Gott v. Gott

WOOD, P. J. This is an action for the partition and sale of real property held by plaintiff (wife) and defendant (husband) as joint tenants. (The action was commenced while divorce proceedings were pending. Final judgment was entered in the divorce proceedings, and no disposition was made therein with reference to the real property.) Defendant cross-complained to quiet title in the property. In a non jury trial, the court found that the property was purchased with separate funds of the defendant; that the property was placed in joint tenancy for convenience and by reason of duress on the part of plaintiff; and that defendant did not intend to make a gift to plaintiff of any of his separate property. Plaintiff appeals from the judgment that plaintiff take nothing by her complaint and that defendant have title to the property.

Appellant contends that the evidence does not support the finding that defendant did not intend to make a gift to plaintiff of his separate property or the finding that the property was placd in joint tenancy by reason of duress on behalf of the plaintiff.

Plaintiff and defendant were married in 1950, and they have a daughter. There was much discord in the marriage, and they were divorced in 1967. In 1963, defendant purchased a house with money he had inherited from his mother, and title to the property was taken by plaintiff and defendant-as joint tenants. (The parties admit that the money was defendant’s separate property.)

[325]Defendant testified in substance that the “marriage was a history of disputes”; he wanted to use the money he had inherited to buy a house; plaintiff suggested that he invest the money or use it to buy a business; he intended to buy the house in his “own name”; he took title to the property in joint tenancy because she refused to move into the house with the child if he took title in his own name; he was aware of the survivorship incidents of joint tenancy, and he felt that if he died he wanted the house to go to her so that she could take care of the child;1 he did not at any time intend to make a gift to his wife of any part of the house; and the taxes and improvements on the house were paid from the money which he inherited.

Plaintiff testified in substance that there had been problems in the marriage before he bought the house; all of the money used to purchase the house was money which he had inherited; he wanted the house to be his own property; if he had purchased the house in his own name, she would not have moved into it; and when he inherited the money, she “left it up to him. He could use it for whatever he wanted to use it for,” but she “wouldn’t go into a home that wasn’t going to be half mine. ’ ’