Case Title: Montgomery v. Clarkson

Citation: 585 S.W.2d 483

Docket Number: 61221

State: missouri

Court: Missouri Supreme Court

Date: 1979-09-11T00:00:00Z

Document:
585 S.W.2d 483 (1979)
Elizabeth Ann MONTGOMERY, Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
Bessie CLARKSON, Defendant-Respondent, and
Charles I. Stewart et al., Defendants.
No. 61221.

Supreme Court of Missouri, En Banc.
September 11, 1979.
*484 Richard N. Brown, Brown & Casey, Brookfield, for plaintiff-appellant.
Harry L. Porter, Marceline, for defendant-respondent.
Jack D. Lukehart, Brunswick, Robert G. Smith, Brookfield, for defendants.
DONNELLY, Judge.
This is a suit for partition of land in Chariton County, Missouri.
On January 28, 1943, a Warranty Deed to the land was executed, naming as grantees "James E. Stewart and Nancy E. Stewart, jointly." Nancy E. Stewart was the niece of James E. Stewart. Both grantees are deceased. James E. Stewart died in February, 1944. Nancy E. Stewart died August 16, 1976.
The trial court denied partition, and found that the deed, dated January 28, 1943, "vested title in said premises in James E. Stewart and Nancy E. Stewart as joint tenants with the right of survivorship; that Nancy E. Stewart survived the said James E. Stewart; that Nancy E. Stewart was the sole owner of said premises at the time of her death; that Bessie Clarkson acquired title to said premises under the will of Nancy E. Stewart."
An appeal was taken to the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, where the judgment of the trial court was reversed. On March 13, 1979, this Court ordered the cause transferred. It will be decided here the same as on original appeal. Mo.Const. Art. V, § 10.
Section 442.450, RSMo 1978, is involved here. It reads as follows:
In Lemmons v. Reynolds, 170 Mo. 227, 234, 71 S.W. 135, 136 (1902), the testatrix devised "to my two sons James Conda Reynolds and John W. Reynolds the following described real estate * * *." This Court held that the will devised the property to James and John as tenants in common and not as joint tenants and said:
In Cohen v. Herbert, 205 Mo. 537, 549, 104 S.W. 84, 86 (1907), the testator devised the property in suit to his "said daughters Julia and Victoria jointly." This Court, relying on the predecessor of § 442.450, held "that by the will of Hyam H. Cohen, his daughters Julia and Victoria became tenants in common of the property in controversy * * *."
In McVey v. Phillips, 259 S.W. 1065, 1066 (Mo.1924), the deed in question, on its face, created a tenancy in common. This Court held that what is now § 442.450 does not prevent reformation of a deed so as to create a joint tenancy, and said:
In State ex rel. Ashauer v. Hostetter, 344 Mo. 665, 670, 127 S.W.2d 697, 699 (banc 1939), this Court cited Lemmons and Cohen with approval and said:
In taking this position, Missouri is sustained by a majority of the cases. In 2 American Law of Property, § 6.3, at page 13, statutes such as § 442.450 are referred to as follows:
We have reexamined the existing law (Mo.Const. Art. V, § 10) and reaffirm the holdings in Lemmons, Cohen and Ashauer. Insofar as McVey conflicts with those holdings, it should no longer be followed.
The trial court erroneously applied the law. Murphy v. Carron, 536 S.W.2d 30, 32 (Mo. banc 1976).
The judgment is reversed and the cause is remanded for partition.
BARDGETT, C. J., RENDLEN and SEILER, JJ., and HENLEY and FINCH, Senior Judges concur.
WELLIVER, J., concurs in separate concurring opinion filed.
MORGAN, J., not sitting.
HIGGINS, J., not participating because not a member of the Court when cause was submitted.
*486 WELLIVER, Judge, concurring.
I concur in the result of the principal opinion. I do not believe that McVey v. Phillips, 259 S.W. 1065 (Mo.1924), conflicts with the principal opinion and I would reserve the right to reform a deed in an appropriate case where there is clear, cogent and convincing evidence that the language of the deed did not represent the intent of the parties at the time of the drafting of the instrument. There is no such evidence in this record.