Estate of Grigsby

Jerry E. McLinn for Objector and Appellant.

Frank R. Crandall, Haight, Dickson, Brown & Bonesteel and Roy G. Weatherup for Petitioner and Respondent.

OPINION

DALSIMER, J.

This appeal presents but one issue: Can one spouse unilaterally terminate a joint tenancy in property that has been declared by both spouses to be their homestead?

Waymond Grigsby (respondent) obtained a judgment from the probate court which adjudged that certain real property, the subject of this appeal, was joint tenancy property of respondent and his deceased wife, Carolyn Joyce Grigsby (decedent), that the joint tenancy was terminated upon decedent's death, and that the property became vested in respondent as a surviving joint tenant.

Both parties agree to the underlying facts of this case. The property was held in joint tenancy by respondent and decedent when they jointly executed and recorded the declaration of homestead on April 20, 1979. On March 9, 1981, decedent manifested her intent to terminate the joint tenancy by the familiar method of executing a quitclaim deed to a straw man and receiving a quitclaim deed back from the straw man to herself. Both quitclaim deeds were duly recorded on March…