Oliver v. Oliver (In re Estate of Oliver)
| Decision Date | 16 April 2019 |
| Docket Number | NO. 2016-CP-01757-COA,NO. 2016-CP-01759-COA,2016-CP-01757-COA,2016-CP-01759-COA |
| Parties | IN THE MATTER OF THE ESTATE OF ZONA MAE OLIVER, DECEASED: SANDRA JEAN OLIVER AND JAMES HOWARD OLIVER APPELLANTS v. JAMES C. OLIVER JR., TERRY MICHAEL CARNEY JR., AND MELISSA M. CARNEY APPELLEES CONSOLIDATED WITH SANDRA JEAN OLIVER AND JAMES HOWARD OLIVER APPELLANTS v. TERRY MICHAEL CARNEY JR., MELISSA M. CARNEY, JANET CAROL MCLELLAND, AND JAMES DONALD OLIVER APPELLEES |
| Court | Mississippi Court of Appeals |
DATE OF JUDGMENT: 11/14/2016
TRIAL JUDGE: HON. VICKI B. DANIELS
COURT FROM WHICH APPEALED: MONTGOMERY COUNTY CHANCERY COURT
ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT: SANDRA JEAN OLIVER (PRO SE)
ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEES: ROGER ADAM KIRK J. LANE GREENLEE
NATURE OF THE CASE: CIVIL - WILLS, TRUSTS, AND ESTATES
DISPOSITION: AFFIRMED - 04/16/2019
MOTION FOR REHEARING FILED:
MANDATE ISSUED:
DATE OF JUDGMENT: 09/30/2016
TRIAL JUDGE: HON. VICKI B. DANIELS
COURT FROM WHICH APPEALED: MONTGOMERY COUNTY CHANCERY COURT
ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT: SANDRA JEAN OLIVER (PRO SE)
ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEES: ROGER ADAM KIRK J. LANE GREENLEE
NATURE OF THE CASE: CIVIL - WILLS, TRUSTS, AND ESTATES
DISPOSITION: AFFIRMED IN PART, AND DISMISSED IN PART - 04/16/2019
MOTION FOR REHEARING FILED:
MANDATE ISSUED:
EN BANC.
CARLTON, J., FOR THE COURT:
¶1. This is a consolidated appeal concerning three cases originating in the Montgomery County Chancery Court, all of which involve the division of real and personal property belonging to Zona Mae Oliver, who died intestate on March 11, 2004. The three actions are a partition action and a fraud action (consolidated in the chancery court after entry of a final judgment in the partition action), and an estate action. The estate action was initiated when Sandra Oliver petitioned the chancery court to appoint her as the administratrix of the Zona Mae Oliver estate, to require an accounting of all real and personal property in that estate, and for other relief. For the reasons detailed below, we affirm the chancery court's final judgment of partition; we dismiss the fraud action appeal as premature because no final judgment has been entered in that action, without prejudice to Sandra Oliver's right to pursue further proceedings after entry of a final judgment in the fraud action; and we affirm the chancery court's dismissal of the estate action on res judicata grounds.
STATEMENT OF RELEVANT FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY1
¶2. As mentioned above, Zona Mae Oliver died intestate on March 11, 2004. Her two sons, James Howard Oliver (Howard) and James Calvin Oliver (J.C.) jointly requested an attorney to file a determination-of-heirship petition. In a judgment entered May 24, 2004, Howard and J.C. were determined to be Zona Mae's only living heirs. The assets remaining in the estate were her residence and the surrounding 365 acres of land located in Montgomery County, plus personal property inside the home that was valued at approximately $70,000.
¶3. On June 20, 2007, J.C. filed a petition for Chapter 13 bankruptcy in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, Case No. 07-50836. On June 11, 2012, J.C. received a discharge after completion of his Chapter 13 plan, and the case was closed on December 11, 2012.
¶4. In the meantime, by quitclaim deed dated May 11, 2009, Howard conveyed his interest in the Zona Mae Oliver property to his daughter and the appellant, Sandra Oliver. After J.C. received his discharge in bankruptcy, by warranty deed dated October 11, 2012, J.C.'s daughter and his attorney-in-fact, Janet Carol McLelland, conveyed J.C.'s interest in the property to the appellees, J.C.'s granddaughter (and Janet's daughter), Melissa McLelland Carney, and her husband, Terry Michael Carney, Jr. (the Carneys). The three separate cases that make up this appeal were subsequently filed in Montgomery County Chancery Court. We begin by briefly summarizing each case.
¶5. The Carneys filed a complaint for partition on May 10, 2013, against Sandra Oliver(the partition action).2 The Carneys requested that the property in the Zona Mae Oliver estate be partitioned into two equal shares, with each party to pay their share of court costs, ad valorem taxes for 2013, and all other fees and costs incurred to complete the action. This case was assigned to Chancellor Mitchell M. Lundy Jr., who recused himself on August 4, 2014. The partition case was then re-assigned to Chancellor Vicki B. Cobb n/k/a Chancellor Daniels.
