Fogal v. Fogal, No. 09-21-00264-CV, 2023 WL 3235820 (Tex. App.—Beaumont May 4, 2023, no pet. h.).
A and B owned property “as joint owners with rights of survivorship.” A conveyed A’s interest to C reserving a life estate for herself along with stating that upon her death, title would vest in C. After A died, a dispute arose between B who claimed the property under the survivorship right and C who claimed that he owned one-half of the property under the A’s deed. Both the trial and Beaumont Court of Appeals held that C was the rightful owner of one-half of the property.
The court explained that when A conveyed her interest in the property, the joint tenancy with rights of survivorship was broken and that B and C hold as tenants in common. The court followed the English common law rule that “the sale of one joint tenant’s interest in a property held by joint tenants cuts off the survivorship rights that the surviving joint tenant would have otherwise enjoyed had the property not been sold.” Id. at *13. There is no longer the unity of title required for a joint tenancy.
Moral: A co-tenant’s conveyance of property subject to a right of survivorship destroys the survivorship feature.