Matter of Estate of Bates

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• holding that former spouses became tenants in common, each with “an interest in one- half of the property,” upon severance of joint tenancy
• stating “Iowa does not follow the ‘four unities’ common law rule,” because “[i]n Iowa 9 the intent of the parties prevails”
• observing that the four unities common law rule required to create and continue a joint tenancy is not applicable in Iowa and finding a severance of a joint tenancy based solely on the intent of the parties who agreed to sell certain property but never actually sold it
• observing that the four unities common law rule required to create and continue a joint tenancy is not applicable in Iowa and finding a severance of a joint tenancy based solely on the intent of the parties who agreed to sell certain property but never actually sold it
• “[A] conveyance by one of the parties may also terminate a joint tenancy . . . .”
• permitting a severance under a valid but unexecuted mutual agreement

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).