Mayer v. Cianciolo

• Citation: 463 So.2d 1219,10 Fla. L. Weekly 423
• Decision Date: 12 February 1985
• Docket Number: No. 84-740,84-740
• Parties: 10 Fla. L. Weekly 423 Kenneth W. MAYER, Appellant, v. Dominic CIANCIOLO, as Personal Representative of the Estate of Anita Ann Mayer Reeves, Appellee.
• Court: Court of Appeal of Florida (US)

Page 1219

463 So.2d 1219

10 Fla. L. Weekly 423

Kenneth W. MAYER, Appellant, v. Dominic CIANCIOLO, as Personal Representative of the Estate of Anita Ann Mayer Reeves, Appellee.

No. 84-740.

District Court of Appeal of Florida,

Third District.

Feb. 12, 1985.

Rehearing Denied March 19, 1985.

Ronald L. Buschbom, Miami, for appellant.

Burt E. Redlus, Miami, for appellee.

Before SCHWARTZ, C.J., and HUBBART and FERGUSON, JJ.

FERGUSON, Judge.

By this appeal, plaintiff challenges an amended final judgment which denied a constructive trust on certain real property owned by the decedent, plaintiff's mother.

The salient facts of the case are well-stated in the trial court's order. From veteran's benefits and the proceeds from the sale of another home, plaintiff, in late 1947 or early 1948, completed construction of a home for himself and his mother, Anita Mayer.

Mrs. Mayer sold the home in 1970, and with the sale proceeds made a downpayment on a home in Key Largo which was titled to herself and a second husband as tenants by the entirety. The two obtained a mortgage which secured the purchase price balance. Mrs. Mayer gained sole title when the marriage was dissolved in 1979. Soon thereafter she conveyed the property by quitclaim deed to herself and plaintiff-son as joint tenants with right of survivorship.

In 1981, Mrs. Mayer, suffering from an illness, made plans to sell the Key Largo home so as to buy another place near her son in Fort Lauderdale. To facilitate the sale in Monroe County, plaintiff-son quitclaimed his interest to his mother, Mrs. Mayer. She died in 1982 before the home could be sold. After the property had been conveyed to her for the purpose of effecting a sale, and unknown to plaintiff, Mrs. Mayer executed a will giving one-half of the property to the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society.

Plaintiff sued the personal representative of his mother's estate contending that the last quitclaim deed which transferred the jointly owned property to his mother as sole owner should be set aside. He asked for either a constructive or resulting trust. The trial court first imposed a constructive trust but on rehearing amended the final judgment to vacate the finding that plaintiff had established entitlement to a constructive trust. Plaintiff appeals the amended judgment.

The trial court made a factual finding, which is not challenged here, that the final quitclaim deed was not intended to vest all of the plaintiff's beneficial interest in his mother as sole owner, but was rather done as a matter of convenience to facilitate the sale of the home by his mother. The court held, however, that on those facts a constructive trust could not be imposed because plaintiff failed in his burden to prove by clear, strong, and unequivocal evidence that Mrs. Mayer, through fraud, abuse of confidence, or other questionable means had deprived him of something which in equity or good conscience he should have, citing Barnett Bank of Tallahassee v. Applegate, 379 So.2d 1284 (Fla. 1st DCA 1978). We think the court was correct in its original judgment. The instant case presents a situation in which relief in the form of a constructive trust is entirely appropriate.

The controlling principle was explained in Craft v. Craft, 74 Fla. 262, 76 So. 772 (1917). There the Florida Supreme Court held that where one conveys real property to another, without consideration, in order to promptly consummate a sale of such property by the grantee and where it is expressly agreed that upon making the sale the grantee will remit the purchase money received therefor to the grantor, a trust in the property is created, and the grantee holds only the bare legal title while the grantor retains the beneficial interest in the property.

Craft was cited with approval in Johnson v. Johnson, 349 So.2d 698 (Fla. 4th DCA 1977). In Johnson, a husband and wife owned certain real property as tenants by the entirety. The parties wished to sell the property, a large residence which they called the The Harborage. Before Mrs. Johnson left for a vacation trip outside the country, she executed a quitclaim deed conveying her interest in the property to Mr. Johnson. The transfer was solely for the purpose of allowing the husband to sell the property while the wife was away. The property was never sold, and the title...