Tinney v. Tinney

• Decision Date: 27 April 2001
• Docket Number: No. 99-345-Appeal.,99-345-Appeal.
• Citation: 770 A.2d 420
• Parties: Kevin TINNEY v. Harle TINNEY et al.
• Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court

770 A.2d 420

Kevin TINNEY v. Harle TINNEY et al.

No. 99-345-Appeal.

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

April 27, 2001.

Present WEISBERGER, C.J., LEDERBERG, BOURCIER, FLANDERS, and GOLDBERG, JJ.

David N. Cicilline, Bristol, for Plaintiff.

Keith B. Kyle, Providence, for Defendant.

OPINION

BOURCIER, Justice.

In this civil action, Kevin Tinney, a.k.a. Kevin Koellisch (Kevin or plaintiff),¹ appeals from a Superior Court judgment entered after a nonjury trial on his complaint seeking partition of two adjacent parcels of land (collectively Belcourt), including one large lot (parcel 1) upon which the mansion Belcourt Castle rests and one smaller unimproved lot (parcel 2). The trial justice denied the plaintiff's claim to partition parcel 1, and voided his proprietary interest in that parcel. As to parcel 2, the trial justice upheld the plaintiff's possessory interest in it but ordered him to sell this interest to Donald and Harle Tinney (Tinneys or defendants) for $65,011. The trial justice also ordered the plaintiff to vacate Belcourt. For the reasons hereinafter set out, we affirm the judgment of the Superior Court and deny the plaintiff's appeal.

I Facts and Case Travel

In 1956, Harold and Ruth Tinney purchased Belcourt Castle, a sixty-room Louis XIII summer cottage with the majestic trappings of a European palace, on Bellevue Avenue in Newport. When they purchased Belcourt Castle, it was no longer the posh Newport showplace that its designer and architect, the famed Richard Morris, had intended for its original owner, Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont, in the late 1890's, and neither the years since, nor its varied owners, had been kind to Belcourt Castle.² Harold and Ruth, however, were able to visualize more in Belcourt Castle than their Newport neighbors, and they persevered in their dream of restoring Belcourt Castle to its former regal splendor and opening it to the public as a museum. In 1957, Harold, Ruth and their son, Donald, were able to open Belcourt Castle to the public. By 1960, they were beginning to realize public acceptance of their venture, and in the summer of 1960, they hired a tour guide, Harle, a young Newport girl, to assist them. In December of that year, Donald and Harle married, and Harle moved into Belcourt Castle with Donald and Ruth, who were then all living in the one habitable apartment in Belcourt Castle. All went well with the four Tinneys and Belcourt Castle primarily because of the long hours they spent operating a stained-glass window business on the premises. They used the earnings from that business to keep Belcourt Castle open to the public.

In 1974, plumbing problems surfaced at Belcourt Castle. Repair costs were estimated to be about $10,000, which was beyond the ability of Belcourt Castle to meet. Kevin Koellisch (Kevin), a local itinerant handyman, plumber of sorts, and jack of all trades, was recommended to Harold.³ Despite Harold's "not lik[ing] Kevin from day one," Harold hired Kevin to do the plumbing work for $600. Shortly thereafter, Kevin was hired to do other work on the Belcourt Castle heating system, and the Tinneys, in appreciation for Kevin's work and low prices, began inviting Kevin to have dinner with them at Belcourt Castle as a sign of their appreciation. Within six months, however, Kevin had talked the Tinneys into letting him clean up, renovate, and move into an apartment in the south wing of Belcourt Castle. In 1975, Kevin lived in one room in the apartment and rented out the apartment's other rooms to a "bunch of roommates" to help pay the rent due to the Tinneys. Kevin was soon considered to be the general-maintenance manager for the building and grounds, and was invited to have his meals with the Tinneys in Belcourt Castle's main dining room.

From 1975 to 1989, Kevin was in and out of Belcourt Castle, being self employed at different jobs in Massachusetts and other states. On those frequent occasions when Kevin was away from Belcourt Castle, sometimes for months at a time, the Tinneys occasionally would rent out his south wing apartment. If, when Kevin returned, his apartment happened to be rented out, he would then stay in the "Cream Room" at Belcourt Castle or with Donald and Harle in their apartment.

