Knight v. Anderson, 63579

• Decision Date: 21 May 1980
• Docket Number: No. 63579,63579
• Citation: 292 N.W.2d 411
• Parties: Jerry KNIGHT and Vicki Knight, Appellants, v. Gladys A. ANDERSON, Administrator of the Estate of Dean Jacobs, Deceased, Appellee.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

Page 411

292 N.W.2d 411

Jerry KNIGHT and Vicki Knight, Appellants, v. Gladys A. ANDERSON, Administrator of the Estate of Dean Jacobs, Deceased, Appellee.

No. 63579.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

May 21, 1980.

Richard L. Wilson and Ronald D. Bonnett of Wilson, Bonnett & Christensen, Lenox, for appellants.

Theodore T. Duffield of Patterson, Lorentzen, Duffield, Timmons, Irish & Becker, Des Moines, for appellee.

Considered by REYNOLDSON, C. J., and REES, UHLENHOPP, ALLBEE and McGIVERIN, JJ.

McGIVERIN, Justice.

Claimants Jerry Knight and Vicki Knight, husband and wife, filed a claim in the estate of Jerry's great-uncle, Dean Jacobs, asserting the decedent had made an oral contract to leave them, with all taxes paid, an 820-acre farm and attendant personal property upon the uncle's death, and also to cancel all outstanding debts between decedent and themselves. The trial court awarded claimants the personal property and the cancellation of debts, but declined to award them the farm and made no ruling in relation to taxes. Claimants appeal from that part of the order declining to award them the farm. The estate administrator cross-appeals from that portion of the order awarding claimants the personal property. We affirm as to the personal property awards, and reverse and remand for further consideration as to the real estate claim and the "tax free" issue.

We must determine the following issues in our review:

1. Whether the court erred in overruling the estate's motion to dismiss based on the claimants' failure to comply with the provisions of sections 633.418 and 633.410, The Code;

2. Whether there was sufficient evidence to support that part of the court's order awarding the personal property and cancellation of debts to claimants;

3. Whether the court erred in its conclusion of law concerning evidence of the alleged oral contract for transfer of the land as it would bear on a partial performance exception to the statute of frauds; and

4. Whether the court erred in not specifying whether claimants should receive the awarded property from the estate "tax free."

I. Scope of review. Although claimants seek specific performance of an alleged oral contract to convey property, they filed a claim in probate. The case was tried in probate to the court as a law action under section 633.33, The Code. Neither party objected to that procedure. See §§ 611.1-.10. Therefore, any error as to the forum is waived. § 611.12. We review this case for correction of errors at law, even though actions requesting specific performance of a contract are generally tried in equity. Iowa R.App.P. 4; § 633.33.

II. The timely filing of the claim. Dean Jacobs died intestate on January 26, 1978. A prior will, which did not mention the Knights, had been revoked by him. He never married or had children. His estate was opened and the second date of publication of notice to creditors was February 9, 1978.

On February 7 the Knights' claim was filed in his estate and stated that claimants sought "delivery of possession of title to all real estate owned by the decedent in Lotts Creek Township, Ringgold County, Iowa, and for delivery of all personal property located or used in the farming of this real estate, all of the above being transferred with all taxes paid and subject to no debts, and for cancellation of all notes and debts outstanding between Dean Jacobs, Deceased and claimants."

Gladys A. Anderson, as administratrix of the estate, on September 25 moved to dismiss the claim on the ground that claimants failed to comply with the requirements of section 633.418, The Code, ¹ in that the claim did not state "the nature" of the claim or the obligation of the estate; and in the alternative moved for a more specific statement. The motion to dismiss was overruled and the estate's alternative motion for more specific statement was sustained.

On October 27, pursuant to the court's order, the Knights made their claim more specific and alleged as the basis of their claim an oral agreement made with Dean Jacobs in the fall of 1975. Claimants further stated, in substance, that their claim was based on the following particulars: If Jerry and Vicki would move onto the farm in question and operate the farm under decedent's control, decedent would finance the operation and would so arrange his affairs that on his death all of Jerry and Vicki's debts to him would be canceled, and the farm, and the personal property on it, would pass tax-free to Jerry and Vicki; that claimants performed their part of the contract and changed their position in reliance thereon; however, Jacobs died without providing for conveyance of the property to claimants under the agreement.

