Fell v Rambo

• Decision Date: 05 May 2000
• Docket Number: 99-01039
• Citation: 36 S.W.3d 837
• Parties: MADGE KIRKHAM FELL, ET AL. v. GLORIA RAMBOIN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF TENNESSEE AT NASHVILLE
• Court: Tennessee Court of Appeals

MADGE KIRKHAM FELL, ET AL. v GLORIA RAMBO

No. M1999-01039-COA-R3-CV

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF TENNESSEE AT NASHVILLE

Decided May 5, 2000

Direct Appeal from the Chancery Court for Marshall County No. 9147

Lee Russell, Judge

This appeal involves a dispute over the proceeds of the sale of a family farm by a life tenant with an unlimited power of disposition. Following the life tenant's death, the remaindermen named in the life tenant's husband's will filed suit in the Chancery Court for Marshall County against the executrix of the life tenant's estate, the estate itself, and the beneficiaries named in the life tenant's will asserting that the life tenant lacked capacity to sell the farm, that the executrix had unduly influenced the life tenant to sell the farm, and that the executrix had tortiously interfered with their inheritance from the life tenant's husband. The trial court, sitting without a jury, found no lack of capacity or undue influence but determined that the remaindermen have an interest in the proceeds of the sale of the farm. The trial court also awarded attorney's fees to the lawyer the remaindermen had discharged earlier in the proceeding. The life tenant's estate and her executrix now appeal the conclusion that the remaindermen named in her husband's will have an interest in the proceeds of the sale; while the remaindermen appeal from the dismissal of their lack of capacity, undue influence, and intentional interference with inheritance claims and the award of fees to their former lawyer. We have determined that the trial court correctly concluded that the life tenant was capable of selling the farm, that her executrix did not unduly influence her decision, and that the remaindermen's former attorney was entitled to payment. We have also determined that the life tenant's sale of the farm terminated the remaindermen's interest as a matter of law. Accordingly, we reverse the judgment awarding the remaindermen $269,420.89 and remand the case to the trial court for further proceedings.

Tenn. R. App. P. 3 Appeal as of Right; Judgment of the Chancery Court Affirmed in Part

and Reversed in Part.

Barry B. White and Robert O. Binkley, Lewisburg, Tennessee, for the appellant, Gloria Rambo.

William B. Bradley, Brentwood, Tennessee, and Kevin S. Key, Nashville, Tennessee, for the appellees, Madge Kirkham Fell, Betty Kirkham Bowland, Margaret Sanford Mullens, and Bernice Kirkham Bowers.

John R. Reynolds, Nashville, Tennessee, Pro Se.

KOCH, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which CAIN, J. and COTTRELL, J. joined.

OPINION

John E. Crockett and Nannie Bell Crockett were a childless married couple who lived in Williamson County. On March 11, 1959, Mr. Crockett executed a will giving Ms. Crockett a life tenancy in all of his real and personal property, including his 173-acre farm near College Grove (the ACrockett farm@). The will authorized Ms. Crockett Ato sell, mortgage, use or consume such property, for her needs in her sole and absolute discretion.@ It also provided that, at Ms. Crockett's death, the remainder Awhich has not been disposed of@ by Ms. Crockett would go to Mr. Crockett's sister and his nieces and nephews living at Ms. Crockett's death.¹ Mr. Crockett died in September 1963. His will was duly probated vesting in Ms. Crockett the life estate in the Crockett farm and Mr. Crockett's other property.²

Ms. Crockett continued to live by herself on the Crockett farm following Mr. Crockett's death. In 1986, at the age of eighty-eight, she executed a general power of attorney in favor of her niece, Gloria Rambo. Ms. Rambo remained Ms. Crockett's attorney-in-fact until Ms. Crockett's death. In 1991, Ms. Crockett suffered a fall, and was briefly hospitalized. After her release from the hospital, she moved off the Crockett farm to the Main Street Retirement Home in Cornersville near Ms. Rambo's home in Belfast. Ms. Rambo continued to visit Ms. Crockett regularly; while other family members visited less frequently.

On July 9, 1991, at the age of ninety-three, Ms. Crockett executed a will. The will contains several relatively small bequests and then leaves the residue of Ms. Crockett's estate to her niece and nephew, Ms. Rambo and Bobby T. Garrett. The will leaves nothing to the remaindermen named in Mr. Crockett's will. Ms. Crockett was not related to these remaindermen except by marriage and did not have much contact with them. Finally, the will appoints Ms. Rambo as executrix.³

In 1992, Henry Preston Ingram and Elizabeth A. Ingram, owners of the real property adjacent to the Crockett farm, approached Ms. Rambo with an offer to purchase the Crockett farm. Ms. Rambo initially told the Ingrams that the farm was not for sale. On the Ingrams' second or third attempt, Ms. Rambo brought the offer to Ms. Crockett who approved it. While Ms. Crockett had sufficient funds to support herself, she decided to sell the farm because she realized that she was not going to be able to return to the farm to live. In early 1993, Ms. Crockett and the Ingrams signed a contract for sale of the Crockett farm, and Ms. Crockett conveyed the farm to the Ingrams for $311,292. The net sale proceeds were approximately $307,000.

