In re Moran's Estate

• Decision Date: 05 November 1935
• Docket Number: 25389.
• Citation: 51 P.2d 277,174 Okla. 507,1935 OK 1073
• Parties: In re MORAN'S ESTATE. v. LINCH et al. BEASLEY et al.
• Court: Oklahoma Supreme Court

51 P.2d 277

174 Okla. 507, 1935 OK 1073

In re MORAN'S ESTATE.

BEASLEY et al. v. LINCH et al.

No. 25389.

Supreme Court of Oklahoma

November 5, 1935

Syllabus by the Court.

1. A partition suit does not change an estate otherwise ancestral to an estate of purchase; the mere division of property owned in common does not change the title from one of inheritance to a title by purchase.

2. A who acquired lands by descent from his father, died intestate leaving surviving him his wife, a brother of the full blood a half-brother and half-sisters by the same mother, but different fathers, held, that under the authority of section 1626, O. S. 1931, the half-brother and half-sisters of A must be and are excluded from the inheritances.

3. Record examined, and held, that the judgment of the trial court is contrary to the law and evidence. Case is reversed and remanded.

Appeal from District Court, Kingfisher County; O. C. Wybrant, Judge.

Proceedings in the matter of the estate of Frank Moran, deceased, wherein Ruby Beasley, executrix, filed her final account and petition for distribution which was contested by Pauline M. Linch and others. The county court found in favor of Ruby Beasley and John Oscar Moran, and the contestants appealed to the district court. From a judgment for the contestants, Ruby Beasley and another appeal.

Judgment reversed and case remanded, with directions.

T. R Blaine, of Kingfisher, for plaintiffs in error.

R. F. Shutler, of Kingfisher, for defendants in error.

PER CURIAM.

This is an appeal from the district court of Kingfisher county. The admitted facts in this case are substantially these:

Edward Moran died intestate in the year 1902, a resident of Kingfisher county, and left 3 quarter sections of real property in said county. Edward Moran was survived by three heirs; Ada B. Moran, afterwards Ada B. Linch, his widow, John Oscar Moran and Frank Edward Moran, his sons, who at the death of Edward Moran each inherited an undivided 1/3 interest in the 3 quarter sections of land.

After the death of Edward Moran, his widow, Ada B. Moran, married J. W. Linch, and Pauline M. Linch, Elda R. Linch, and Velma Linch were born of said marriage.

Ada B Linch died testate, in 1917. Her estate consisted of an undivided 1/3 interest in the 3 quarter sections of land which she had inherited from her former husband, Edward Moran. By the terms of her will, Ada B. Linch devised her undivided 1/3 interest in said 3 quarter sections of land to the following persons in the following proportions to wit:

J. W. Linch an undivided 4/9 of 1/3 or an undivided 4/27 interest. John Oscar Moran, her son, an undivided 1/9 of 1/3 or an undivided 1/27 interest therein, to Frank Edward Moran, Pauline M. Linch, Elda R. Linch and Velma Linch each a 1/27 interest.

The estates of Edward Moran and Ada B. Linch were administered in the county court of Kingfisher county and decrees of distribution as to the 3 quarter sections of land were by said court entered. In the Edward Moran matter an undivided 1/3 interest in the 3 quarter sections of land were distributed to each of his heirs, Ada B. Linch, John Oscar Moran, and Frank Edward Moran. In the Ada B. Linch estate matter, distribution of her undivided interest was made in accordance with the terms of the will.

Thereafter, John Oscar Moran instituted a partition suit in the district court of Kingfisher county against the other heirs, and the court in its decree in partition decreed the interests of the parties in the 3 quarter sections of land to be as follows, to wit: John Oscar Moran 10/27; Frank Edward Moran 10/27; J. W. Linch 4/27; Pauline Linch 1/27; Elda R. Linch 1/27; Velma V. Linch 1/27.

Partition was accordingly ordered, and commissioners were appointed to make division. They thereupon gave 1 quarter section to John Oscar Moran, 1 quarter section to Frank Edward Moran, and the other quarter section to the Linches, with the proviso that Linch pay to each of the Morans $200. The commissioners report was by the court approved, and the court set off to the various parties the separate tracts of land.

Frank Edward Moran was awarded by the court in the partition action the following described land, Southwest quarter of section 1, township 15 north, range 6 W. I. M., Kingfisher county, and was the record owner of same at the time of his death, and it is the land involved in this appeal. At the time of his death, he left surviving him Ruby Beasley (formerly Ruby Moran), his widow, and no children, his full brother, John Oscar Moran, and his half-brothers and half-sisters, the Linch children.

Ruby Beasley was appointed administratrix of the estate of Frank Edward Moran. She secured a deed from John Oscar Moran to her to the above-described quarter section of land; thereafter, in her final account and petition for distribution, Ruby Beasley contended that upon the death of her husband she inherited an undivided 1/2 interest in and to the said land, and that the remaining 1/2 interest was inherited by the full brother, John Oscar Moran; and that the land was an ancestral estate, and that by reason of her acquiring John Oscar Moran's interest she prayed the court to distribute the entire interest to her.

The petition for distribution was contested by the Linch children, Pauline M., Elda R., and Velma Linch; they claiming to be heirs of Frank Edward Moran, deceased, that the estate was an estate of purchase, and that they owned an interest in said realty.

Trial was had in the county court and the issues found in favor of Ruby Beasley and John Oscar Moran. The case on appeal in the district court was decided in favor of the contestants and against Ruby Beasley and John Oscar Moran. After an unsuccessful motion for new trial, plaintiff below, plaintiffs in error herein, bring this appeal, and have in all 12 assignments of error.

The consideration of the second error assigned, to wit, that the trial court erred in holding and decreeing that the partition proceedings in the district court of Kingfisher county, in the case styled John Oscar Moran vs. Frank Edward Moran et al., changed the character of the interest of Frank Edward Moran in the lands herein involved from an ancestral estate to an estate of purchase, will determine the principal question involved in this cause.

There are only two characters of estate known to our law. An estate is either ancestral or nonancestral, or, as this court says, there are two modes of acquiring title to property; one by descent or inheritance, and the other by purchase or by the act or agreement of the parties. Gray v. Chapman et al., 122 Okl. 130, 243 P. 522. It is admitted by the parties hereto that the undivided 1/3 interest Frank Edward Moran inherited from his father Edward Moran, in the 3 quarter sections of land, was an ancestral estate before the partition suit.

The defendants in error assume that although Frank Edward Moran inherited an undivided 1/3 interest...