Title: Guiseppe v. Cozzani

State: mississippi

Issuer: Mississippi Supreme Court

Document:

193 So. 2d 549 (1966) Giannini GUISEPPE et al. v. Anthony COZZANI et al. No. 44050. Supreme Court of Mississippi. November 7, 1966. Suggestion of Error Overruled January 16, 1967. George Piazza, New Orleans, La., Oscar P. LaBarre, Vicksburg, for appellants. Vollor & Thames, Vicksburg, for appellees. ROBERTSON, Justice: This is the third appearance of this case before this Court. On its first appearance, the trial court had sustained a general demurrer to the amended bill of complaint. This Court reversed the judgment of the trial court and remanded the cause for a trial on the merits. 238 Miss. 273, 118 So. 2d 189 (1960). On its second appearance, the trial court had dismissed the amended bill of complaint because there had been a long delay in getting the case to trial and on the day set for trial, the complainants still had not succeeded in getting the evidence needed from Italy. This Court again reversed the judgment of the trial court and remanded this cause for a trial on the merits. 248 Miss. 588, 159 So. 2d 278 (1964). After a trial on the merits, the trial court dismissed the amended bill of complaint and found for the defendants. We reverse the judgment of the trial court and remand this cause for an adjudication of the fractional ownership of each complainant and defendant in the real property of Frank Toney, deceased; and for an accounting of the net proceeds of sales and rentals of the real property from February 8, 1933, to date. *550 Frank Toney, also known as Toni Francesco Giov. Battista, came to this country from Italy some years before 1896. He settled in Warren County, Mississippi, and accumulated some real and personal property there. He went to Italy for a visit in the summer of 1896 and returned to Vicksburg, Mississippi, in October of 1896. He brought with him from Italy his niece, Mary Cozzani, her husband, Dominic Cozzani, their young daughter and a 5 year old son, O.A. Cozzani. Frank Toney died on December 26, 1896, at his residence in Warren County, Mississippi, leaving a Last Will and Testament as follows: His widow, Emma Toney, filed his will for probate on January 14, 1897, and was appointed executrix in accordance with the provisions of the will. Some time later, the widow married a person by the name of Ransome. As the life tenant, she took possession of Frank Toney's property. She died intestate on February 8, 1933, in Purvis, Mississippi. On April 8, 1933, O.A. Cozzani was appointed administrator of her estate by the Warren County Chancery Court after he had filed and sworn to a petition alleging, among other things: On September 11, 1934, O.A. Cozzani, administrator, signed and swore to a petition to close the estate of Emma Toney Ransome, alleging, in part, as follows: Basing his decree on the sworn allegations of the said petition to close the estate, the Chancellor entered a decree on September 11, 1934, finding, in part, as follows: In 1934, Mary Cozzani, O.A. Cozzani, his brother and two sisters conveyed a parcel of land to Anderson-Tully. O.A. Cozzani handled the negotiations with Anderson-Tully. Later another parcel of the property was conveyed to Anderson-Tully. Another parcel of the property was sold to the railroad and an easement over part of the property to the gas company. These instruments were recorded in the Warren County Chancery Clerk's Office in Vicksburg. Mary Cozzani, the niece of Frank Toney and the mother of O.A. Cozzani, died in 1947 and her estate was administered in the Warren County Chancery Court. Anthony Cozzani, a younger brother of O.A. Cozzani, took charge of the property on the death of his mother, Mary Cozzani, and collected rents and otherwise managed the property for the benefit of his brother, O.A. Cozzani, his two sisters and himself. A cousin, Nina Fusca, wrote Anthony Cozzani from New York City on January 27, 1953, inquiring about Frank Toney and his estate. Anthony Cozzani did not answer that letter. On October 9, 1953, Nina Fusca again wrote Anthony Cozzani from New York City asking that he clarify the status of Frank Toney's estate and reiterated that some of the Italian relatives had inquired of her about his estate. Anthony Cozzani testified that he answered this letter, as follows: On November 12, 1958, a bill of complaint was filed praying that the complainants, being the heirs of nephews and nieces of Frank Toney, be adjudged to be the owners of interests in the property of Frank Toney, deceased, by virtue of the last will and testament of Frank Toney. The complainants prayed for an accounting by O.A. Cozzani, Anthony Cozzani and their sisters. An amended bill of complaint was filed on February 