Carter v. Zollinger

• Decision Date: 11 February 2009
• Docket Number: No. 34377.,34377.
• Citation: 146 Idaho 842,203 P.3d 1241
• Parties: Nadene R. CARTER, Norma R. Bennett, Laree Larson, Melvin S. Roberts, Beneficiaries of the Norman H. Roberts Family Revocable Trust, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Flora and Donovan ZOLLINGER, Defendants-Respondents.
• Court: Idaho Supreme Court

203 P.3d 1241

146 Idaho 842

Nadene R. CARTER, Norma R. Bennett, Laree Larson, Melvin S. Roberts, Beneficiaries of the Norman H. Roberts Family Revocable Trust, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Flora and Donovan ZOLLINGER, Defendants-Respondents.

No. 34377.

Supreme Court of Idaho, Idaho Falls, September 2008 Term.

February 11, 2009.

Daines & Wyatt, LLP, Ephraim, for appellant. Jonathan Jenkins argued.

Thomsen Stephens Law Offices, PLLC, Idaho Falls, for respondent. Michael Wheiler argued.

BURDICK, J.

This appeal concerns whether ownership of property can be determined in an unlawful detainer summary proceeding under Idaho Code § 6-303. We affirm the magistrate court's ruling that the unlawful detainer action should have been dismissed.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Norman and Afton Roberts were the parents of the appellants: Nadene Carter, Norma Bennett, LaRee Larson, and Melvin Roberts (collectively Appellants), as well as of Respondent Flora Zollinger, and of Ellis Roberts, who is not a party to this case. Norman and Afton Roberts created the Norman H. Roberts Family Revocable Trust (the Family Revocable Trust) on September 25, 1981. Appellants, Respondent Zollinger and Roberts are the beneficiaries of the Family Revocable Trust. The corpus of the Family Revocable Trust included the real property located at 129 West 4800, Preston, Idaho (hereinafter the Fairview property).

When Norman Roberts died on September 25, 1995, the property in the Family Revocable Trust was divided between two trusts: the irrevocable Family Trust and the revocable Marital Trust. Afton Roberts was the trustee of both trusts, but had the power to administer and distribute the assets in the revocable Marital Trust only. The parties dispute whether the Fairview property went into the irrevocable Family Trust or whether each trust had a partial interest in the property.

By a letter dated December 20, 1995, Afton Roberts expressed her wish that Flora and Donovan Zollinger (collectively Respondents) receive the Fairview property upon her passing. On September 18, 1996, Afton Roberts signed a document setting forth her wishes regarding the distribution of assets upon her death. The document provides that each beneficiary would receive the equivalent of approximately $100,000 upon Afton Roberts's death. The document provides Respondents would receive the Fairview property as their inheritance, of which Afton Roberts stated $40,000 worth of equity had already been transferred to Respondents. The Fairview property was valued at approximately $95,000 in 1995. Since November 1995, Respondents have collected rents from other renters, paid all taxes, and made all improvements on the Fairview property. Respondents moved onto the Fairview property in March of 2001 with the understanding that they were to receive the Fairview property as their inheritance. Afton Roberts died on May 14, 2002. Respondents currently live on the Fairview property.

On September 10, 2005, Nadene Carter, acting as trustee, drafted a Notice of Termination of Tenancy at Will which the Franklin County Sheriff then served upon Respondents. When Respondents failed to vacate the Fairview property, Appellants filed this unlawful detainer action to evict Respondents from the premises.¹

The magistrate court dismissed the unlawful detainer action on Respondents' motion for summary judgment because it decided the uncontroverted facts before the court demonstrated as a matter of law that no landlord-tenant relationship exists between Respondents and the Trust. The district court upheld the magistrate court's grant of summary judgment on the same grounds. Appellants timely filed this appeal.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

When the district court has rendered a decision on an appeal from the magistrate division, this Court reviews the district court decision directly. The Court has free review of the legal issues analyzed by the district court acting in its appellate capacity. Losser v. Bradstreet, 145 Idaho 670, 672, 183 P.3d 758, 760 (2008).

