Wilkerson v. Aven

• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Idaho
• Writing for the Court: SULLIVAN, C. J.
• Citation: 144 P. 1105,26 Idaho 559
• Parties: W. R. WILKERSON, as Trustee in Bankruptcy, Respondent, v. MYRTLE F. AVEN, Appellant
• Decision Date: 03 December 1914

144 P. 1105

26 Idaho 559

W. R. WILKERSON, as Trustee in Bankruptcy, Respondent,
v.
MYRTLE F. AVEN, Appellant

Supreme Court of Idaho

December 3, 1914

COMMUNITY PROPERTY-TRUSTEE IN BANKRUPTCY-ACTION TO QUIET TITLE-STATUTORY CONSTRUCTION.

1. Held, under the facts of this case that the land involved is the separate property of the wife and not subject to the payment of the husband's indebtedness.

APPEAL from the District Court of the Seventh Judicial District for Canyon County. Hon. J. M. Stevens, Presiding Judge.

Action to quiet title in a trustee in bankruptcy to real estate standing in the wife's name. Judgment for trustee. Reversed.

Judgment reversed, with directions. Costs awarded in favor of appellant.

Griffiths & Griffiths and Thomas D. Griffin, for Appellant.

The fact that the husband managed the investment for appellant does not constitute a presumption of community property. The husband could only hold this property in trust for his wife. (Title Ins. & Trust Co. v. Ingersoll, 153 Cal. 1, 94 P. 94; Stickney v. Stickney, 131 U.S. 227; 9 S.Ct. 677, 33 L.Ed. 136; Denny v. Denny, 123 Ind. 240, 23 N.E. 519; Chadbourn v. Williams, 45 Minn. 294, 47 N.W. 812; Carter v. Becker, 69 Kan. 524, 77 P. 264; Jones v. Davenport, 44 N.J. Eq. 33, 13 A. 652.)

Upon the question of a wife's earnings constituting a part of her separate estate under an agreement with her husband, see Dobbins v. Dexter Horton & Co., 62 Wash. 423, 113 P. 1088; Wren v. Wren, 100 Cal. 276, 38 Am. St. 287, 34 P. 775; Gage v. Gage, 78 Wash. 262, 138 P. 886.

The presumption that property acquired during marriage is community property may be rebutted. (Stewart v. Weiser Lumber Co., 21 Idaho 340, 121 P. 775; Heney v. Pesoli, 109 Cal. 53, 41 P. 819.)

It is only by giving effect to sec. 2677, Rev. Codes, that sec. 2680, which defines community property, and sec. 4479, which exempts the rents, issues and profits of the wife's separate property and her personal earnings from execution against her husband, can be reconciled. (Thorn v. Anderson, 7 Idaho 421, 63 P. 592; Humbird Lumber Co. v. Doran, 24 Idaho 507, 135 P. 66.)

Jackson & Walters, for Respondent Wilkerson.

Where separate property has by investment or otherwise, undergone changes or mutations, as in the case at bar, it is indispensable in order to maintain its separate character that the wife shall trace and identify it, and rebut the presumption that the property acquired during marriage belongs to the community. (Hamilton Brown Shoe Co. v. Lastinger (Tex. Civ. App.), 26 S.W. 924; Morris v. Hastings, 70 Tex. 26, 8 Am. St. 570, 7 S.W. 649; Brown v. Lockhart, 12 N. M. 10, 71 P. 1086; Yesler v. Hochstettler, 4 Wash. 349, 30 P. 398, and cases cited.)

At the time of the purchase of the property involved in this action appellant was a married woman living with her husband, thus raising the presumption that the property so acquired was community property, and placing the burden on the appellant to establish the contrary. (Humbird Lumber Co. v. Doran, 24 Idaho 507, 135 P. 66; In re Niccolls Estate, 164 Cal. 368, 129 P. 278.)

SULLIVAN, C. J. Truitt, J., concurs.

OPINION [144 P. 1106]

[26 Idaho 560] SULLIVAN, C. J.

This action was brought by the plaintiff as trustee of the estate of H. B. Aven, a bankrupt, to quiet title to a tract of land consisting of about eleven acres in Orchard Heights Addition to the town of Caldwell, Canyon county. The cause was tried by the court without a jury and findings of fact, conclusions of law and judgment entered in favor of the plaintiff, quieting the title in him as trustee. The appeal is from the judgment.

[26 Idaho 561] The principal assignment of error is that the evidence is not sufficient to support findings Nos. 3, 5, 6 and 7.

The evidence shows that the appellant, Myrtle F. Aven, was the wife of the bankrupt H. B. Aven; that they were married in the year 1893; that they lived on a homestead in Deer Flat not far from the town of Caldwell for a period of about nine years, beginning in 1894; that shortly after their marriage the appellant's father gave her $ 100 in cash which she invested in one cow with a suckling calf, a heifer, three brood sows and a dozen chickens, which were taken to and kept on said homestead; that during that time the husband managed, controlled and cared for said livestock and its increase, selling a part of it at times and accounting to the appellant; that the husband retained the money from the sale of the stock so sold and used the same in the operation of said farm; that after leaving the ranch in about 1903, they took some of the stock with them to Caldwell and kept it there and finally sold the last of it in 1907, some three or four years after they had left the ranch;...