Bauer v. Bauer
| Decision Date | 07 April 1936 |
| Docket Number | 43172. |
| Citation | 266 N.W. 531,221 Iowa 782 |
| Parties | BAUER et al. v. BAUER et al. |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
Appeal from District Court, Greene County; M. E. Hutchison, Judge.
An action by five heirs to quiet title in real estate, one piece to each heir, as against a coheir, after a determination in a partition suit that the coheir's interest in the property was offset by his debts to the estate. Decree for plaintiffs defendants appeal.
Affirmed.
D. M Kelleher and R. A. Knudson, both of Fort Dodge, for appellants.
Wilson & Harris, of Jefferson, for appellees.
Frederick Bauer died intestate in Greene county, Iowa, in September 1929, holding 1,079 acres of land. He left a widow, Esther A. Bauer, and the following sons and daughters surviving him, to wit: Edith B. Stribling, William R. Bauer, Edward C. Bauer, Fred O. Bauer, Clarence R. Bauer, Nora B. Gower, Clara M. Fisher, Ella B. Weant, and Beulah B. Elmore.
The action in this case was to quiet title to all the various tracts of land comprising the 1,079 acres. Wm. R. Bauer and Frederick O. Bauer were the administrators of the estate of the deceased. Clarence R. Bauer and Hattie Bauer, appellants herein, were parties thereto, making a claim to a part of the land, to wit, the west half of the southwest quarter of section 9, township 85 north, range 30 west of the fifth principal meridian. Edith B. Stribling and J. F. Stribling, husband, were also parties, but filed no pleadings in the case, and have not appealed from the decision.
The court found against the claim of Clarence R. Bauer and wife, Hattie Bauer, and from the decree in the case appeal is taken.
The record discloses that the debts of the estate were such that there was little, if any, equity left in the land for any of the heirs of the deceased, after taking out the widow's one-third, and that the appellant Clarence R. Bauer owed the estate, or the deceased, at the time of his death, over $16,000.
Prior to the beginning of the present action, there had been commenced in the same court an action for partition of the real estate among the heirs of the deceased. This action was No. 10933 equity, and was entitled Edward C. Bauer, Plaintiff, v. Esther A. Bauer et al., Defendant, and all of the 1,079 acres of land owned by the deceased were set out and described in the petition therein, and in that action W. R. Bauer and Fred O. Bauer, as administrators of the estate of the deceased, filed a cross-petition against Edith B. Stribling and husband, J. F. Stribling, and C. R. Bauer and wife, Hattie Bauer.
The defendants herein were served with notice of the cross-petition, and on the 4th day of January, 1933, the case No. 10933 came on for hearing on this cross-petition. The defendants, appellants herein, Clarence R. Bauer and Hattie Bauer, did not appear, and each was defaulted, and in this action title to the real estate was established and confirmed as against all the cross-petition defendants in the defendant Esther A. Bauer, widow of decedent, in a share of the undivided one-third thereof, and in the defendants, to wit: William R. Bauer, Frederick O. Bauer, Nora A. Gower, Clara M. Fisher, Ella B. Weant, Beulah B. Elmore, and the plaintiff, Edward C. Bauer, in the shares of the undivided two twenty-firsts each, subject to existing mortgages thereon and subject to the judgment lien of the intervener, Elmer James, as executor of the estate of Charles H. James, deceased, upon the undivided share of the plaintiff Edward C. Bauer therein; and costs connected with the cross-petition were assessed to Edith B. Stribling and Clarence R. Bauer. The decree further recited that, after the trial and submission of the cause, on the cross-petition, the plaintiff Edward C. Bauer dismissed his petition without prejudice, and the intervener dismissed his petition of intervention without prejudice to any of his rights upon his judgment against the plaintiffs Edward C. Bauer and Shirley C. Bauer, his wife.
