ESTATE of BILLIE W. COLLINS, ) by and through its personal representative ) SHANNON COLLINS, ) ) Appellant, ) ) Nos. SD37185 & SD37286 vs. ) Consolidated ) FRANCES L. COLLINS, ) Filed: June 14, 2022 ) Respondent. )

APPEAL FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF HOWELL COUNTY Honorable Judge Donna K. Anthony AFFIRMED Shannon Collins ("Daughter"), as personal representative of the estate of her father, Billie Collins ("the Estate"), appeals the trial court's judgment determining that her father ("Billie") and his former wife, Frances Collins ("Frances") had a partnership from 2013 until Billie's death in 2016 for the operation of a cattle farm.1 In a single point, the Estate argues the trial court misapplied the law in determining there was a partnership between Billie and Frances because there was no specific and definite agreement between them to share profits and losses of the cattle farm. Finding no merit in the Estate's point, we affirm the trial court's judgment.

Facts and Background The sole issue in this case is whether the trial court misapplied the law in determining that Billie and Frances had a partnership to operate a cattle farm beginning in 2013. There is no dispute that Billie and Frances were not partners before 2013. Nevertheless, an understanding of the relationship between Billie and Frances before 2013 is necessary for context. The evidence, in the light most favorable to the judgment, is as follows.

Billie and Frances's Relationship Before 2013 and the Dairy Operation Billie and Frances married in 2005 and divorced in 2011. During their marriage, Frances and Billie ran a dairy farm in Pottersville. As part of the divorce settlement, Billie was awarded the Pottersville farm, certain equipment, cattle, and a bank account at Community First Bank ("Community"). After the divorce, Billie and Daughter formed Fresh Start Farms LLC ("the LLC") and were the only members of the LLC. Billie conveyed the Pottersville real estate to the LLC but did not convey the cattle and equipment.2 The LLC did not have a bank account, so Billie primarily used his bank account at Community to operate the farm.3 Despite being divorced, Billie and Frances maintained a relationship. According to Frances, Billie was the "love of [her] life [.]" Sometime in late 2012 or early 2013, Frances moved back in with Billie at the Pottersville residence and was working on the farm. Billie paid Frances for her work in 2012. For the 2012 tax year, Billie provided Frances with a tax form showing himself as Payor and Frances the recipient of nonemployee compensation of $15,256.

Billie treated Frances as an independent contractor performing work for the dairy farm.

At some point in 2012 or 2013, Billie decided "he always wanted a farm with crops . . . and beef cattle[,]" which he discussed with Frances. To make this transition from a dairy farm

to a beef cattle operation, Billie and Frances began buying black bulls and crossbreeding them with the Holsteins that were part of the dairy herd. Some of the heifers that were part of the dairy herd were being retained while others were being sold off during the transition period.

Transition to the Beef Cattle Business (2013-2016) (1) Participation in the Management/Business Decisions By 2013, Frances was actively participating in the transition from dairy to beef and Billie stopped paying her for her work. Billie had health issues, so Frances performed much of the demanding physical labor and had knowledge of the working operations of the dairy farm. The farm also "had other people hired" to help out. Frances "had management authority with regard to purchases and employees." (2) Jointly Held Accounts, Property and Debts As previously noted, Frances's name was kept on the Community account even though Billie had been awarded the account in the divorce. Both Billie and Frances wrote checks for bulls from this account. All the expenses related to the farm as well as household expenses shared by Billie and Frances were withdrawn from this account. Frances testified that in 2013, the revenue from the dairy operation was directly deposited into the Community account.

Frances was not required to ask Billie for permission to write checks from the Community account.

In September 2014, Billie and Francis jointly borrowed $20,278.21 from Community to purchase farm equipment. In March 2015, they bought a farm with a residence in Vernon County for the transition from dairy to beef cattle. Both Billie and Frances were listed as owners on the deed for the Vernon County property. Frances contributed approximately $87,000 toward the purchase of the Vernon County property, which had a total purchase price of around $700,000.4

In 2016, the last of the dairy herd from the Pottersville farm was sold, and all the remaining cattle were beef cattle bought or bred after 2013. That June, Billie and Frances borrowed $25,034 to purchase a Caterpillar D6M dozer.

