Court Opinion

ID: 9547448
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 17:47:35.89062+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:17:45.660064
License: Public Domain

Springer, J.,
dissenting:
I would reverse the judgment in this case. The decree of divorce was not filed until after the death of the wife. NRCP Rule 58(c) provides that a judgment is not effective until it is entered and that it is not entered until it is filed. There was, therefore, no judgment in effect at the time of the wife’s death. When the wife died, property held in joint tenancy by the two parties vested in the surviving husband, the appellant; the question of divorce became moot. See Fox v. Fox, 84 Nev. 368, 441 P.2d 678 (1968); LaGrange Constr. v. Del E. Webb Corp., 83 Nev. 524, 435 P.2d 515 (1967); Fitzharris v. Phillips, 74 Nev. 371, 333 P.2d 721 (1958).
In my view, since the unfiled judgment was not “effective for any purpose,”1 the death of the wife fixed the parties’ status and property rights in joint tenancy property: the husband became a single man and the sole holder of property held by his wife and him in joint tenancy at the time of the wife’s death.
NRS 17.140 provides that if a party dies after the decision, but before the judgment (the case here), “the court may nevertheless render judgment on the decision.” There are three reasons why I *75think that this statute does not apply to the joint tenancy property in this case.
The first reason is that given above — the deceased’s interest vested irrevocably in the survivor by the operation of the law at the time of death. The second reason is that the court’s pre-death decision does not clearly adjudicate the matter, does not clearly order or declare the transmutation of joint tenancy property into community property.
The trial court merely concluded “that the plaintiff has failed to meet his burden of proving that real property in Lyon County is not the community property of the parties.” There was not, however, in the decision itself any definitive order, declaration, or decision to the effect that the property in question had become community property.
The third reason for my opinion is that I do not believe the court had the power to transmute this joint tenancy property into community property.
NRS 125.150(l)(b)(2), which went into effect a few weeks before the pre-death decision, provides that a divorce court may dispose of “property placed in joint tenancy by the parties on or after My 1, 1979.” This property was not placed in joint tenancy on or after My 1, 1979. Therefore, I would conclude, the legislature did not intend the court to dispose of such property in a divorce case. Further, even if the court had the power to “dispose” of such property, I do not believe that gives the court the power to transmute or change the nature of the property into community property, even if it had chosen to do so.
Certain issues other than those relating to the joint tenancy or marital status issue might be determined by a nunc pro tunc order, but this need not be considered in this appeal.
I would reverse and enter judgment declaring appellant-husband to be sole owner of the joint tenancy property.

NRCP 58(c).