Carson Partition Lawyer

The City of Carson was named after George Henry Carson, who was married to the daughter of Don Manuel Dominguez, a prominent land owner and owner of the town's land. After Dominguez's death, Carson took over the rancho's management. Today, the city is located in Los Angeles County and is home to factories, refineries, and other industrial buildings. It is also more famously home to a soccer stadium used by the Los Angeles Galaxy soccer team. With over 70% of owner-occupied housing units, this suggests that many Carson homes are jointly owned. As such, residents of Carson may face disputes with co-owners. Generally, a partition action is the best remedy for disputing co-owners in four broad categories:

• Split real estate dispute;
• Brother-Sister real estate dispute;
• Investor-Investor real estate dispute; and
• Significant other real estate dispute

Generally, a partition as to concurrent interests in the property is a matter of right unless the partition is barred by a valid waiver. (CCP § 872.710(b).) Recently, the California Court of Appeal addressed a party's right to partition as a joint tenant after abandoning the property and failing to pay the proportionate share of property expenses in a case decided by the First District Court of Appeal known as Jamison v. McNeal (2022) WL 1438863.

In that case, an unmarried couple took title to the property as joint tenants, and later one party sought to partition the Property. Kurita Jamison and Linton McNeal Jr. lived together in the home with their children until they later split, and Jamison moved out. Jamison and McNeal had an arrangement where they would each pay one of the two mortgages. When Jamison left, she stopped making her payments and McNeal took on the payments. The trial court found in favor of Jamison and granted the partition. McNeal appealed.

The Court of Appeal affirmed, finding that "a cotenant is entitled to partition as a matter of absolute right; that he need not assign any reason for his demand; that it is sufficient if he demands a severance; and that when grounds for a sale are duly established it may be demanded as of right. To grant it is not a mere matter of grace. The only dispensable requirement to partition is that a clear title be shown, and in no event is a partition to be denied because it will result in financial loss to the cotenants." (De Roulet v. Mitchel (1945) 70 Cal.App.2d 120, 124.)

In addition, the Court of Appeal held that "it is well settled that a cotenant holding title in fee, is not barred from pursuing partition by abandonment (see Ferris v. Coover (1858) 10 Cal. 589, 631) or the failure to pay a proportionate share of property expenses (see Lazzarevich v Lazzarevich (1952) 39 Cal. 2d 48, 50-51.) As the trial court properly determined that Jamison was a joint owner, with a concurrent interest in the Property, the Appellate Court determined that Jamison indeed had an absolute right to partition despite abandoning and failing to pay her proportionate share of property expenses.

In order to start resolving these situations, you should contact an experienced Carson Partition Lawyer as soon as you are ready to start the next chapter of your life.