Ms. Crockett died on April 1, 1994. The following month, Ms. Rambo, acting as Ms. Crockett's personal representative, petitioned to probate Ms. Crockett's will. In September 1994, Madge Kirkham Fell and Betty Kirkham Bowland, two of the remaindermen in Mr. Crockett's will, (Aremaindermen@) filed suit in the Chancery Court for Marshall County seeking a declaration that they have an interest in all the real and personal property that Ms. Crockett inherited from her late husband that had not been used or consumed for her needs during her lifetime. Two additional remaindermen in Mr. Crockett's will later intervened as plaintiffs.⁴ The persons named as defendants in this declaratory judgment action were Ms. Rambo, in her capacity as Ms. Crockett's personal representative and as a residuary beneficiary in her will, and the other beneficiaries named in Ms. Crockett's will.

The ensuing litigation became bitterly personal. The remaindermen accused Ms. Rambo of inveigling Ms. Crockett to sell the Crockett farm for her own personal gain, of mismanaging Ms. Crockett's money, and of forgery. On June 20, 1997, the trial court filed a memorandum opinion concluding that the remaindermen had, as a matter of law, an interest in the proceeds of the sale of the Crockett farm.⁵ Accordingly, the trial court directed that three certificates of deposits totaling $207,000 of the proceeds of the sale of the farm be deposited with the clerk and master. The court also appointed an administrator ad litem for Ms. Crockett's estate, granted the remaindermen access to the estate's records and accounts and to Ms. Rambo's personal account records, and directed Ms. Rambo to provide the remaindermen with a reconciliation of several certificates of deposit.

The trial court conducted a four-day trial in June and July 1998 on the following issues: (1) whether the remaindermen's interest in the proceeds of the sale of the Crockett farm should be reduced by Ms. Crockett's living expenses between the sale of the farm and her death; (2) whether any of Mr. Crockett's personal property remained in Ms. Crockett's possession at the time of her death; (3) whether Ms. Crockett was incompetent to sell the farm; and (4) whether Ms. Rambo had unduly influenced Ms. Crockett to sell the farm or had tortiously interfered with the remaindermen's inheritance.⁶ Between July 7, 1998 and May 13, 1999, the trial court issued a series of four memorandum opinions disposing of these issues. The court found that Ms. Rambo had accounted for all the money she had managed for Ms. Crockett and that Ms. Rambo Adid not steal a dime from the estate.@ Next, the court found that Ms. Crockett was competent to sell the farm. The trial court also found that Ms. Rambo had not unduly influenced Ms. Crockett's decision to sell the farm or intentionally interfered with the remaindermen's interest under Mr. Crockett's will. In addition, the court concluded that none of Ms. Crockett's living expenses had been paid from the proceeds of the sale of the farm. Finally, the trial court awarded the remaindermen a judgment for $269,420.89.⁷ The trial court also directed the clerk and master to continue holding the proceeds of sale of the farm that had earlier been deposited into court.

Ms. Rambo appeals as of right from the trial court's decision that the remaindermen were entitled to the proceeds of the sale of the Crockett farm. The remaindermen, in turn, take issue with the trial court's conclusions that Ms. Crockett was competent to sell the farm and that Ms. Rambo had not exerted undue influence over Ms. Crockett and with the trial court's refusal to find that Ms. Rambo tortiously interfered with their inheritance. The remaindermen also take issue with the trial court's decision to award $8,750 to their former lawyer.

The litigation in the trial court has not ended despite this appeal. Four days after this court heard oral arguments in this case, the remaindermen filed a Tenn. R. Civ. P. 60.02 motion in the trial court seeking relief from the judgement based on allegations that Ms. Rambo had committed Asubstantial fraud@ that was germane to the undue influence issue and that the interest earned on the certificate of deposit should be recalculated. Approximately two weeks later, the remaindermen filed another motion requesting the trial court to recuse itself on the ground that it had declined to enforce its own orders relating to the custody of the certificates of deposit, the filing of an interim accounting, and the disbursement of funds. After the trial court denied both motions, the remaindermen filed a Tenn. R. App. P. 10 extraordinary appeal taking issue with the trial court's denial of the motions and with its earlier decision against releasing to them...