Court Opinion

ID: 9846232
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:37:24.46722+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:16:35.865336
License: Public Domain

BRYANT, Judge,
dissenting.
The majority contends defendant did not acquire ownership of the three parcels of land by “bequest, devise, or descent” nor has defendant “asserted separate ownership based upon a gift” and therefore, the parcels are not defendant’s separate property as defined by statute. For the reasons that follow, I respectfully dissent from the majority opinion.
Section 50-20 of the North Carolina General Statutes sets forth the definitions of “marital” and “separate” property for purposes of equitable distribution. Marital property is defined as “all real and personal property acquired by either spouse or both spouses during the course of the marriage and before the date of separation of the parties, and presently owned, except property determined to be separate property or divisible property. . . .” N.C. Gen. Stat. § 50-20 (b) (1) (2005). Separate property is defined as “all real and personal property acquired by a spouse before marriage or acquired by a spouse by bequest, devise, descent, or gift during the course of the marriage.” N.C. Gen. Stat. § 50-20(b) (2) (2005). Separate property is not subject to equitable distribution. N.C.G.S. § 50-20(a) (2005). Once a party, however, makes a showing that property is marital, the burden of proof shifts to the other party to show the property is separate. *172Atkins v. Atkins, 102 N.C. App. 199, 207, 401 S.E.2d 784, 788 (1991). The spouse claiming separate property must show by a preponderance of the evidence the property was acquired by bequest, devise, descent, or gift during the course of the marriage. Id.; N.C.G.S. § 50-20(b) (2) (2005). N.C. Gen. Stat. § 50-20(c) governs division of marital and divisible property:
There shall be an equal division by using net value of marital property and net value of divisible property unless the court determines that an equal division is not equitable. If the court determines that an equal division is not equitable, the court shall divide the marital property and divisible property equitably.
N.C. Gen. Stat. § 50-20(c) (2005). The statute specifies twelve factors for consideration in equitable distribution, including N.C. Gen. Stat. § 50-20(c)(llb)(b) which states:
In the event of death of either party prior to the entry of any order for the distribution of property made pursuant to this subsection:
b. Property held as tenants by the entirety or as joint tenants with rights of survivorship passing to the surviving spouse due to the death of the spouse.
N.C. Gen. Stat. § 50-20(c)(llb)(b) (2005). This statute acknowledges that property held as tenants by the entirety is removed from the marital estate for purposes of equitable distribution and thus becomes the separate property of the surviving spouse at the death of the spouse. North Carolina State Highway Comm’n v. Myers, 270 N.C. 258, 261, 154 S.E.2d 87, 89 (1967) (right of survivorship in entireties property vests upon marriage and is not lost upon separation)-. In the case sub judice, the trial court found:
9. By virtue of the right of survivorship, Defendant became the owner of the real property on March 2, 2004 when Decedent died.
10. The real property is Defendant’s separate property, as defined in G.S. § 50-20(b)(2).
18D. Decedent could have moved the court for permission to sever his claim for absolute divorce and thereby terminate *173the tenancy by the entirety in the real property but did not do so.
The parties acquired three parcels of real property as tenants by the entirety during the marriage and before the date of separation. The property therefore meets the definition of marital property as set forth in N.C. Gen. Stat. § 50-20 (b) (1). However, defendant has shown by a preponderance of the evidence she acquired the property by descent “during the course of the marriage" as the parties had not yet received an absolute divorce order at the date of Mr. Nelson’s death. The parties owned the real property as tenants by the entirety with the right of survivorship. See Mansour v. Rabil, 277 N.C. 364, 177 S.E.2d 849 (1970). When one spouse dies, the property immediately passes directly to the surviving spouse. See id. The parties were still married when Mr. Nelson died in 2004, and the real property passed directly to defendant by right of survivorship simultaneously with Mr. Nelson’s death. The parties’ separation did not alter the ownership designation as tenants by the entirety. See North Carolina State Hwy. Comm’n at 261, 154 S.E.2d at 89 (a divorce from bed and board “does not destroy the marital relationship” and “does not convert the estate by the entirety into a tenancy in common”). In North Carolina, a tenancy by the entirety may be destroyed only in specific ways.
The tenancy by the entirety may be terminated by a voluntary partition between the husband and the wife whereby they execute a joint instrument conveying the land to themselves as tenants in common or in severalty. But neither party is entitled to a compulsory partition to sever the tenancy. . . .
A divorce a vinculo, an absolute divorce destroying the unity of husband and wife that is essential to the existence of the tenancy, will convert an estate by the entirety into a tenancy in common. The divorced spouses become equal cotenants. . . . Each spouse is entitled to an undivided one-half interest in the property.
A divorce a mensa et thoro, on the other hand, a divorce from bed and board which does not dissolve the marriage relation, does not sever the “unity of the persons,” and does not terminate or change the tenancy by the entirety in any way. . . .
*174Martin v. Roberts, 177 N.C. App. 415, 419, 628 S.E.2d 812,-(2006) (citations omitted) (emphasis in original) (emphasis added). See In re Civil Penalty, 324 N.C. 373, 384, 379 S.E.2d 30, 37 (1989) (“Where a panel of the Court of Appeals has decided the same issue, albeit in a different case, a subsequent panel of the same court is bound by that precedent, unless it has been overturned by a higher court.”). Therefore, “the real property owned by [Mr. Nelson and defendant] as tenants by the entirety passed to [defendant] by operation of law[.]” Mansour at 379, 177 S.E.2d at 859.
The majority states, and I agree, that the purpose of the amendment to N.C. Gen. Stat. § 50-20 adding subsection (1) was to allow for equitable distribution claims to survive the death of a spouse. However, the majority states the purpose of the statute is defeated if property passing to a survivor under a tenancy by the entirety is held to be separate property. I disagree. The reasoning in this dissent would not affect an action for equitable distribution as to other types of interests in real property or personal property. This reasoning is limited solely to entireties property which vests upon marriage and is lost only upon the conditions as cited in Martin v. Roberts, supra. Any other result would significantly affect our long-standing doctrine of survivorship.
For these reasons, I must dissent from the majority and would affirm the trial court based on its findings and conclusions that at the time of her spouse’s death, defendant inherited the real property as her own, separate property.