Barton v. Ludy

EDMONDS, J.

The appellant in this case is a lessee of real estate and the respondent is the assignee of his colessee. The latter brought an action for partition of the leasehold interest and was awarded judgment. The appellant claims that the lease was made to him and his colessee as partners and is partnership property; that the title transferred by the assignment is subject to the interest of the partnership and that the respondent is not entitled to partition.

The property in controversy consists of 255 acres of laird in Glenn County and is part of one of the farms which was leased by Sarah E. Ludy to her two sons, John Ludy and the appellant. By the terms of this agreement, which was recorded, Mrs. Ludy leased her property to “Wirt Ludy and John Ludy” without further description of the interest created in the lessees. Later, Mrs. Ludy died and upon the administration of her estate, the respondent, who is her daughter and the sister of Wirt and John Ludy, became the owner of the 255 acres of land which is now in dispute. John Ludy then transferred to the respondent by a written “assignment” his “rights as lessee” in the 255 acres of land to which the respondent had acquired title and she brought this action against her other brother as a tenant in common with her of the leasehold.

The issue between the parties is presented by the separate defense of the appellant. He pleaded that he and his brother John were partners and took the lease as such; that no assignment of any interest in the lease had been made by the partnership and that the leasehold interest is partnership property. Upon this issue the trial court found that the brothers had acquired the lease and had farmed the land as partners but that the partnership was secret and undisclosed as to respondent, and that, as to her and as to her mother before her, the lessees held the lease merely as cotenants. It further found that respondent was a transferee of John

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Ludy’s undivided one-half interest in the leasehold of the 255 acres for a valuable consideration and without notice of the partnership.

The appellant makes his chief attack upon the sufficiency of the evidence to support these findings. He contends that the evidence offered by the respondent, consisting of the lease, the assignment to her by John Ludy and the decree made in the administration of the estate of Sarah E. Ludy distributing the 255 acres of land, subject to the lease, to her, does not entitle the respondent to a partition of the leasehold interest in this property. The respondent rests her case upon the proposition that the appellant had the burden of proof to sustain his position and did not meet this requirement. She contends that the evidence that for fifteen years he and his brother, “as partners” had farmed the land leased to them by their mother, does not establish a partnership interest which will defeat the title shown by her.