Court Opinion

ID: 9641162
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 17:24:24.337311+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:35.589847
License: Public Domain

HOFFMAN, Judge
(concurring);
I concur in the Majority’s result, but reach my conclusion by a different process of reasoning.
The Majority holds that the execution of a sales contract by all joint tenants destroys unity of title because the equitable interest in the real property passes to the purchasers. I believe that this reasoning confuses equitable conversion with the destruction of the unities underlying a joint tenancy. While a sales contract does diminish the control held by all joint tenants over a parcel of land, it does not destroy unity of title as between the joint tenants. Each joint tenant still has an undivided equal interest in the property.
I do agree that the contract of sale worked a severance of the joint tenancy in this case. By entering into the sales contract, the joint tenants presumably manifested an intent to liquidate their interest in the premises and *462to divide in half the proceeds received from the sale. Because the sale was in fact consummated, I would honor this presumed intent. I do not intimate any opinion as to the proper result in case a recission or default had ultimately occurred.
SPAETH, J., joins in this concurring opinion.