Partition by a private sale is a method of selling jointly owned property, either by joint tenants or tenants in common, under the court’s supervision via a court order or a court-ordered referee.
A partition action or a partition lawsuit is when one co-owner, or when one person with an interest in the property wants to sell the property, but the other co-owners or others with an interest in the property do not want to sell their ownership rights.
Partition receivers and partition referees serve very similar roles in partition lawsuits. Their roles are to act as a third party with no ties to any of the co-owners interests in property via a partition lawsuit and to help the court and the judge to distribute the property or proceeds from the sale of the property fairly and equitably. Read on to find out the important differences between the two.
A receiver on occasion assists the co-owners of the property, and the court in achieving a successful sale or appraisal for the property is partitioned. Receivers are court-appointed in California that oversee actions such as business disputes, divorce cases, judgment collection, and of course, real estate partition cases.
When there is a court-ordered partition by division, there are several steps that both the court and parties take to ensure that the property is physically divided both equally and equitably. Read on to find out the different avenues the court takes when deciding a partition by division lawsuit.
First, the court operates on the assumed guideline that all parties should have the property divided in the most equal and equitable ways possible. The court in the Canepari v. Pascale court case found that there is a rebuttable presumption that the partitioned property should be equally divided. This means that if each co-owner or tenant holds a 50 percent interest in the property, then the property in question is divided as physically possible to a 50/50 divide.
Generally speaking, no, jury trials are not available in partition actions because partition action lawsuits are generally based on equity, and therefore do not need a jury trial to decide each party’s rights.
However, in some specific scenarios, it is within the court’s discretion to allow factual issues or claims to the property to be heard by a jury in an equitable action, as is the plaintiff’s constitutional right. Read on to find out the avenues in which jury trials are available for those seeking or defending partition action lawsuits.
California Partition and Eminent Domain Law Blog