Olson v. Bosanac

• Decision Date: 20 December 2018
• Docket Number: No. 341478,341478
• Parties: NATALIE OLSON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CECELIA BOSANAC, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: Court of Appeal of Michigan — District of US

NATALIE OLSON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CECELIA BOSANAC, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 341478

STATE OF MICHIGAN COURT OF APPEALS

December 20, 2018

UNPUBLISHED

Monroe Circuit Court

LC No. 16-138967-CZ

Before: GLEICHER, P.J., and BORRELLO and BECKERING, JJ.

PER CURIAM.

In this action primarily involving a dispute over real property, plaintiff appeals as of right the trial court's November 21, 2017 order of dismissal.¹ For the reasons set forth in this opinion, we affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

I. BACKGROUND

Defendant is plaintiff's mother. This case arises out of their dispute involving a parcel of real property located in Monroe, Michigan that contains a single-family house (the Property). On October 25, 2012, defendant conveyed by quit claim deed the Property to herself and plaintiff "as Joint Tenants with Full Rights of Survivorship and not as Tenants in Common." Defendant apparently took this action for purposes of estate planning. Defendant testified during her deposition that she "added [plaintiff's] name" to the house "because a doctor told me I was going to die soon."

In October 2014, plaintiff moved to the Property to live in the home, and she continued to live there for approximately one year. Plaintiff averred that at some point "in or around the summer of 2015," defendant "demanded" that plaintiff give up her interest in the Property byremoving her name from the deed. Plaintiff refused and, according to plaintiff, defendant "retaliated." Finally, on November 29, 2015, the police responded to the Property after receiving a 911 call reporting that defendant claimed to have been assaulted by plaintiff. The responding officers interviewed both plaintiff and defendant. Plaintiff indicated that she was physically attacked by defendant, while defendant maintained that she was physically attacked by plaintiff. Although both plaintiff and defendant sustained minor abrasions, neither required medical attention. Neither party was arrested since the officers concluded that there was not enough evidence to determine which party was the initial aggressor. According to plaintiff's affidavit, the police asked plaintiff to leave the Property and stay with her father in Toledo, Ohio. Plaintiff averred that her decision to leave the Property "was based on the request of the police, but was not voluntary."

On November 30, 2015, defendant filed a petition seeking an ex parte order for a personal protection order (PPO) against plaintiff. On the same day, an ex parte order was entered granting the PPO and prohibiting plaintiff from entering the Property until at least November 30, 2016. According to plaintiff, she did not find out about the PPO "until several months later." She testified that she returned to the Property on two occasions during the week following the November 29, 2015 incident and retrieved personal belongings, including clothing, however she was not able to collect all of her belongings at that time. After plaintiff filed a motion to terminate the PPO in April 2016, defendant apparently agreed to voluntarily terminate the PPO.

However, plaintiff averred that defendant continuously refused to allow her to return to the Property even after the PPO was terminated and that defendant would not allow her to pick up her personal belongings. At some point, defendant changed the locks to the Property and did not give plaintiff a key. Plaintiff testified during her deposition, however, that she never asked defendant to allow her to return to the Property to live there after the November 29, 2015 incident. Plaintiff also testified that she did not contribute any money for improvements to house after her name was added to title.

On June 20, 2016, plaintiff filed a complaint alleging that she had been prohibited from using the Property or entering the Property to remove her belongings since November 29, 2015. As relevant to the issues now raised on appeal, plaintiff's complaint alleged causes of action for quantum meruit, unjust enrichment, and partition. In her quantum meruit and unjust enrichment claims, plaintiff sought compensation for half the fair rental value of the Property since November 29, 2015, based on the allegation that defendant had full possession of the Property since that time. In her claim for partition, plaintiff alleged that she and defendant were co-owners of the Property as joint tenants with rights of survivorship and that it had become impossible for them to jointly possess and enjoy the whole of the Property. Plaintiff's complaint requested the following relief with respect to partition:

86. Because the subject property is a single building, partition in-kind is impractical, if not impossible. Accordingly, the subject property should be sold, and the proceeds divided between [plaintiff] and [defendant].

