Strother v. Strother
| Decision Date | 05 August 1983 |
| Citation | 436 So.2d 847 |
| Parties | Minnie C. STROTHER, Claude C. Strother and John C. Strother, Jr. v. Louise Robin STROTHER, et al. 81-824. |
| Court | Alabama Supreme Court |
David L. Carroll of Rosen, Harwood, Cook & Sledge, Tuscaloosa, for appellants.
W. McLean Pitts of Pitts, Pitts & Thompson, Selma, for appellees.
This appeal concerns a suit to have a resulting trust declared in favor of Minnie C. Strother in certain lands deeded by various grantors to her three sons or to Strother Brothers, a partnership. The trial court held that under the facts and the applicable law Minnie Strother was not entitled to have a resulting trust in the lands declared in her favor.
John C. Strother, Sr., who died in 1935, was the husband of Minnie C. Strother and the father of James B. Strother, Claude C. Strother, and John C. Strother, Jr. The Strothers acquired the lands which are the subject of this suit during the time between the death of John C. Strother, Sr. and the death of his son, James B. Strother, on or about August 19, 1966. Some thirty real estate transactions were involved, wherein title to these lands was taken in one of the following four ways:
(a) James B. Strother, John C. Strother, Jr., and Claude C. Strother; or
(b) James B. Strother, John C. Strother, Jr., and Claude C. Strother, Partners doing business as Strother Brothers; or
(c) Strother Brothers, a Partnership; or
(d) J.C. Strother, C.C. Strother, and J.B. Strother, Partners doing business as Strother Brothers.
None of the deeds named Minnie C. Strother as grantee.
Some ten years after the death of James B. Strother, Minnie, Claude, and John Strother brought two suits, one for partition and the other for sale for division of various parcels of the property, seeking to have Minnie Strother declared the owner of a one-fourth interest in the lands. The suits were consolidated for trial and are here in one appeal.
The Strother Brothers partnership operated a cattle business, but the Strothers never executed a written partnership agreement. The issue at trial and before this Court is whether Minnie Strother was a partner with her sons and, if so, whether the lands were taken as partnership property of which Minnie Strother owned a one-fourth interest. Stated otherwise, the issue is whether she contributed part of the purchase price for the lands in question so as to be entitled to a resulting trust. If so, the heirs of James Strother take only a one-fourth interest in the lands, whereas if Minnie Strother 1 is not entitled to a one-fourth interest, as the trial court held, the heirs of James Strother take a one-third share.
In Goldthwaite v. Janney, 102 Ala. 431, 15 So. 560 (1894), this Court cited authorities for the proposition that real estate may be partnership property even though taken in individual partners' names if it is bought with partnership funds or credit for partnership purposes. The Court stated:
Id., 102 Ala. at 438, 15 So. 560. In Goldthwaite evidence was taken before a register showing that the property "was bought for the firm, paid for out of its funds and was taken and treated as its property, and not as the property of the member in whose name the title stood," id., except for the partners' residences and one other lot.
To like effect are Cooper v. Cooper, 289 Ala. 263, 266 So.2d 871 (1972); McGowin v. Robinson, 251 Ala. 690, 39 So.2d 237 (1949); and McKleroy v. Musgrove, 203 Ala. 603, 84 So. 280 (1919). In Cooper, a register similarly concluded that "the evidence was sufficient to overcome the presumption of individual ownership by the six respondents," 289 Ala. at 271, 266 So.2d 871, where two partners had conveyed their property to the individual partners. The register also found that when the two partners originally bought the property in their individual names, the property belonged to them individually and not to the partnership. The trial court and this Court sustained both findings.
In both Cooper and McGowin it was noted that the mere use by the partnership of property owned by one or more partners as individuals does not impress upon it the character of partnership property. In McGowin, supra, the Court held that the land was owned by the partners as tenants in common and not by the partnership, stating that "[i]t was only the business operated on the real estate that constituted the partnership between Robinson and McGowin." Id., 251 Ala. at 693, 39 So.2d 237.
In McKleroy v. Musgrove, supra, a register made findings based on detailed proof that certain stocks were not partnership property but belonged to the individual partners, citing the rules relied on in each of these cases that the condition of the land is prima facie that indicated by the muniment of title and that the equitable ownership is a question of fact as to the intent of the parties. Again, as in Cooper and Goldthwaite, supra, this Court affirmed the decision of the trial court, which was based on a register's finding.
In the case at bar no detailed factual presentation was made to support the contention that Minnie Strother was an equal partner with her sons and that the land was partnership property bought with partnership funds or on partnership credit. No written partnership agreement was ever executed. The evidence that Minnie was a partner consisted chiefly of testimony by the accountant for Strother Brothers that one-fourth of the partnership profits were paid to Minnie and Claude Strother's bare assertion that his mother's funds were...
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