The cross-petition filed in the partition case set forth that Clarence R. Bauer had executed to the decedent a note of $14,000 and had executed a mortgage to secure the note covering the west half of the northwest quarter of section 9, township 85 north, range 30, which land was covered by a prior mortgage for $5,700, and that there was at the time due on the note of Clarence R. Bauer $14,098.34, and that the deceased signed another note with Clarence R. Bauer for $650, which deceased had to pay, on which there would be due on May 23, 1932, $905.11, and that the above-stated indebtedness of said Clarence R. Bauer, irrespective of the mortgage security as a part thereof, is far in excess of the value of the share of Clarence R. Bauer in the real estate left by the deceased and sought to be partitioned in the action; also that Clarence R. Bauer and his wife are insolvent; that the indebtedness of said Clarence R. Bauer is an offset against all his share in the real estate of the estate, and by reason thereof said Clarence R. Bauer has no interest or share in the real estate involved in said action. And set out therein was the prayer of this cross-petition which asked that the title be established and quieted and confirmed in the remaining children and heirs of deceased, F. J. Bauer, named in plaintiff's petition, subject to the rights of Esther A. Bauer, widow of said decedent, in the shares of two twenty-firsts each, as the same may be found and adjudicated by the court.
The questions arising from the decree in the partition case and its effect are: First, did the court have jurisdiction to entertain the matters set forth in the cross-petition and to determine same? Second, if the court did have that right, were the relations between the parties plaintiff in the cross-petition in the partition case such that the decree entered therein would be such an adjudication of the matter that the plaintiffs in this case could take advantage of as putting their rights at rest; in other words, a former adjudication? Third, if these two propositions are answered in the affirmative, could the plaintiffs in the case here on appeal, in an action brought by them jointly, have the title quieted to the different pieces of real estate as prayed in the petition herein? That is to say, could the court in this action determine as against the defendants in the present case that the title to the different pieces of real estate was quieted as against the defendants herein? If these questions are answered in the affirmative, then of course the decision of the court in the instant case, it seems to us, was correct.
Taking these propositions up in their order: The decree on the cross-petition entered in the partition case held that the indebtedness of Clarence R. Bauer to the estate was such that it more than exhausted his interest in the real estate, or in any of the proceeds of the estate, whatever. In the partition case, suit had been brought by one of the heirs of the deceased for the purpose of having this 1,079 acres of land divided and separated into parcels and the ownership of the various parcels of land settled, and the terms on which they were taken could be settled in this case. It is elementary that in a partition case the court has the power to decree a division of the property and the terms thereof. It also has power to settle the equities in the matter between the various parties to the suit, so there would be no question of the court having the power in the partition case to assign the various parcels of land to those to whom it appeared to the court were entitled to receive it, and to fix the terms upon which it should be taken. In order to do this properly, it would be necessary to inquire into the relation of each of the parties to the estate of the deceased and to offset any debts that any party might have against the share allotted to one indebted to the estate. The petition alleged that the indebtedness of Clarence R. Bauer to the estate was such that the value of the land which would be assigned to him in an equal division of the land amongst the heirs would be much less than the debt owing the estate. Here was a debt of over $16,000 owing by Clarence R. Bauer to the estate. The administrators were charged with the duty of collecting those debts. The only way of collecting them, apparently from the record, was out of whatever interest he might have in the real estate, making it a charge against that real estate; but, exceeding, as it did, by a very large amount more than the value of the two twenty-firsts part of the estate which goes to each heir, the court had the right to provide for that in the decree, and that would be final, would put the matter at rest, would become an adjudication that could be taken advantage of either by the administrators or by any persons succeeding to their interest, or in privity with them. Even if the court committed error in this, having jurisdiction of the matter, the court would have jurisdiction to commit error, and that would not affect the effectiveness of the decree settling the matter for all time between the parties thereto.
In the partition case wherein all the parties are before the court the court of equity has jurisdiction to adjudicate all matters and the rights of the respective parties. Kramer v. Hofmann, 218 Iowa 1269, 257 N.W. 361; Creger v. Fenimore, 216 Iowa 273, 249 N.W. 147.
In the Kramer Case, which involved two actions, one for partition of real estate owned by plaintiffs and certain of the defendants, and the other an action for forcible entry and detainer against certain other defendants, in commenting on the case, the court says (218 Iowa 1269, on page 1278, 257 N.W. 361, 366): ...
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