¶6. On July 16, 2013, at the same time Sandra filed a response in the partition action, Sandra and her father, Howard, initiated a separate proceeding by filing their Petition to Appoint Administratrix, Account for Lost Property, to Account for Misappropriation of Estate Assets with Power-of-Attorney and for Issuance of Letters of Administration (the estate action). Sandra and Howard named J.C. and the Carneys as defendants in this proceeding. This case was assigned to Chancellor Daniels.
¶7. Approximately two years later, on June 10, 2015, Sandra and Howard sued the Carneys, J.C., Janet, and Donald Oliver for fraud (the fraud action).3 This case was assigned to Chancellor Percy Lynchard Jr. In her fraud lawsuit, Sandra alleged that J.C., beginningin 1997, converted funds and property belonging to Zona Mae Oliver to his personal use during her life and after her death, up until J.C., by and through Janet as his attorney-in-fact, filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy in June 2007. According to Sandra's complaint, J.C. obtained personal loans secured by 120 acres belonging to Zona Mae Oliver which was subsequently lost in a foreclosure sale. Further, Sandra alleged that J.C. received his final discharge from the bankruptcy court on June 11, 2012, and that she and her father "were barred from initiating any proceedings against [J.C.] because of the stay which was in effect in the bankruptcy action." After a final judgment of partition was entered in the partition action, the partition and fraud cases were consolidated before Chancellor Daniels on November 23, 2016, as detailed below.
¶8. In response to the Carneys' partition complaint, Sandra moved to stay the partition action pending the outcome of the equitable issues raised in her petition to open the Zona Mae Oliver estate filed on July 16, 2013. In her motion, Sandra repeated the same allegations she made in her estate petition regarding J.C.'s alleged waste and depletion of the estate. Her motion also included a claim that she had a right to an equitable offset in the property interest that J.C. deeded to the Carneys. The Carneys contested Sandra's motion. During an October 22, 2013 hearing, Sandra testified at length regarding J.C.'s alleged depletion of the estate, including the 120 acres belonging to the estate that J.C. allegedly lost in foreclosure, and the money that J.C. allegedly wrongly appropriated for the sale of timber, cattle, and other personal property belonging to the Zona Mae Oliver estate. The chancerycourt denied Sandra's motion to stay the partition action in an order dated November 18, 2013.
¶9. An agreed order allowing Sandra's original counsel's request to withdraw was entered on December 3, 2013. Sandra employed new counsel. An order releasing Sandra's second lawyer from representing her was entered approximately five months later.
¶10. Sandra's third lawyer filed an entry of appearance on July 22, 2014, and on July 25 Sandra's counsel filed on her behalf a motion controverting the partition action, and seeking an apportionment relating to prior encumbrances and for an adjustment of the equities between the parties (the motion to controvert). This motion again detailed Sandra's allegations of J.C.'s alleged wrongful sale of timber, cattle, and other personal property belonging to the estate of Zona Mae Oliver, and J.C.'s alleged wrongful pledging of 120 acres of real property belonging to Zona Mae to secure loans. Sandra, in this motion, requested that the court enter an order granting her "one half of the property sought to be partitioned plus such additional portions of the property to which she is entitled to receive in equity to prohibit an unjust enrichment of the plaintiffs [the Carneys] and provide for just compensation to the defendant because of the damages suffered by defendant for the fraudulent and wrongful actions of James C. Oliver, Jr."4
¶11. In September 2014, the Carneys moved, in limine, for an order preventing Sandra from offering any testimony or evidence relating to any claim that she may have due to the actions of James C. Oliver, Jr., as set forth in her motion to controvert. On December 12, 2014, the Carneys filed the affidavit of Tarik O. Johnson, a bankruptcy attorney who, according to his affidavit, was retained by the Carneys to render his professional opinion on the issue of whether Sandra's claim against J.C. and his successors-in-title, the Carneys, was barred by the discharge in bankruptcy granted to J.C. by the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Mississippi in Case No. 07-50836 on June 11, 2012. Johnson opined that Sandra's claims were barred by J.C.'s June 11, 2012 discharge in bankruptcy.
¶12. Sandra's motion to controvert, the Carneys' motion in limine, and all issues relevant to issues raised in the Carneys' motion in limine that were addressed in Sandra's pro se motion to correct facts and for equitable partition served May 21, 2014, were noticed for hearing. At the February 2, 2015 hearing, counsel for Sandra clarified that both Sandra's motion to controvert, and her pro se motion to correct facts and for equitable partition, to the extent it related to the issues in the Carneys' motion in limine, were before the court. The chancellor stated on the record that she had "read the entire [court] file and not just the motions that are noticed for...
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