Court Opinion

ID: 9548368
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 18:02:27.797293+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:18:51.766009
License: Public Domain

Dore, J.
(dissenting) — In a scholarly opinion, the majority holds that the ancestral estate statute, RCW 11.04.035, dictates that the inheritance rights in ancestral property of the whole blood claimants prevail over those of the half-blood claimants, notwithstanding the fact that the half-blood claimants are in a preferred class of takers. I agree. Nevertheless, the majority reverses the trial court's decision to award the estate to the whole blood claimants, on the belief that the record is ambiguous as to whether the intestate, Pearl, received the property by gift or by sale. I fail to see any ambiguity, and I would affirm the trial court's order *289in favor of the whole blood claimants.
The intestate received the property by deed from Maggie, her 83-year-old mother, the day before Maggie's death. Had no conveyance occurred, Pearl would have received the property by intestate succession, and the property would be subject to the ancestral estate statute. The deed stated "For and in consideration of Ten Dollars and Love and Affection . . . convey ... by this gift the following described Real Estate ..." Majority opinion, at 272. The property conveyed has a present value of over $1 million, and undoubtedly the sum of $10 did not represent a true sale price. The majority, however, believes that it cannot be determined "as a matter of law from the deed itself whether the conveyance was a gift or whether it was given for a valuable consideration. So far as the ancestral estate statute is concerned, the deed is thus ambiguous . . ." Majority opinion, at 287. I see no such ambiguity, and I agree with the trial court when it stated in open court that "I have no difficulty in stating that the deed to which we are here concerned this afternoon is definitely and unequivocally within the purview of 'gift.'" Verbatim Report of Proceedings, at 19 (Oct. 29, 1984).
The half-blood claimants assert that the property was conveyed to the intestate in consideration of past services rendered and therefore is not a gift. The intestate had taken care of her mother (the grantor) for a number of years, and it is this consideration which the half-blood claimants believe made the deed a sale and not a gift. This is absurd.
The half-blood claimants produce no evidence to support this claim except a few affidavits stating that, to quote one, "The transfer was not to be a 'gift' in the sense that it was gratuitous, because Maggie thought that Pearl should be compensated for having taken care of her all those years." Clerk's Papers, at 38. No writing supports the conclusion that any agreement between Maggie and Pearl existed, or that Pearl took care of her mother in order to inherit the property. It is especially instructive to note that the deed *290did not mention that the conveyance occurred because of Pearl's past services rendered to Maggie, and that Pearl would have received the property regardless of the deed by intestate succession.
To hold under the facts before us that this conveyance was anything but a gift therefore defies common sense. Of course it is possible, and likely certain, that Maggie deeded the property to her daughter in part because her daughter was, and remained, a dutiful and loving child. To view this affection and care as consideration for the property disputed, however, absent any evidence of agreement between the parties, is degrading to the parties involved.
Conclusion
I therefore disagree with the majority when it holds that it is "unable to determine as a matter of law from the deed itself whether the conveyance was a gift or whether it was given for a valuable consideration." Majority opinion, at 287. I would affirm the trial court's order, as the deed to Pearl was clearly a gift and the property therefore should pass to the whole blood claimants under the ancestral estate statute.
Goodloe, J., concurs with Dore, J.