III. ANALYSIS

The district court affirmed a summary judgment issued by the magistrate judge finding that an unlawful detainer action was inappropriate. Appellants disagree with the district court's opinion and appeal.

Appellants brought the action for unlawful detainer and rely upon dicta in Robertson v. Swayne, 85 Idaho 239, 378 P.2d 195 (1963). Appellants argue that Respondents are tenants at will of the trust thereby validating the unlawful detainer action. See Robertson, 85 Idaho at 244, 378 P.2d at 198 ("A cestui que trust in possession of trust realty is in law regarded as a tenant at will of the trustee...."). However, Robertson is distinguishable in that it was not an unlawful detainer action. Also, the language Appellants rely on was not determinative in Robertson, rather, it was used to support the conclusion that because that particular trust beneficiary's possession of the property began as permissive and the tenancy was never terminated, the beneficiary did not hold adversely to the trustee. In Robertson there were facts showing that the plaintiff lived on the trust property with permission of the trustee and that he was accountable to the trust for his management of the property.

The statement this Court made in Robertson does not establish that, for the purposes of an unlawful detainer action, a trust beneficiary in possession of property held in legal title by the trustee is always necessarily a tenant at will. The question presented in an unlawful detainer action is whether a conventional landlord-tenant relationship exists, which is determined based on the individual facts of the case. See Coe v. Bennett, 39 Idaho 176, 183-84, 226 P. 736, 738 (1924) (implicitly requiring a determination of fact by requiring a conventional landlord-tenant relationship). Thus, there is no support for Appellants' argument that Respondents are tenants at will as a matter of law.

The resolution of this case was answered in the 1932 case entitled Richardson v. King, 51 Idaho 762, 766-67, 10 P.2d 323, 324-25 (1932), which states as follows:

This court has four separate times held that, in an action for unlawful detainer, the sole question involved is right of possession, and no other issues may be injected. While, perhaps, it was proper as a defense, for the respondent to set up the matters in his answer, under the above authorities construing the nature of an action for unlawful detainer, the judgment went beyond the issues, since it should have merely determined whether the relation of landlord and tenant existed, and, if so, whether the respondent was in default. If either, or both, of the two propositions should be answered in the negative, the proper judgment was merely to deny appellants relief.

"If, in order to determine the right of possession, the court must determine which party has the paramount legal or equitable title, then the rights of the parties cannot be determined in an action of forcible entry and detainer."

"Being thus limited in its scope and purpose, a judgment rendered in such an action (unlawful detainer) can have no broader application than the proceeding itself, and, the latter being confined solely to the one issue of possession, judgments rendered therein cannot be extended to include other matters."

...

In view of this solution, we should not, and need not, examine the testimony further than to determine, as we do, that the evidence was sufficient to justify the trial court in concluding that the relation of landlord and tenant did not exist, and, since no rental was alleged or proved, the court of course could not find that the respondent was in default in the payment of rent, or, as a tenant, obligated to give over possession of the property, or the, or any, amount due.

(Citations omitted).

Although Richardson and Coe answer the legal question as to the analysis and parameters of an unlawful detainer action, there remain issues of res judicata and collateral estoppel concerning other facts found by the magistrate or district court. As stated previously the critical language in Richardson is the following statement:

[T]he judgment went beyond the issues, since it should have merely determined whether the relation of landlord and tenant existed, and, if so, whether the respondent was in default. If either, or both, of the two propositions should be answered in the negative, the proper judgment was merely to deny appellants relief.

51 Idaho 762, 766-767, 10 P.2d 323, 324 (1932) (citations omitted).

This Court has subsequently emphasized the limited relief that may be afforded in an unlawful detainer action. In Fry v. Weyen, 58 Idaho 181, 190-91, 70 P.2d 359, 363 (1937), this court affirmed an order awarding possession in an unlawful detainer action, but modified the judgment by striking language purportedly quieting title in the...