Court Opinion

ID: 9702513
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 23:15:04.505426+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:38.149547
License: Public Domain

Per Curiam
(on motions for rehearing). In this memorandum, we propose to amplify the following portion of the opinion as it relates to the instant case:
“The rule is, therefore, that the interests of joint tenants being equal during their lives, a presumption arises that upon dissolution of the joint tenancy during the lives of the cotenants, each is entitled to an equal share of the proceeds. This presumption is subject to rebuttal, however, and does not prevent proof from being introduced that the respective *406choldings and interests of the parties are unequal. The presumption may be rebutted by evidence showing the source of the actual cash outlay at the time of acquisition, the intent of the cotenant creating the joint tenancy to make a gift of the half interest to the other cotenant, unequal contribution by way of money or services, unequal expenditures in improving the property or freeing it from encumbrances and clouds, or other evidence raising inferences contrary to the idea of equal interest in the joint estate.”
We confine these added comments to the limited situation of a partition suit between wife and husband as it relates to property ostensibly standing in their joint names as joint tenants. We deem that it would be undesirable public policy to encourage a spouse to utilize partition in the expectation of gaining a greater share of jointly held assets than might normally be granted in divorce proceedings.
In partition, equitable principles are to be applied and if the circumstances are such that equality is not equity, the court is not bound to partition in equal shares simply because there is a joint tenancy in form. Husband and wife often take property in joint tenancy without contemplating the legal effect or with thought only as to the incidents of survivorship. Little attention may have been paid by spouses as to the possibility that the parties may desire to divide the property while both remain alive, and therefore it may be inequitable as between the parties to bind them absolutely to the consequences of joint tenancy in that event. Partition between husband and wife strictly in proportion to the manner in which their legal interests formally appear will often produce a result which the parties clearly did not intend.
The fact that property held by husband and wife is in the form of a joint tenancy does not preclude a court of equity in such a partition suit from going behind the joint-tenancy form in order to decide whether the parties truly *406dintended a joint tenancy in fact. The presumption that a true joint tenancy was intended may be rebutted by evidence showing a different intention.
Evidence of unequal contributions by way of money or services is a factor to be considered but is not necessarily controlling. The reason that unequal contributions alone may not be sufficient to rebut the presumption is that it might have been the intention of the party making the greater contribution to make a gift of that part of his or her contribution which exceeded one half the acquisition cost. Even where one of the parties furnished all the consideration, a gift might likewise have been intended of the one half.
Unequal expenditures in improving property and freeing it from encumbrances and clouds might not be sufficient, standing alone, to convert an original joint tenancy into a tenancy in common, but would justify the court’s ordering reimbursement of the amount so paid before dividing the residue between the parties.
If upon retrial, the court finds that any particular property standing in joint tenancy was intended to be a joint tenancy in fact as well as in form the proceeds derived on sale of such property are to be divided equally between the parties.
We recognize that dower does not attach to lands held in joint tenancy. Under sec. 233.01, Stats., a widow is entitled to dower out of land in which her husband was seized of an estate of inheritance at any time during the marriage. Since the death of one joint tenant extinguishes his estate, leaving the fee in the survivor, a joint tenancy is not deemed an estate of inheritance, and is not subject to dower or curtesy.
However, our opinion was not intended to relate to the question of dower as it applied to the jointly held property before the partition. If the real estate involved had been *406epartitioned in kind, the partitioning court could have barred respondent’s inchoate right of dower in the lands set off to her husband. Sec. 276.05, Stats. In that case an award in the nature of owelty would have been proper under sec. 276.42. Here, however, the partitioning court has decreed a sale of all real estate involved. Thus the lands will have been converted into personalty.
If any of the lands are found to constitute true joint tenancies, the respondent wife will be entitled to no dower therein. She would, however, be entitled to dower in any lands which are found to be held in joint tenancy in form but which are intended not to have all the legal consequences of joint tenancy.
We see no reason why the existence of the possibility that a partitioning court may, as between the joint tenants, make a distribution in unequal proportion should cause concern to third parties who accept conveyances, mortgages, or the like, from one of the joint tenants. Except for situations of collusion, such third parties would be entitled to rely upon each joint tenant having the full interest in the property which is recognized by law.
Both motions for rehearing are denied, without costs.