Cook v. Todd's Estate

• Decision Date: 06 May 1958
• Docket Number: No. 49420,49420
• Citation: 90 N.W.2d 23,249 Iowa 1274,66 A.L.R.2d 1257
• Parties: , 66 A.L.R.2d 1257 Kathryn Bell Todd COOK, Appellant, v. ESTATE OF Kate L. TODD, Deceased, Roy R. Swartz and Guy L. Todd, Administrators, Appellees.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

Page 23

90 N.W.2d 23

249 Iowa 1274, 66 A.L.R.2d 1257

Kathryn Bell Todd COOK, Appellant, v. ESTATE OF Kate L. TODD, Deceased, Roy R. Swartz and Guy L. Todd, Administrators, Appellees.

No. 49420.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

May 6, 1958.

Killmar & Reynoldson, Osceola, for appellant.

Frank F. Wilson, Mount Ayr, for appellees.

OLIVER, Justice.

Kate L. Todd, a resident of California, died there, intestate, March 13, 1954. She left no spouse her surviving. She was survived by certain nephews, nieces, grandnephews and grandnieces, referred to herein as blood heirs, and by claimant Kathryn Bell Todd Cook. The latter, a resident of California, had been there adopted by Howard Watterson Todd, intestate's son who had died there, without natural issue, in 1951. The other children of intestate had previously died during early childhood.

March 15, 1954, Guy L. Todd and Roy R. Swartz, nephews of Kate L. Todd, were appointed administrators of her estate by the district court of Ringgold County, Iowa. Their inventory listed as the only asset of the estate, $18,056.50 deposited in the Security State Bank of Mount Ayr, Iowa.

Thereafter Kathryn Bell Todd Cook made claim to Mrs. Todd's estate as her sole heir at law. The administrators resisted the claim and thereafter filed application for decree of heirship under Chapter 267, Acts 56th G. A. (subsequently repealed by Ch. 269, Acts 57th G. A.), alleging claimant did not inherit any of decedent's property for the reason that decedent's estate was composed of personal property only, the descent of which was governed by the law of California, under which law an adopted child inherits from, but not through, its adoptive parents. Claimant resisted this application, alleging part of decedent's property was real estate or the proceeds thereof which retained the character of real estate for the purposes of distribution, and the applicable law was the law of Iowa, under which claimant would inherit such property.

Decedent Kate L. Todd had inherited an undivided interest as a tenant in common, in the real estate in question, from her brother Jesse Lininger who died in 1947 and whose estate was closed in 1948. In addition, the will of her brother, Thomas Lininger, who died February 7, 1953, and whose estate was closed in September, 1953, gave her an additional undivided interest as a tenant in common in said land and a share in certain personal property. Both these estates were probated in Ringgold County. Shortly after the death of Thomas Lininger, suit had been brought in Ringgold County to partition the land. Kate Todd was made a party defendant. Thereafter decree of partition was rendered ordering the sale of the land and appointing Roy R. Swartz and Guy L. Todd as Referees. September 4, 1953 the Referees reported they had entered into contracts to sell the land. September 5, the sales and contracts were approved by the court. Referees' deeds reciting payment of the purchase price were issued, approved by the clerk as directed by the court and placed of record November 30, 1953. The final report of the Referees was filed December 3, 1953 and approved August 26, 1954.

The interest or share of Kate L. Todd in the proceeds of the partition sale was $11,235.18 of which $1,556.16 was used to pay a mortgage Mrs. Todd had previously placed upon her interest in the land, leaving a balance of $9,679.02. This money only remained in the bank account of the Referees Roy R. Swartz and Guy L. Todd at the time of Mrs. Todd's death. The shares of the others had been previously paid. Mrs. Todd's net share of the personal estate of Thomas Lininger's estate was $8,377.48. At the time of Mrs. Todd's death that amount remained in the bank account of Roy Swartz and Zella Swartz, executors of the Thomas Lininger estate. Payments of the $9,679.02 and the $8,377.48 items were made to the administrators of the estate of Mrs. Todd after their appointment. These two items compose the $18,056.50 listed by the administrators of Mrs. Todd's estate.

The trial court rendered a decree of heirship, holding the only property in the estate was personal property, the situs of which was in California, the domicile of intestate, and which would be distributed according to the law of California, and adjudging the blood heirs were the sole and only heirs and that claimant Kathryn Bell Todd Cook was not an heir to such property. Claimant has appealed.

I. It is generally held that the status of adoption created by the law of a state having jurisdiction to create it, will be recognized by the courts of another state, to such extent at least, as is not inconsistent with the laws or policy of the latter state. Mesecher v. Leir, 241 Iowa 818, 826, 827, 43 N.W.2d 149; Shick v. Howe, 137 Iowa 249, 114 N.W. 916, 14 L.R.A.,N.S., 980; Restatement, Conflict of Laws, section 143.

