Woodworth v. Mauk

614 S.W.2d 308, 1981 Mo. App. LEXIS 2656
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 30, 1981
DocketNo. WD 31481
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 614 S.W.2d 308 (Woodworth v. Mauk) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Woodworth v. Mauk, 614 S.W.2d 308, 1981 Mo. App. LEXIS 2656 (Mo. Ct. App. 1981).

Opinion

KENNEDY, Presiding Judge.

This is a partition suit in which Gloria Woodworth, formerly Gloria Mauk, seeks partition of a house located at 5425 Harvard, Raytown, Missouri. She claims a one-half interest therein by virtue of a warranty deed naming her as a joint tenant along with James Mauk, her former husband, and Gladys Mauk, James’s mother, now deceased. Appellants James Mauk and Joanne Mauk Randall, children and heirs of the deceased Gladys Mauk, claim that Gloria’s record title was held by her in a resulting trust for Gladys and that Gloria is beneficially entitled to no interest in the property-

In the alternative James asks, should Gloria be adjudged to be the beneficial owner of an interest in the real estate, that he have judgment against Gloria for reimbursement or contribution for monies paid by him upon a certain lien on the property.

The trial court held that Gloria was entitled to an undivided one-half interest in the property, and turned down defendant’s claim that she held the same in a resulting trust. The trial court also denied James’s claim against Gloria for contribution or reimbursement.

We hold that Gloria was entitled to a one-fourth interest in the property instead of one-half, and otherwise we affirm the judgment of the trial court.

Gladys Mauk died March 16, 1977. She resided in a house at 5425 Harvard in Ray-town, Missouri. The title to that property was represented by a warranty deed executed in 1963. The warranty deed is on a familiar printed form in which the granting clause names and describes the grantees as follows: “James M. Mauk, Jr. and Gloria H. Mauk, husband and wife, and Gladys B. Mauk, a single woman, as joint tenants and not as tenants in common.” Following the description of the real estate, there was typed into the deed this language: “The intention of the grantor herein is to convey to James M. Mauk, Jr. and Gloria H. Mauk, husband and wife, an undivided one-half (½) interest and to Gladys B. Mauk, a single woman, an undivided one-half (½) interest.”

Laying aside appellants’ claim that Gloria’s interest — and, as it necessarily follows, James’s own interest — was held in a resulting trust for Gladys, we interpret the deed as follows: The deed gave James and Gloria an undivided one-half interest as tenants by the entirety. Its description of them as husband and wife prima facie had that effect, Nelson v. Hotchkiss, 601 S.W.2d 14, 19[4] (Mo. banc 1980); § 442.450, RSMo 1978, and the typed-in statement following the description, which allocated to them a one-half interest and which again described their relationship as husband and wife,' emphasizes the point. In describing the grantees as joint tenants in the granting clause, it meant that as between Gladys B. Mauk on the one hand and James and Gloria on the other, there was a joint tenancy. Had James and Gloria remained husband and wife, they would have succeeded to Gladys’s interest by right of survivorship upon her death in 1977.

James and Gloria did not remain married, though; they were divorced February 19, 1973, and remarried and divorced again in 1975. Gladys was still living at the time of both divorces, of course. No mention or disposition of the Harvard Street property was made in either divorce. The effect of the first divorce was to convert James’s and Gloria’s tenancy by the entirety in an undivided one-half interest to a tenancy in common, each owning an undivided one-fourth interest therein. Nelson v. Hotchkiss, supra at 21[12]; Davis v. Broughton, 369 S.W.2d 857 (Mo.App.1963). Neither their remarriage in 1975, nor their second divorce in the same year, had any legal effect upon the title.

The 1973 divorce had the further effect of destroying the joint tenancy between Gladys and the couple, and each of them, because it destroyed the unity of interest. So holds Nelson v. Hotchkiss, supra at 21, decided after the trial court’s judgment in the present case. After the 1973 divorce, therefore, Gladys owned an undivided one-half interest and James and Gloria each owned an undivided one-fourth interest as [311]*311tenants in common. Gladys's one-half interest on her death in 1977 passed to her heirs, James and Joanne, by intestate descent. Thus the legal title stood at the commencement of the partition suit now under review.

James and Joanne claim, however, that Gloria’s legal title under the warranty deed was held by her as trustee under a resulting trust. If their contention prevails, Gloria would have no beneficial interest in the real estate.

A resulting trust “results” when legal title to property is placed in one and the purchase price is furnished by another, and it would be inequitable to allow the legal titleholder to claim the beneficial interest. The legal titleholder is said to hold the same in a resulting trust for the one who provided the purchase money. Equity will execute the trust. Decker v. Fittge, 365 Mo. 139, 276 S.W.2d 144 (1955); Carr v. Carroll, 178 S.W.2d 435 (Mo.1944). The establishment of a resulting trust, since it derogates an arrangement which the parties have solemnly memorialized in black and white, must be proved by clear, cogent, convincing proof, such as to leave no doubt in the mind of the chancellor. Decker v. Fittge, supra at 147; Adams v. Adams, 348 Mo. 1041, 156 S.W.2d 610, 614 (1941).

The trial court rejected James’s and Joanne’s claim of resulting trust. We review by the standards of Murphy v. Carron, 536 S.W.2d 30 (Mo.1976), and affirm the judgment of the trial court on this feature of the case.

The evidence shows that Gladys wanted to purchase the Harvard Street property in 1963 as a residence for herself. She was in her fifties or sixties and widowed since 1958. She contracted to purchase the house for $13,000. She paid $2,600 cash. The balance was represented by a purchase money note and deed of trust to First Federal Savings & Loan Association in the sum of $10,400. According to James’s testimony, First Federal would not make a loan to Gladys alone, because of her age and her small income. They required as a condition to making the loan that James and Gloria sign the note and deed of trust and that they “be on” the warranty deed. The deed was made in the form earlier described. The note and deed of trust were signed by Gladys and by James and Gloria. It was payable at the rate of $66 per month, including a 5¾% annual interest. The loan application shows the payments to be $88 per month, including taxes of $16 and insurance premium of $6.

Contemporaneously with the transaction described in the preceding paragraph, James and Gloria signed a note to Gladys for $6,336 repayable in monthly payments of $88 each. This was for money lent by Gladys to James and Gloria to assist them in building a house. This note bore no interest. James and Gloria were to make the payments to First Federal on the Harvard Street note, and would in turn receive credit upon their $6,336 note to Gladys. Only one payment — the first one — was recorded as a credit on the $6,336 note.

From the beginning up to the time of trial James had made all, or nearly all, the payments on the First Federal note.

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Bluebook (online)
614 S.W.2d 308, 1981 Mo. App. LEXIS 2656, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/woodworth-v-mauk-moctapp-1981.