## Facts

- A married couple acquired a family residence in 1954 as joint tenants.
- In a 1971 divorce, the spouses executed a property settlement agreement that the divorce court adopted as an order.
- The agreement required that the residence be sold and the proceeds divided equally upon the first to occur of: (1) the wife’s remarriage, (2) the youngest child reaching age 21, or (3) mutual agreement to sell.
- After the divorce, the wife remained in the home with the children until her death in October 1972.
- None of the agreement’s sale-triggering events occurred before the wife’s death.
- After her death, the former husband claimed sole title by survivorship under the original joint tenancy.
- The estate’s administratrix and the children filed a quiet title action, asserting the divorce settlement severed the joint tenancy and left the parties as tenants in common.

## Issues

1. Whether the divorce property settlement agreement severed the joint tenancy and converted the parties’ interests into a tenancy in common, despite legal title remaining in joint names and despite the nonoccurrence of the agreement’s future sale contingencies before death.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of Colorado affirmed.
- The court held the property settlement agreement terminated the joint tenancy and converted the parties’ interests into a tenancy in common.
- As a result, the deceased spouse’s undivided one-half interest passed through her estate to her heirs, and the former husband did not take full title by survivorship.

## Legal Principles

- A joint tenancy may be severed by mutual agreement or conduct showing an intent to treat the parties’ interests as separate, even without an immediate conveyance changing record title.
- An agreement requiring future sale of jointly held property and equal division of proceeds evidences an intent inconsistent with continuation of the right of survivorship.
- The operative event for severance can be the binding settlement agreement itself; survivorship does not persist merely because contemplated future sale conditions have not yet occurred.

## Conclusion

A divorce property settlement that mandates future sale and equal division of a jointly titled residence manifests an intent to end survivorship and severs the joint tenancy, leaving the former spouses (and, upon death, the decedent’s heirs) as tenants in common.


Mann v. Bradley, 188 Colo. 392, 535 P.2d 213 (Colo. 1975)