Beach v. Beach

Karen K. Beach (Defendant) owned a home in Colorado. When her father’s health began failing, Defendant offered her father and mother (Plaintiff) the option to build an addition to her home for them to occupy. Her parents agreed and paid to build the addition. They also agreed that upon their deaths, Defendant would acquire the addition. After Defendant’s father passed away, her relationship with Plaintiff worsened. Eventually, Plaintiff sued to partition Plaintiff’s interest in the addition from Defendant’s interest. The trial court found that Plaintiff had a limited life estate and that Defendant held the remainder interest. In denying the partition request, the court determined that a partition would violate the terms of the agreement between Defendant and her parents, and therefore held that Plaintiff impliedly waived her partition rights. The court of appeals reversed. It first found that Plaintiff had the right to compel partition under Colorado statute. It then held that Plaintiff did not impliedly waive her partition rights because partition would not violate the terms of the agreement, since Defendant would retain her right to the monetary value of her remainder interest in the addition.