Jameson v. Hayward

Citations

• 106 Cal. 682
• 39 P. 1078
• 1895 Cal. LEXIS 661

Syllabus

<p>Partition—Cotenancy in Estate for Years — Sale of Reversion Owned by One Defendant.—In an action for a partition between tenants in common of an estate for years the court may refuse to order a sale of the reversion, of which one of the defendants is the sole owner.</p> <p>Id._Nature of Action—Equitable Jurisdiction.—While in this state an action for partition is statutory, the powers conferred upon the courts by the statute are substantially those formerly exercised by the chancery courts in pursuit of the same object, and the methods employed by our code are, in the main, but a reflex of those pursued under the former equity practice, and the equities of the respective parties growing out of their ownership in the property, as tenants in common or otherwise, are taken into consideration and disposed of upon the broad principle which should govern courts of equity in the administration of justice.</p> <p>Id.—Mercer of Estate for Years in Fee—Separation in Equity.— Equity will prevent or permit a merger, as will best subserve the purposes of justice and the actual and just intent of the parties, and, in the absence of an expression of intention, if the interest of the person in whom the several estates have united would be best subserved by keeping them separate, the intent to do so will ordinarily be implied; and in an action for partition the interest of a tenant in common in an estate for years, which is subject to the partition, will not be held to have been merged in the reversion owned by the same person.</p>