(3) Tax Filings For each year between 2012 and 2015, Billie filed a Schedule F tax return as an individual. In 2013, Billie's tax return claimed farm income of $145,000. Frances testified she helped Billie file his tax returns from 2013 until his death in 2016. During this time, Frances did not claim any farm income on her own tax returns. In 2013, Frances reported $6,200 earned from working for temp agencies. In 2014 and 2015, the only personal property Frances claimed on her taxes was one personal vehicle. During this same period, Billie claimed all the profits and losses from the farm on his taxes.

In 2016, after Billie died, Frances filed a Schedule F tax return, claiming the farm income. Her tax return showed income of $287,465, but Frances did not know where all the income came from and could only say she claimed income earned from the sale of cattle, corn, and half the milk sales. According to Frances, there were more milk sales from the farm during 2016, but she only claimed half of them because the other half was Billie's. That year, Frances again only claimed one vehicle as her sole personal property.

property. Billie and Frances went "back and forth" between the Pottersville farm and the Vernon County farm.

(4) Revenue from Farm, Profit Sharing, Loss Sharing In 2014, Daughter and Billie sold $544,000 worth of cattle. In 2015, Billie sold $504,000 worth of cattle. When asked about the proceeds of a cattle sale before Billie's death in 2016, Frances testified that the proceeds from that sale "probably went in our checking account." Frances testified that while her tax return showed no income from the farm, she was sharing in the "revenue" that was coming into the Community account. She testified she "was living on what [they] were accumulating in [their] checking account from milking the cows and from sales of cows." According to Frances, it did not matter that Billie was claiming the equipment and livestock and depreciations on his taxes because "the money was going back into our account. When I got back with [Billie], we just resided like we were married and we just went on. He was claiming stuff; I didn't have to claim it." Billie's Death and End of the Beef Operation In August 2016, Billie's health deteriorated and Frances took him to the hospital where he was eventually placed on life support.5 Billie told both Daughter and Frances to sell the cattle if he died. In September 2016, Billie died. After Billie's death, Frances went to the Pottersville farm and removed personal property the Estate subsequently alleged belonged to Billie. The last night Frances stayed in the Pottersville home was the day before Billie died. After his death, Frances sold 258 of the cattle. She testified she put that money in CD's at Community. Frances also removed several pieces of farm equipment from the Pottersville property.

After Billie's death, Daughter had her attorney draft eviction notices on behalf of the Estate, which were then posted on the Pottersville residence. Daughter discovered much of the equipment and other property was gone, including some cash Billie kept there. Frances

The trial court held facts favoring a partnership included: • Frances contributed her labor and expertise during the transition to beef cattle; • Frances wrote large checks from the Community account beginning in 2013 and this was not oversight or something that required approval from Billie; • Frances made farm purchases and management decisions beginning in 2013; The Estate acknowledged that because the corn was on land jointly owned by Billie and Frances, the Estate only had a half-interest in the proceeds.

• Frances incurred risk for the enterprise by signing on loans; • Billie and Frances were both listed on titles for joint purchases beginning in 2013; • Daughter recognized a partnership and refused to join it because she did not want to be in a partnership with Frances, and • Frances contributed assets to the Community account "in the form of rents, money, [and] payment for additional land clearing[.]" These contributions were "far less than Billie's," though "because of his inability due to health concerns to manage the day-to-day physical work and management of a farm, the proportionate size of the monetary contributions is irrelevant." The trial court found a partnership had been proven "with respect to the farm purchases and assets acquired from 2013 going forward[,]" and ordered the sale and partition of these items and the profits from the sale divided equally between the parties.

The Estate timely filed a motion for a new trial, which was deemed denied.9 The Estate now appeals from that judgment.

