Opinion ID: 1057218
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Costs and Fees of Litigation

Text: ¶ 29. We turn finally to defendant's contention that the court erred in failing to award him costs under the partition statute, including fees for the property appraisal prepared for this litigation and the mediation the parties undertook before trial. The statute provides in relevant part that when a plaintiff in a partition case is determined to hold a smaller share than alleged in his complaint, the adverse party shall recover against him reasonable costs. 12 V.S.A. § 5170. In a case decided before § 5170 was enacted, we held that where no order regarding allocation of costs in a partition action was issued below, this Court will not make such an order. Houghton v. Sowles, 57 Vt. 635, 635 (1885). In any event, there is no question that plaintiff was found to hold what she claimed in her complaint: an undivided interest in certain lands and premises. The parties agreed that they held the realty as tenants in common. The trial court's finding that the parties originally acquired the property as equals was consistent with the presumption, not rebutted here, that tenants in common have equal title in the commonly owned property. That plaintiff may realize less than the full value of her undivided one-half interest results from equitable adjustments by the court pursuant to the partition action after title was acquired. Consequently, even if § 5170 supersedes the Houghton holding, there is still no statutory basis to award costs. ¶ 30. Defendant argues alternatively that the court erred by not offsetting plaintiff's portion of the equity by half of the mediation fee and the property appraisal cost. According to the record, the parties agreed to a specific split of the mediation fee below, and defendant's claim for a different allocation has therefore been waived. Regarding the cost of the appraisal, however, both parties' proposed findings and conclusions included a setoff of one-half the appraisal fee from plaintiff's share of the equity. It is typical for cotenants to allocate the costs and expenses of litigating partition according to their respective fractional shares. Powell, supra, § 50.07[3][e], at 50-46.1. Here, both parties arguably agreed that plaintiff should bear one-half of the cost of the appraisal. While allocating costs is a matter left to the discretion of the court, see, e.g., Bull, 170 Vt. at 463, 752 A.2d at 35 (reviewing such allocations only for abuse of discretion), the trial court here was silent on the matter and made no allocation at all. Absent some explanation, it appears that the court's discretion was entirely, and therefore erroneously, withheld. Quenneville v. Buttolph, 2003 VT 82, ¶ 11, 175 Vt. 444, 833 A.2d 1263 (reiterating that withholding discretion entirely constitutes an abuse of discretion). ¶ 31. On remand, defendant will also have an opportunity to request that the court review the figures used for the total equity in the property. Defendant's claim of mathematical or calendar error (or both) on that issue is properly directed to the trial court under Vermont Rule of Civil Procedure 60(a), which allows clerical mistakes or errors arising from oversight to be corrected at any time pursuant to a motion by one of the parties or on the court's own initiative. ¶ 32. Finally, plaintiff's motion to strike several of defendant's documents and portions of documents as outside of the record in the case is moot because we did not consider them. The trial court's holdings that plaintiff initially acquired an equal half-share as cotenant at the time of conveyance, that she ceased contributing to real estate expenses altogether in early 2003, and that defendant excluded her from the property by his letter of no-trespass, are affirmed. The court's awards of offsets for plaintiff's mortgage application and obligation, her contributions to children's clothing, overall expenses, and the application of the children's Supplemental Security Income to household expenses are reversed. The court's accounting for contribution of the parties is reversed and remanded for an accounting consistent with this decision. The court's award for ouster rental offset is reversed and remanded for a determination, based on the current record, of whether defendant's exclusion action was wrongful and, if so, for a calculation consistent with this decision, if the evidence is sufficient to discern duration and value. Defendant's claim for appraisal fee allocation is remanded to the court for an explicit determination.