Kevin's excursions away from Belcourt Castle were not, however, always for purposes of perfecting his capabilities as a handyman. A libertine and a bounder of sorts, he apparently was attracted to elderly ladies, and became quite successful in cleverly relieving them of their worldly goods. For example, in 1982, when Kevin was just thirty-one, he was able to relieve the elderly lady who owned the Fife & Drum Bar in Providence of her stock ownership in that business by means of a promissory note that he never honored. He later acquired an apartment building in Massachusetts from another elderly lady by means of a purchase money mortgage that never was repaid.⁴

Having thus sharpened his ancillary skills, Kevin by 1984, was living in his south wing apartment in Belcourt Castle and working with the Tinneys. He was soon given the position of general manager of Belcourt Castle and was permitted to hire employees, handle financial matters and do general-maintenance work.

Harold, the patriarch of the Tinney family, died in 1989. At the time of his death, he had been married to Ruth for some sixty years. Ruth was "devastated" by the loss of her husband. Her son, Donald, at this time was also suffering from depression, anemia, and alcoholism, all of which did little to help console Ruth. In those unfortunate circumstances, Kevin's relationship with his employer, Ruth, underwent a rapid and unseemly fulgent metamorphosis, which would later create significant ramifications for the ownership of Belcourt.⁵ By most accounts of the trial witnesses, Kevin, in the wake of Harold's death, began to ingratiate himself with Ruth, who was some forty-five years older than Kevin. He took her dancing, took her horseback riding, took her on overnight trips, was seen "rubbing" her and kissing her in public and otherwise he was acting overly solicitous toward her, even though Kevin, at that time, still had a male domestic partner living with him in his south wing apartment. Within a year or so after Harold's death, and while Ruth was still seriously depressed over his death, and the near fatal illness of her son, Donald, Kevin indicated that he wanted to be adopted by Ruth and become part of the Tinney family. He told the then vulnerable Donald that unless he was adopted, he was going to leave Belcourt within a year. He also told friends that he always considered himself to have been a member of the Tinney family as far back as the "70's." On October 11, 1990, Ruth who was then eighty-four years of age, apparently succumbed to Kevin's oleaginous charm and adopted Kevin, who was then thirty-seven. Kevin immediately assumed the surname "Tinney" much to the dismay of his natural mother, who was still living and who admonished him that people would regard him as having "sold his name for a buck." On April 18, 1991, some six months after the adoption proceeding, Ruth, Donald, and Harle executed a deed conveying to Kevin a one-fourth joint interest in parcel 1 of Belcourt. That acquisition by Kevin of his one-fourth joint interest served to spawn the onset of the Belcourt Castle intrigue and wrangling over its ownership and generated the litigation that brings this appeal to this Court.

In 1993, Ruth, who was then eighty-six years of age, suffered a stroke, and because of her age, became debilitated. On September 10, 1995, Kevin and the Tinney family decided to dispose of Belcourt Castle, and entered into a one-year listing agreement with a local realtor, Private Properties, to sell it. However, there were no buyers. In December 1995, Ruth died. Title to Belcourt Castle now vested in Kevin, Harle and Donald as joint tenants, each owning a one-third joint title interest.

By March 1997, the long-strained relationship between Kevin and the Tinneys had deteriorated to such an extent that Harle and Donald, to prevent Kevin from acquiring any of their interest in Belcourt Castle, severed their joint tenancy with Kevin by quitclaiming their interest in parcel 1 — containing the mansion — to Amy Manning (Amy), who then quitclaimed her interest in parcel 1 back to Harle and Donald, who took their title interest as tenants by the entirety. Amy is the daughter of the Tinneys' longtime family attorney Edward Manning, who had arranged for and prepared the conveyance documents. As a result of these conveyances, Donald and Harle now owned a two-thirds interest in parcel 1 as tenants by the entirety, and Kevin retained his one-third title interest with little chance, if any, except by conveyance, of ever acquiring Donald or Harle's interest in Belcourt Castle.

Kevin, who also held a real estate broker's license and who obviously was aware of the title consequences resulting from Donald and Harle's taking title as tenants by the entirety to their two-third's interest in Belcourt Castle, was not content with being left his mere one-third interest in Belcourt Castle. He began to threaten both Harle and Donald with accusations and court actions concerning their handling of Belcourt matters. As a result of these threats, Donald's health once again began to deteriorate, and after succumbing to Kevin's threats and accusations, Donald and Harle capitulated, and executed a quitclaim deed whereby they agreed to re-convey parcel 1 to themselves and Kevin as joint tenants. They did so in April 1997. Kevin and the Tinneys, who were then able to obtain mortgage financing on Belcourt Castle about five months later, on September 5, 1997, also decided to purchase as joint tenants what is now known as parcel 2 of Belcourt, an unimproved lot abutting Belcourt Castle to the south. Donald and Harle, however, continued to be suspicious of Kevin's intentions with regard to Belcourt and were uneasy in their...