Opinion ID: 1862520
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Was the Louisiana property a partnership asset?

Text: Crowe disputes the Louisiana land's status as partnership property. He contends instead that Crowe and Smith's ownership of the land as tenants in common defeated its characterization as a partnership asset. Thus, Crowe claims that the partnership dissolution should not have affected the Louisiana land. Crowe claims to have earlier disputed the status of the land as partnership property, but he offers as evidence only the comment of the Louisiana court that it could find no instrument whereby Crowe and Smith transferred their co-tenancy interest into a partnership interest. Crowe offers no other evidence that he had previously disputed the partnership status of the Louisiana land. Under Mississippi law, an appellant is not entitled to raise a new issue on appeal, since to do so prevents the trial court from having an opportunity to address the alleged error. Cooper v. Lawson, 264 So.2d 890, 891 (Miss. 1972) (citing Clark v. State, 206 Miss. 701, 39 So.2d 783, suggestion of error overruled, 206 Miss. 701, 40 So.2d 591 (1949); Howard v. State, 507 So.2d 58, 63 (Miss. 1987). If Crowe believes that the Louisiana property should not have been included among the assets of his partnership with Smith, he should have introduced that contention with supporting evidence in the trial court. However, the status of the property does not change the court's subject matter jurisdiction over the matter of dissolution. Looking to applicable law, the controlling rule appears in Mississippi's adoption of the Uniform Partnership Act. In the section entitled What constitutes partnership property, the code states: (1) All property originally brought into the partnership stock or subsequently acquired by purchase or otherwise, on account of the partnership, is partnership property. (2) Unless the contrary intention appears, property acquired with partnership funds is partnership property. ... (4) A conveyance to a partnership in the partnership name, though without words of inheritance, passes the entire estate of the grantor unless a contrary intent appears... . Miss. Code Ann. § 79-12-15 (Supp. 1988); U.P.A. § 8 (1969). In their treatise, Dean Reuschlein and Professor Gregory state: [t]he determining factor as to whether a specific piece of property constitutes partnership property or the individual property of one or more of the partners is the intention of the parties in most instances... . [I]f it appeared by all the circumstances surrounding the transaction that the parties for which it was purchased intended it to be partnership property and treated it as such, the presumption of ownership arising from the face of the deed could be overcome, and the property could be treated as belonging to the partnership. H. Reuschlein & W. Gregory, The Law of Agency and Partnership § 212 (2d ed. 1990). Of course, when parties dispute intent, it may only be proved by objective manifestations such as writings, conduct, or other such circumstances. On the merits of Crowe's claim, the Louisiana land does constitute partnership property. No evidence shows that the property was named as partnership property in its record title or conveyed to the partnership. On the other hand, persuasive authority cited above shows that partnership property need not be recorded as such, but may be proven to be in the partnership by other indicia. This rule does not contradict Mississippi law. In this case, according to the March 22, 1983 agreement, neither party owned the property before the existence of the Australia Island Partnership. The parties contracted to buy Australia Island Farm for the use of the partnership, and the agreement implies that the parties purchased the property with their own, not partnership funds. The parties referred to the property as partnership property in financial transactions and listed its mortgage payments on their partnership tax return. Whether the parties formally transferred record title to the name of the partnership or the parties remained the record co-owners, the parties made the property's status clear by their expressed intent and subsequent practice. Thus, the realty became partnership property upon its acquisition, pursuant to the intention expressed in the March 22, 1983 agreement and its later, unequivocal treatment as partnership property. Without other evidence in the record to support Crowe's contention, the trial court's implicit conclusion that the Louisiana land became partnership property is affirmed. B. Issue # 2