixlee the oil royalties paid to him on the property here involved up to that time. Thereafter, Maude, or her guardian, ■collected the royalties for the undivided interest now owned by plaintiffs and commingled said income with her other assets .and obviously treated said income as her property rather than money from which she might be entitled to the income only.

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Bluebook (online)
366 S.W.2d 434, 1963 Mo. LEXIS 823, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/steele-v-cross-mo-1963.