Opinion ID: 1058298
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Right to Compensation for Improvements

Text: Mary first claims the trial court erred in requiring her to pay, out of her profit from the partition sale ordered by the trial court, a share of the Christensens' expenses to obtain the subdivision plan. She maintains that because this investment was not a permanent improvement under Virginia law, she is not liable for these costs. The evidence relating to the subdivision plan and the Christensens' efforts to obtain it is undisputed. The question presented is whether the enhancement of value due to the Christensens' efforts is a compensable improvement within the meaning of our prior cases. The resolution of this question is a matter of law; consequently, we review the issue de novo. Alcoy v. Valley Nursing Homes, Inc., 272 Va. 37, 41, 630 S.E.2d 301, 303 (2006). It has long been a principle of law in Virginia that [g]enerally, a joint tenant who at his own expense has constructed permanent improvements on property owned in common is entitled in a partition suit to compensation for the improvements, even in the absence of a showing that his cotenant assented thereto. The rule is founded on the desire of the court to do justice and to prevent unjust enrichment of one cotenant at the expense of the other. But in a partition suit the amount of the compensation, in the absence of an agreement with the other tenant or tenants, is limited to the amount by which the value of the property owned in common has been enhanced by the improvement. Jones v. Jones, 214 Va. 452, 454-55, 201 S.E.2d 603, 605 (1974). In most of the cases in which we have applied this rule, our recitation of the legal principles has included the term permanent improvements. See Butler v. Hayes, 254 Va. 38, 43, 487 S.E.2d 229, 232 (1997); Quillen v. Tull, 226 Va. 498, 502, 312 S.E.2d 278, 280 (1984); Jones, 214 Va. at 454-55, 201 S.E.2d at 605; Shotwell v. Shotwell, 202 Va. 613, 618, 119 S.E.2d 251, 255 (1961); Dalgarno v. Baum, 182 Va. 806, 808, 30 S.E.2d 559, 560 (1944); Griffin v. Tomlinson, 159 Va. 161, 179, 165 S.E. 374, 380 (1932); Ballou v. Ballou, 94 Va. 350, 352, 26 S.E. 840, 840 (1897). Most often the cases applying this principle have dealt with permanent improvements in the form of physical construction or repair, often of a structure intended for residence. See, e.g., Butler, 254 Va. at 44, 487 S.E.2d at 232; Jones, 214 Va. at 453, 201 S.E.2d at 604; Shotwell, 202 Va. at 615, 119 S.E.2d at 253; Dalgarno, 182 Va. at 807, 30 S.E.2d at 559; Ballou, 94 Va. at 351, 26 S.E. at 840. However, in Quillen we reviewed a judgment partitioning land on Chincoteague Island among various parties with ownership interests. 226 Va. at 500-01, 312 S.E.2d at 278-79. The land at issue consisted of four parcels, designated A, B, C, and D. Id. at 501, 312 S.E.2d at 279. The trial court ordered Parcels C and D to be sold at public auction and the proceeds divided, with Tull, the party who had been in possession of the property, receiving credit for enhancing its value by 30 per cent. Id. The enhancement was in the form of easements Tull purchased over adjacent property, which were the only means of accessing Parcels C and D. Id. at 502, 312 S.E.2d at 280. Applying the principle of compensation for permanent improvements, we affirmed the trial court's judgment, noting that [t]here was evidence that the value of parcels C and D was enhanced approximately one-third or more by Tull's acquisition of the easements. Accordingly, we hold that there was evidence to support the court's finding that the value of these parcels was enhanced by 30 per cent and its ruling that Tull was entitled to credit for such enhancement. We will not disturb the finding or the ruling. Id. at 503, 312 S.E.2d at 280. Purchased easements such as those at issue in Quillen are not physical improvements like the houses constructed in other compensation cases; indeed they are not even tangible assets and are not located on the property being partitioned. Nonetheless, we have considered an easement to be sufficiently permanent to require cotenants to pay a share of its cost. Other courts, applying equitable principles, have held an award of credit to a cotenant to be appropriate for improvements that are not obviously permanent, but which have resulted in an increase in the value of the property that was subsequently realized by partition sale. For example, in Leinweber v. Leinweber, 63 Wash.2d 54, 385 P.2d 556, 557-58 (1963), the Supreme Court of Washington reversed a trial court's judgment denying credit for summer fallowing (plowing and weeding agricultural land in preparation for the next year's crop). Although the summer fallow could be reversed through later neglect, the court treated the practice as an improvement, placing particular emphasis on evidence indicating that the purchaser of the land at the partition sale included the additional value for the summer fallow in his bid. Id. at 557. The court concluded that [w]hen consideration is given to the fact that [the] summer fallowing was not only necessary, but also substantially enhanced the valuation of the property, and such increased valuation was realized upon the partition sale instigated by the other cotenants, it seems appropriate to treat the summer fallow as an improvement, even though it was not permanent in nature. Id. at 558 (emphasis added). Implicit in this analysis is the principle that the increase in value, irrevocably realized by the cotenants at the time of the partition sale, rendered the improvements sufficiently permanent for a court to require compensation for them. In this case, the trial court did not err in reaching the same conclusion. Although the fruits of the efforts undertaken by the Christensens to obtain a preliminary subdivision plan were as intangible as the easements in Quillen, they likewise benefited the Property's value. Like the summer fallow in Leinweber, the subdivision plan could be allowed to lapse and thus lacked a degree of permanence, but this factor weighing against requiring an allowance was overcome when the benefiting property was sold and the increase in value was realized by the cotenants. Although Mary now disputes that the subdivision plan increased the value of the Property, the trial court made an explicit factual finding to the contrary, and Mary has not assigned error to that finding. For the purposes of this appeal, we must accept the trial court's factual finding that the subdivision plan increased the value of the land, and that this increase was realized when the Property was sold. Accordingly, for the purposes of equitably dividing the proceeds from the partition sale among the parties here, the trial court did not err in treating the Christensens' securing of a preliminary subdivision plan as a permanent improvement and requiring Mary to pay her share of the associated expenses.