TERRY AND COMPANY v. Hensen

297 P.2d 213, 75 Wyo. 444, 1956 Wyo. LEXIS 25
CourtWyoming Supreme Court
DecidedMay 8, 1956
Docket2720
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 297 P.2d 213 (TERRY AND COMPANY v. Hensen) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wyoming Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
TERRY AND COMPANY v. Hensen, 297 P.2d 213, 75 Wyo. 444, 1956 Wyo. LEXIS 25 (Wyo. 1956).

Opinion

*449 OPINION

Blume, Chief Justice.

On December 13, 1950, one Prewitt and wife gave a warranty deed to Lloyd E. Hensen and Norma L. Hen-sen, husband and wife, covering lot 23, block 4, in East Dale Addition to the City of Casper, Wyoming. On March 7, 1953, Lloyd E. Hensen and Norma L. Hen-sen gave a note to Ward Terry and Company, the plaintiff, then known as Robert F. Clark Company, in the sum of $5,280.44, payable in installment and secured by a mortgage of the same date on the property hereinabove mentioned. Norma L. Hensen was born on July 2, 1932, and at the time of the execution of the note and mortgage herein was less than 21 years of age.

*450 On September 10, 1953, Ward Terry and Company, a corporation, above mentioned, filed a petition in the district court of Natrona county, Wyoming-, against Lloyd E. Hensen and Norma L. Hensen and the Wyoming National Bank of Casper alleging default in the payments of the installments agreed to be paid and asked judgment for the amount due in the sum of $5,350.16. The petition also alleger that the Wyoming National Bank of Casper had a first mortgage against the proprety in the sum of $6,078.54. Plaintiff accordingly asked for judgment above mentioned and a foreclosure of the mortgage above set forth, subject to the bank’s mortgage.

Lloyd E. Hensen in a separate answer alleged as a defense that the above described property was on March 7, 1953, the date of the mortgage above mentioned, a homestead occupied by himself and his wife and that they now claim the property as a homestead. In a separate answer, Norma L. Hensen set forth that she disaffirmed the note and mortgage above mentioned by reason of her minority and by the answer then filed gave notice to that effect.

Judgment was entered in the case after trial thereof on April 28, 1955, finding generally in favor of the plaintiff; that Norma L. Hensen, by reason of her minority and disaffirmance, was not liable on the note and mortgage above mentioned; but gave judgment against Lloyd E. Hensen and ordered the property above described to be sold subject to the mortgage of the Wyoming National Bank of Casper. The court held that the plaintiff was entitled to the possession, rents, issues and profits of the property above described during the lifetime of the defendant Lloyd E. Hensen and appointed a receiver therefor. From the judgment so entered, the defendants Lloyd E. Hensen and Norma *451 L. Hensen have appealed. The court did not directly pass on the question as to homestead raised by the answer of Lloyd E. Hensen, and in view of our conclusion herein we need not do so. The question raised and argued in this court relates to the nature of the interest possessed by husband and wife in an estate held by the entirety, and the real question of importance herein is as to whether or not the rents, income and profits from such an estate can be subjected to a judgment against the husband alone during the lifetime of the wife.

As stated before, the conveyance above mentioned by warranty deed was to Lloyd E. Hensen and Norma L. Hensen, husband and wife. It was accordingly a property held by the entirety. Peters v. Dona, 49 Wyo. 306, 54 P.2d 817.

“An estate by the entireties is the estate created at common law by a conveyance or devise of property to husband and wife. Under such a conveyance or devise husband and wife, by reason of their legal unity by marriage, take the whole estate as a single person with the right of survivorship as an incident thereto, so that if one dies, the entire estate belongs to the other by virtue of the title originally vested.” 26 Am.Jur. § 66, p. 692.
“An estate by the entireties involves the unities of time, title, interest, and possession, as well as the husband and wife unity of ownership.” 26 Am.Jur. § 71, p. 698.

Entirety in this connection means indivisibility. The estate is owned not by one but by both as an indivisible entity and has the characteristics of a joint tenancy by reason of the fact that the survivor takes all. But the estates differ in the fact that joint tenants may divide the estate, but tenants by the entirety cannot do so ex *452 cept by the joint act of husband and wife. At common law the husband had the right, in his own right and jure uxoris, to the control, possession and usufruct of property in which he and his wife had an estate by the entireties. That rule has been considerably modified by the rights given to women under modern statutes.

Article 6, § 1, of our constitution provides that:

“Both male and female citzens of this state shall equally enjoy all civil, political and religious rights and privileges.”

Civil rights mentioned in the constitution include the rights of property, marriage, protection by the laws, freedom of contracts, trials by jury, etc. 14 C.J.S. 1159.

Section 50-201, W.S.C. 1945, provides in part as follows:

“All the property, both real and personal belonging to any married woman as her sole and separate property, or which any woman hereafter married owns at the time of her marriage, or which any married woman during coverture acquires in good faith from any person whomsoever, or by descent or otherwise, together with all rents, issues, increase and profits thereof, shall, notwithstanding her marriage, be and remain during coverture her sole and separate property under her sole control and be held, owned, possessed and enjoyed by her the same as though she were sole and unmarried, and shall not be subject to the disposal, control or interference of her husband, and shall be exempt from execution or attachment for the debts of her husband * *

Section 50-202 W.C.S. 1945 provides that the wife may sell, convey or contract for her property as if unmarried. Sections 50-203, 50-204, 50-205, provide that she may sue or be sued, that she may make a will and that she may carry on business. What is the effect of *453 such provisions? It is rather difficult, as counsel for plaintiff point out, to determine the rights of the wife in an estate by the entirety under the statutory provisions above mentioned and the courts of the various jurisdictions have arrived at different results. Twelve states have held that the statute conferring rights of women as to their separate property have swept away estates by the entirety. Annotation, 141 A.L.R. 181. These states are Alabama, California, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina, West Virginia and Wisconsin. The courts of the majority of the states, however,, have held that estates by the entirety have not been abrogated. Annotation, 141 A.L.R. 187 and subsequent pages. Most of the statutes, as ours, do not mention estates by the entirety and so they are generally held to be still in existence. The courts differ as to the nature and extent of the estate, and various reasons are advanced in this connection. Annotation, 141 A.L.R. 187 to 204.

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Bluebook (online)
297 P.2d 213, 75 Wyo. 444, 1956 Wyo. LEXIS 25, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/terry-and-company-v-hensen-wyo-1956.