WHEREFORE, Plaintiff requests this Court enter the following relief:

a. That a just and equitable division and partition of the subject property be made between Plaintiff and Defendant, according to their respective rights and interests, according to the course of practice in this court, and to the applicable statute;

b. That if it appears that a partition cannot be made without manifest injury to the rights of the parties then the subject property should be sold under the judgment and by the direction of this court, and that the proceeds of that sale, after payment of the expenses and the costs of this action, be divided between the parties according to their respective rights and interests in the subject property;

c. That the rights and interests of the parties in and to the land and premises and in the proceeds if the land is sold be ascertained and declared by the judgment of this court;

d. That a receiver be appointed to lease and manage the subject property and to protect the subject property from waste, trespass, and damage to the property;

e. That the Plaintiff recover her costs, including attorney fees, incurred in obtaining a partition; and

f. That the Plaintiff may have any other relief warranted by equity and good conscience.

The parties each subsequently moved for summary disposition: defendant moved under MCR 2.116(C)(8) and (10), and plaintiff moved under MCR 2.116(C)(10) only. As relevant to the issues raised on appeal, defendant first argued that because the parties held the Property as joint tenants with rights of survivorship and a right of survivorship cannot be severed by a joint tenant without the consent of all joint tenants holding a right of survivorship, the court could not order the Property to be partitioned or sold based solely on plaintiff's request for such an order. In other words, argued defendant, the court was required to deny plaintiff's attempt to force a sale of the Property. Next, defendant argued similarly that although it was possible for a cotenant in a joint tenancy with rights of survivorship to convey his or her interest in her own possessory life estate, the cotenants' dual contingent remainders could not be destroyed by a cotenant's unilateral action and the court in this case therefore could not destroy the contingent remainder interests of the parties by ordering the Property to be partitioned or sold. Defendant maintained that plaintiff had not requested partition or sale of only the life estate interest and that even if she had, such an interest was essentially unmarketable. With respect to the quantum meruit and unjust enrichment claims, defendant argued in her response to plaintiff's summary disposition motions that these were contract theories that were inapplicable to the instant property matter and that the law would not apply a contract in this situation where the parties' respective rights were defined in the deed.

Plaintiff first argued in her summary disposition motion, as relevant to her appellate issues, that she was entitled to summary disposition on her unjust enrichment and quantum meruit claims for half the fair rental value of the Property because defendant had excludedplaintiff from the Property despite plaintiff's equal right to possession of the Property. Additionally, plaintiff argued that the trial court had the legal authority to order defendant to pay plaintiff half the fair rental value of the Property by ordering the parties' life estates to be partitioned. Plaintiff maintained that the court had the power in equity to order the joint tenant in exclusive possession to account to the other joint tenant by either ordering defendant to pay half the fair rental value of the Property to plaintiff or ordering the Property to be leased during the parties' lives with the proceeds to be split between them and fee title to revert to the survivor once one of the parties died.

After hearing oral argument at the hearing on the competing summary disposition motions, the trial court announced its ruling from the bench. The trial court first denied both parties' motions for summary disposition with respect to certain claims raised in plaintiff's complaint that are not at issue on appeal, concluding that genuine issues of material fact existed for these claims.

Next, with respect to the quantum meruit and unjust enrichment claims, the trial court concluded that neither theory was applicable to this case. The trial court reasoned that these theories are "designed to imply contractual rights where there's no existing express contract" and that the parties' rights and obligations in the instant case were "set forth pursuant to the terms of the deed." The trial court further noted (1) that there was no allegation that plaintiff invested any money into the Property; (2) that defendant lived in the house for many years before adding plaintiff's name to the title for the Property through a deed, which conveys an interest in property; and (3) that defendant did not receive anything from plaintiff beyond what defendant already had. The trial court thus denied plaintiff's motion for summary...