In re the Estate of Taylor
In re the Estate of Taylor
Opinion of the Court
MEMORANDUM OPINION, ORDER AND JUDGMENT
This is, in essence, a probate matter which has blossomed into an action to quiet title. The decedent, Catherine Taylor (herein “Catherine”), left a will disposing of several parcels of real property. Among these was No. 15 Queen Street, Frederiksted. This has become the bone of contention, and its final disposition will require two documents of the Court. I will therefore enter a Judgment quieting title by adverse possession as against all claimants
The litigation arrived at this issue in the following way. Catherine died testate in 1968, and her will was admitted to probate early the following year. The attorney for the
I must agree with their argument, and I find that Catherine intended to leave all of her interest to the primary recipients. What made this issue a • doubtful one was the language she used to express her intent. She left the Queen Street property to three of her brothers and sisters (or, if they were dead, to their children per stirpes) with-the following description:
... all my right, title and interest in and to the real property which I inherited from my father, which is located in the Virgin Islands....
Catherine acquired her interest in a number of ways. She inherited a one-fifth of a one-third interest from her father, acquired a one-third by purchase and, as we shall see, obtained the remaining fractional interest of the entire fee by adverse possession. These facts could permit a restrictive construction of the clause above, as intending to convey to her siblings only the one-fifth of the one-third interest which Catherine inherited from her father. The remainder would then pass to the residuary legatee, as the attorney for the exécutor had originally proposed here.
I believe, however, that the better construction would take the phrase “which I inherited from my father” as describing the real property, and not as limiting the ownership interests to be bequeathed. Three reasons support this construction. First, it seems the most natural
It now remains to be determined just what interest Catherine possessed. I find that, after considering the' following sequence of events, it was the full fee simple. The decedent’s father, Christian Taylor, acquired his one-third interest pursuant to an adjudication of this Court. Estate of Henrietta Fredericks, No. 126-1937. He then died intestate in 1940, at which time the 1921 Code of the Mu
Under these circumstances, however, the children also became vulnerable to adverse possession beginning in 1940. This is clearly true as to their present interest, and I think it is true of their future interest as well. For the purpose of the doctrine of adverse possession is to quiet title to land after reasonable notice to the owner of the documented title, and since the present and future interests were not separated here, the children were on equal notice of any adverse claim against either. Similarly since the estate was not divided, they were at all times
I find that Catherine maintained such adverse possession against her siblings, and in consequence acquired their fractional interests for herself. Her possession was not adverse when the children first received their interests in 1940, but it became so at some time afterwards. The test for such adverse possession is set out in Prince v. Duvergee, 1 V.I. 425 (D.C.V.I. 1938) (Hastie, J.):
[T]he original entry . . . [may have been] consistent with and in support of the cotenancy. But conduct by a tenant in possession such as plainly and openly shows that he is holding in his own right alone and in derogation of the common right will suffice to change the character of the possession. Ouster of co-tenants may be a proper inference from long continued exclusive possession and manifest claim of sole dominion without any accounting for profits or demand for contributions.
I believe that this test has been met here. Catherine began to pay all maintenance expenses without demanding contribution ; she received all profits without disbursing them; she paid all real estate taxes herself; and she took on the sole management of the Queen Street property. I find that these practices were begun at some point before the death of the widow and, although not necessarily in derogation of her rights, were adverse to those of the other children and extinguished their rights after fifteen years. See 28 Y.I.C. § 11. After the widow’s death, and at the expiration of this period, Catherine thus acquired the remaining four-fifths of her father’s one-third interest.
JUDGMENT
For the reasons set forth above, it is hereby ORDERED, ADJUDGED and DECREED that at the time of Catherine Taylor’s death on November 17, 1968, she possessed the fee simple to No. 15 Queen Street, Frederiksted, by virtue of inheritance and adverse possession.
ORDER
For the reasons set forth above, it is further ORDERED that, for purposes of the present proceeding, Catherine Taylor bequeathed her entire interest in No. 15 Queen Street, Frederiksted, to the beneficiaries named in that clause of her will, and that no interest in that property will pass under the residuary clause.
When it appeared that this case would require quieting title by adverse possession, appropriate notice was made by publication.
One might think it strange to consider “property” as having been inherited when in reality only a one-fifth of a one-third interest was so acquired. However, as we shall see below, Catherine and her mother treated the property as if it were exclusively theirs. Thus she probably did, and I so find, describe it as her “inherited property.”
Reference
- Full Case Name
- In the Matter of the Estate of CATHERINE E. TAYLOR, (also known as Kathleen Taylor)
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published