The rights of inheritance are statutory. It is generally the rule that the descent of real property is governed by the law of the place where it is situated, while the distribution of personal property is governed by the law of the domicile of the intestate owner, at the time of his death. In re Estate of Clemmons, 242 Iowa 1248, 1251, 49 N.W.2d 883, 885, and citations; In re Estate of Titterington, 130 Iowa 356, 106 N.W. 761; Caruth v. Caruth, 128 Iowa 121, 103 N.W. 103; 26 A C.J.S. Descent and Distribution §§ 4 and 5; Restatement, Conflict of Laws, section 245.

The foregoing rules governing descent and distribution are applicable as well to the rights of inheritance which flow from the status of adoption. Shick v. Howe, 137 Iowa 249, 114 N.W. 916, 14 L.R.A.,N.S., 980; Phelan v. Conron, 323 Mass. 247, 84 N.E.2d 525; Restatement, Conflict of Laws, section 247, states:

'Whether an adopted child is an heir and the extent to which he may inherit an interest in land is determined by the law of the state where the land is.'

In re Estate of Colburn, 186 Iowa 590, 593, 595, 173 N.W. 35, 36, states:

'Only personalty remains. * * * To determine who is entitled to succeed to such property as heirs of the owner, resort is had to the laws of the state in which the owner had his domicile at the time of his death rather than to the laws of the locality in which such personalty happened to be located.'

The parties stipulated: 'That under the law of the State of California, a child inherits from, but not through, its adoptive parents. Thus, under said law, an adopted child would inherit from its adoptive father, but not from its adoptive paternal grandmother, assuming the adoptive father predeceased the adoptive paternal grandmother.' In re Estate of Calhoun, 44 Cal.2d 378, 282 P.2d 880, and the decisions therein cited, establish that this was the law of that state at the time of the death of Kate L. Todd. It may be observed that it is, at least, questionable whether this is now the law of California. In re estate of Heard, Cal.Sup., 319 P.2d 637, 643.

It is the rule in Iowa that an adopted child inherits through, as well as from, its adoptive parents. Shick v. Howe, 137 Iowa 249, 114 N.W. 916; McCune v. Oldham, 213 Iowa 1221, 240 N.W. 678. Hence, any Iowa real estate owned by decedent at her death would descend to appellant under the laws of Iowa, and any personal property, wherever actually located would be distributed among decedent's blood heirs under the laws of California, decedent's domicile.

II. Appellant contends the share of Kate L. Todd in the proceeds of the partition sale remained real property in the hands of the Referees in partition and in the hands of the administrators of her estate to whom it was delivered by the Referees. Pomeroy's Equity Jurisprudence, 5th Ed., section 1167, page 495, refers to this type of conversion as follows:

'In this aspect of the doctrine, the question to be examined is the exact converse of that which arises under the ordinary form of conversion. * * * The question then was, Is the property though not actually converted, to be treated as converted? The question now presents itself, Is the property altho de facto converted, to be treated to any extent as not converted?'

Tiffany--The Law of Real Property, 3rd Edition, section 306, states:

'In case of a sale of land for the purpose of partition, while the proceeds of sale obviously belong to those who previously held title to the land, such proceeds have the character of personalty and not of realty, except in some jurisdictions as regards the share of one not sui juris. Occasional statements that such proceeds have the character of realty mean merely that the conversion does not affect the rights of the persons previously entitled. So when, upon the sale of land by an order of court or under a power, it is said that the proceeds, or surplus proceeds are to be regarded as land, this ordinarily means merely that the person or persons previously entitled to the fund in the shape of land do not lose their rights in the fund merely by reason of its change in form.'

For text statements that the proceeds have the character of realty, see 40 Am.Jur., Partition, section 91; 18 C.J.S. Conversion § 32.

Appeal of Wentz, 126 Pa. 541, 17 A. 875, 878, states the expression that the proceeds of real estate remain realty, etc., is not accurate. 'The money never is real estate, in law any more than in fact, but for certain purposes, and within certain limits it is treated as if it was real estate. The purpose is to preserve the inheritable quality of the estate, so that the title may not be diverted from the previous owner, and the limit is the first devolution. * * * So far, therefore, from the money actually becoming real estate, and requiring a positive act of reconversion to restore it to its natural character of money, it never is real estate, and is only treated as such within a limit which all the cases agree is the first transmission. * * * 'It descended as personalty, which it actually was.''

7 American and English Encyclopedia of Law (2d Ed.), Conversion and...