Court Opinion

ID: 9784506
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-30 20:46:43.643128+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:35:55.407498
License: Public Domain

JOSEPHINE LINKER HART, Judge, concurring. I agree that this case must be affirmed, however, I cannot agree that we have to affirm for a reason not contemplated by the trial | ¡judge, or that the trial judge made any error whatsoever. Somewhat lost in both the majority’s and dissent’s opinions is a key fact — this case was a probate court proceeding. The fact that the parties or their guardians contemplated divorce is little more than a red herring. Pursuant to Arkansas Code Annotated section 18-6CM26 (Repl.2003), a tenancy by the entirety may be dissolved by a sale ordered by the probate court. This is exactly what the December 4, 2007 probate court order accomplished in this case. This order was not appealed. I submit that our evaluation of the effect of that order should be guided by Rucks v. Taylor, 282 Ark. 200, 667 S.W.2d 365 (1984), where the supreme court held that a tenancy by the entirety may be terminated by an agreement that “shows an intent to terminate all property rights between the parties with the signing of the agreement.” I believe that Rucks is directly on point and should control this case.1  The December 4, 2007 order reduced the obligations of the parties to convey respective deeds and pay certain sums. The transaction involving the marital home was completed prior to John Healy’s death. The obligation imposed by the December 4, 2007 probate court order on the guardian of Thelma Healy to pay $40,000 to John was not. It is |inaxiomatic that litigants have a right to rely on a final order.2  Because only the ministerial act of paying money was left to be accomplished, the probate court had the authority to order specific performance to enforce its order. Accordingly, I would find no error in the trial court’s decision, and I would affirm.  . I cannot agree that Killgo v. James, 236 Ark. 537, 367 S.W.2d 228 (1963), has any value in the disposition of this case. It was legislatively overruled by Act 457 of 1975, when the legislature created what is now Ark.Code Ann. § 9-12-317 (Repl.2008). Accordingly, Killgo is a dead letter.   . As our supreme court stated in Tuchfeld v. Hamilton, 203 Ark. 428, 156 S.W.2d 887 (1941), the passage of the law, now codified as Arkansas Code Annotated section 18-60-426, was intended to promote confidence on the part of parties acquiring real property pursuant to a sale approved by the probate court that they will acquire good title. It stated: There has been an error in the administration of this estate which apparently escaped notice until detected by a careful title examiner. Such errors should not occur, but they do occur, and the fear of such errors has caused many estates to be sacrificed through the apprehension that the purchaser at a probate sale would acquire a defective title. To remove this fear and to prevent the sacrifice of estates which must be sold under orders of the probate court, Act 263 was passed at the 1919 session of the General Assembly entitled "An Act to Render Conclusive Judgments and Decrees of the Probate Court in Guardian’s and Administrator’s Sale." This Act appears as § 6257, Pope's Digest, and reads as follows: "In all guardian’s sales heretofore or hereafter made, the finding and recital in the judgment or decree of the probate court authorizing and ordering any such sale that the guardian or administrator was duly and legally appointed and qualified; that the sale was conducted according to law; and that the facts set forth in the petition entitled the said guardian or administrator to make the said sale, shall be conclusive and binding on all parties having or claiming an interest in the said sale, save upon direct appeal to the circuit court made in such cases as are now provided by law; and such finding and judgment or decree of the probate court shall not be open to collateral attack save for fraud or duress.” 203 Ark. at 431, 156 S.W.2d at 888.