The estate then denied the claim and alleged it was not timely filed under section 633.410, The Code, ² because it was not filed "within six months after the date of the second publication of the notice to creditors." The court overruled this contention and concluded the claim was timely filed.

In its cross-appeal the estate contends that claimants did not comply with the requirements of sections 633.418 and .410, and the court erred in not dismissing the claim, even as amended. The estate argues as follows: The claimants' filing on February 7, 1978, did not constitute a claim under section 633.418, because it did not state the nature of the claim; claimants' more specific statement filed on October 27, which alleged in detail the oral contract, was the first claim filed in accordance with section 633.410, because it did state the nature of the claim; and therefore, the October 27 claim was not timely filed with the clerk of court under section 633.410, because that claim was filed more than six months after the second date of publication of notice to creditors.

Claimants respond that their filing on February 7 was a claim meeting the requirements of section 633.418 and, therefore, was timely; also, their more specific statement filed October 27 was not a departure from the original claim and related back to the date of the original filing. We believe the claim, as amended on October 27, was timely filed on February 7.

This statement in Chariton National Bank v. Whicher, 163 Iowa 571, 579, 145 N.W. 299, 302 (1914), still applies today:

It is a matter of common observation to every court and practicing lawyer that these claims are almost universally stated in very general and informal terms, being often prepared without the aid of counsel, and no court thinks of applying thereto the strict and technical rules of the law of pleading as it is observed in ordinary court proceedings, and no amendment which is germane to a claim as originally stated, which does not destroy the substantial identity of the claim or substitute some other new or different subject of the claimant's demand, will deprive him of the advantage of his original filing.

See Hankins v. Young, 174 Iowa 383, 156 N.W. 380 (1916); accord, Bossen v. Hostetter, 243 Iowa 1241, 55 N.W.2d 281 (1952).

It is well established that "(i)f the statement of claim was not sufficiently specific, it would doubtless be subject to a motion for more specific statement." Sullenbarger v. Ahrens, 168 Iowa 288, 292, 150 N.W. 71, 72 (1914).

As we said in Chariton National Bank :

(E)ven after a demurrer has been filed and sustained on the ground that the petition states no cause of action, an amendment subsequently filed which cures the defect relates back to the commencement of the suit.

163 Iowa at 581, 145 N.W. at 303 (citations omitted.)

Even if we assume claimants' filing of February 7, 1978, failed to state a cause of action because it did not describe the nature of the claim as required by section 633.418, the subsequent amendment making the claim more specific filed October 27, 1978, would clearly relate back to the original filing, unless such amendment stated a new cause of action. We do not believe a new cause of action was stated. The amendment related back to February 7 and corrected any defect in the claim.

We hold the court was correct in overruling the estate's contention that the claim was not timely filed.

III. Award of the personalty and debt cancellation. On cross-appeal the estate also asserts the evidence was insufficient to support the award by the court to the claimants of the livestock, machinery, and other personal property on the Lotts Creek Farm, as well as the cancellation of an unspecified amount of debts owed by the Knights to Jacobs.

At the trial on the merits of the claim, substantial evidence was presented to support the allegations made in the October 27 amendment to the claim of an oral contract to convey. The evidence showed the following: Prior to his 1975 agreement with Jacobs, Jerry successfully farmed 200 acres, which was owned by his father, in partnership with his father. Vicki had a job in Mt. Ayr. When Jerry decided to go with Jacobs, Jerry and his father dissolved their partnership. As a result, the father was bitter and would not speak to Jerry, who also suffered financially in the final accounting.

The trial court also found that:

Claimants' witnesses Art Michaels, Harry Link and Carl Allen testified that they had conversations with the Decedent why he wanted the Claimants, Jerry and Vicki Knight, to move onto and farm and care for his Lotts Creek Farm, and they testified that if Jerry moved onto the Lotts Creek Farm and stayed there and farmed it in the manner of which he wished that he would give the farm to Jerry and that the Lotts Creek Farm and everything on it, including livestock and machinery would be his when he was done with it, tax free and debt free.

The court found those witnesses to be credible and competent. Their testimony was not barred by the dead man's statute, section 622.4, The Code. It is also important to note in this regard that Dean Jacobs, as a businessman involved in farming, wool, and furs, wrote little down himself and considered "his word as his bond."

When the...