Discussion In a single point, the Estate argues: The trial court erred in holding there was an "implied partnership" between Billie and Frances from 2013 until Billie's death in 2016 encompassing all property Billie's farming operation acquired during that time regardless of title because this misapplied the law of Missouri that under § 358.070, R.S.Mo., a partnership must involve not merely joint ownership of an enterprise including tenancy in common, but rather a definite and specific agreement to share net profits and losses between the partners in that viewing the evidence most favorably to the trial court's decision and taking as true the facts it found, there was no agreement

between Billie and Frances to share in the net profits and losses of the farming operation, Frances did not receive any share of the operation's profits or losses, the operation never filed a partnership tax return, only Billie reported any income or loss from the farming operation on his tax returns and Frances did not, and only Billie reported the personal property of the operation on his personal property tax assessments and Frances did not.

In a bench-tried case, the judgment will be affirmed "unless there is no substantial evidence to support it, unless it is against the weight of the evidence, unless it erroneously declares the law, or unless it erroneously applies the law." Murphy v. Carron, 536 S.W.2d 30, 32 (Mo. banc 1976). We view the evidence and the reasonable inferences drawn from the evidence in the light most favorable to the judgment, disregard all evidence and inferences contrary to the judgment, and defer to the trial court's superior position to make credibility determinations. Houston v. Crider, 317 S.W.3d 178, 186 (Mo. App. S.D. 2010). " [T]he trial court's judgment is presumed valid, and the burden is on the [Estate] to demonstrate its incorrectness." McElvain v. Stokes, 623 S.W.3d 769, 774 (Mo. App. W.D. 2021) (internal citation and quotation omitted).

The Estate contends the trial court "misapplied the law" by concluding Billie and Frances had a partnership for the operation of the farm because "there was no agreement between Billie and Frances to share in the net profits and losses of the farming operation[.]" This argument, however, is premised upon and constructed around factual inferences drawn by the Estate that Frances and Billie had no agreement to share in the profits and losses of the farming operation.10 Such inferences were implicitly rejected by the trial court, see Rule 73.01(c), and contrary to the trial court's judgment. Under our standard of review, we are required to disregard inferences contrary to the judgment and defer to the trial court's assessment of the

Because the Estate's point and argument claiming the trial court misapplied the law is premised upon and constructed around purported facts and inferences that we are required to disregard upon appellate review, it necessarily lacks any meritorious analytical foundation, support or persuasiveness for our determination that such a claimed legal error occurred. Id. at 748-49.

Moreover, by relying upon the purported facts and inferences contrary to the judgment in its argument, the Estate pivots from the misapplied-the-law challenge raised in its point to a not-supported-by-substantial-evidence challenge.11 See Missouri Ozarks Radio Ntwk. Inc. v. Baugh, 598 S.W.3d 154, 170 (Mo. App. S.D. 2020). To sustain such a challenge requires an appellant to follow certain analytical steps. Houston, 317 S.W.3d at 187. "[A]dherence to this analytical framework is mandatory . . . because it reflects the underlying criteria necessary for a successful challenge–the absence of any such criteria, even without a court-formulated sequence, dooms an appellant's challenge." Robinson v. Loxcreen Co., Inc., 571 S.W.3d 247, 251 (Mo. App. S.D. 2019) (quoting Nichols v. Belleview R-III School Dist., 528 S.W.3d 918, 928 (Mo. App. S.D. 2017)). It requires the party challenging the judgment to: (1) identify a challenged factual proposition, the existence of which is necessary to sustain the judgment; (2) identify all of the favorable evidence in the record supporting the existence of that proposition; and, (3) demonstrate why that favorable evidence, when considered along with the reasonable inferences drawn from that evidence, does not have probative force upon the proposition such that the trier of fact could not reasonably decide the existence of the

See Missouri Ozarks Radio Ntwk. Inc., 598 S.W.3d at 170. The Estate's point is denied.

Conclusion The trial court's judgment is affirmed.

MARY W. SHEFFIELD, P.J. – OPINION AUTHOR GARY W. LYNCH, C.J. – CONCURS DON E. BURRELL, J. – CONCURS