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Burt v. Skrzyniarz

The trial court properly charged the jury that plaintiff had to present clear and convincing evidence to rebut the presumption that the parties had equal shares in their property as tenants in common.

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Appellant Paul Burt appeals from a jury’s determination that he and his co-tenant, Nancy Skrzyniarz, possessed equal ownership interests in the Chatham County home they shared. Contrary to Burt’s enumerations on appeal, we find no error in the trial court’s instructions concerning the presumptions attending a tenancy in common and the possibility of a purchase money resulting trust. Therefore, we affirm.

Burt and Skrzyniarz began seeing one another in 1990, and in 1997 took possession of a home located in Dutch Island, Georgia. It is conceded that the parties took possession of the house as tenants in common, and that the sales contract for the home obligated them both as purchasers of the property. In fact, a hand written disclosure on the sales contract, initialed by both parties, states that “Purchaser Skrzyniarz is a licensed real estate agent in Pennsylvania” emphasis added. The warranty deed identified both Burt and Skrzyniarz as the grantees of the property, and the parties jointly took possession of the property. When the parties separated, Burt filed a complaint for statutory partitioning, in which he alleged that while the parties did in fact hold the property as tenants in common, he held a 99 percent interest in the property, as opposed to Skrzyniarz’s one percent interest. She disputed that claim in her answer, and the case was tried before a jury in February 1999.

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