17, 1959, wherein the complainants again prayed that: Complainants again prayed for an accounting and a judgment over for their part of the net rentals and proceeds of sales of the properties, and the complainants offered to do equity in adjusting the rights of the parties in the said property. We are of the opinion that the rights of the nephews and nieces and these complainants accrued as owners of vested remainder estates at the death of Frank Toney on December 26, 1896, and their rights to possession of the property accrued at the death of Emma Toney Ransome on February 8, 1933. The complainants are entitled to be recognized as tenants in common along with the defendants unless *553 there was an effective ouster of these complainants by Mary Cozzani and her sons and daughters, and unless these complainants are barred from bringing any action to assert their rights by the provisions of Section 710 of the Mississippi Code of 1942. Frank Toney had just returned from Italy at the time of the making of his will. He knew he had nephews and nieces in the Old Country. He made specific bequests of $125.00 each to Dominic Cozzani and Mary Cozzani, and then he very clearly left the balance of his estate to his wife, Emma, for her life and the remainder at her death to his nephews and nieces and his sister, Lucretia, share and share alike. Mississippi Code of 1942 section 518 says this, among other things: In spite of this admonition, O.A. Cozzani, a well educated man, entered into a conspiracy to defraud his Italian relatives with his mother, Mary Cozzani. He made sworn fraudulent statements in his petition to be appointed administrator of the Estate of Emma Toney Ransome. These statements were calculated to and did mislead the Chancery Court of Warren County. After being appointed administrator and thus becoming an officer of the court, he made further sworn fraudulent statements on September 11, 1934, in his petition to close the Estate of Emma Toney Ransome. He stated under oath, among other things, that he had made due and diligent search and inquiry, and there were no living descendants of Frank Toney's sister, Lucretia. As a matter of fact, he had made no search or inquiry whatsoever and yet, Lucretia, just happened to be his grandmother and the mother of Mary Cozzani, O.A.'s mother. Mary Cozzani knew that when she came to this country in 1896 that she left a younger sister in Italy. O.A. Cozzani testified that he knew they came from LaSpezia, Italy, that he could speak Italian also, and that his mother, Mary Cozzani, could speak both Italian and broken English, yet there were no conversations between his mother and him about the country of their birth and relatives over there. His testimony on cross-examination was as follows: All of this brings to mind Sir Walter Scott's statement in "Marmion": On the relationship of tenants in common and the question of ouster by a co-tenant, this Court in the case of Nichols v. Gaddis and McLaurin, Inc., 222 Miss. 207, 221-222, 75 So. 2d 625, 629, 78 So. 2d 471 (1954), had this to say: The recording of a fee simple deed by one co-tenant as notice of his adverse claim to other co-tenants was discussed by the Court in the Nichols case, supra, in these words: All of the nephews and nieces of Frank Toney, except Mary Cozzani, lived in the Republic of Italy, at the time of his death in 1896. They, thus, lived some 4,000 miles from the shores of the United States. They were uneducated people who knew nothing about the United States, its laws, its courts and its legal records. How could this Court or any court hold that these illiterate people, 4,000 miles away, were given actual notice or the equivalent thereof by the filing of pleadings and deeds in the Warren County Chancery Clerk's Office in Vicksburg, Mississippi? As we said in Hulvey v. Hulvey, a Virginia case, quoted with approval by this Court in the Nichols case: We hold that there was concealed fraud practiced by O.A. Cozzani and his mother, Mary Cozzani, on the Warren County Chancery Court, by which the court was misled, and that there was concealed fraud practiced on these complainants, and that these complainants are not barred from maintaining this suit in equity by virtue of the provisions of the Mississippi Code of 1942 Annotated, Section 710. The judgment of the lower court is reversed and this cause remanded for an adjudication of the ownership of the complainants and defendants in the remaining real properties of Frank Toney, deceased, and for an accounting of the net rentals and net proceeds of sales from those properties that have been leased or sold during the interim from 1933 to date. Reversed and remanded. ETHRIDGE, C.J., and JONES, PATTERSON and INZER, JJ., concur.