Delfino v. Vealencis

Facts

Angelo and William Delfino and Helen Vealencis owned a 20.5 acre parcel in Bristol, Connecticut, as tenants in common (co-owners, each holding an undivided interest in the whole). The Delfinos together held a 99/144 interest. Vealencis held a 45/144 interest. She lived in the house on the land, at its western end, and ran a rubbish and garbage removal business from part of the property. Her business there consisted of parking, repairing and storing trucks and dumpsters, plus office work, and no refuse was brought to the land. It was an unassailed finding that her family had run a garbage business on the premises since the 1920s and that the city of Bristol had granted her the permits and licenses each year. Apparently, no party was in actual possession of the rest of the land. One of the Delfinos was a residential developer, and the Delfinos planned to develop the land into forty-five residential building lots. The parcel was basically rectangular, with two roads abutting it and a third giving access through a right-of-way.

Issues

1. Under General Statutes § 52-500, when may a court order the sale of land held by tenants in common instead of dividing the land physically, and who bears the burden of showing that a sale would better promote the owners' interests?
2. On these facts, did the trial court's findings support ordering a partition by sale rather than a partition in kind?

Holding

The land could practicably be divided physically, and the interests of all the owners, not just the Delfinos' economic gain, would better be promoted by a partition in kind. The trial court therefore erred in ordering a sale, and, under the facts as found, Vealencis was entitled to a partition in kind.