Background
George and Grace Wang were married and operated businesses together for decades. George alone acquired a Gainesville property in 1981. In 2000, George and Grace signed a 60-year ground lease for the property as “George Wang and Grace Wang, Husband and Wife.” Walgreens later became the tenant, and its rent payments were deposited into a joint account.
After George died in 2020, Grace sought a declaration that she and George held the right to receive ground-lease rents as tenants by the entireties, making her sole owner of that right by survivorship. The estate contested that claim, emphasizing that George alone owned the land, the lease did not expressly provide survivorship, and George’s will made dispositions involving the property and its income. The circuit court entered summary judgment for Grace and awarded her rents the estate had collected.
The Court’s Holding
The First District affirmed the circuit court’s conclusion that it had subject-matter jurisdiction over Grace’s declaratory-judgment action outside the probate proceeding. Grace was not asserting a pre-death claim against George’s estate subject to the probate nonclaim statutes.
But the court reversed summary judgment and the supplemental rent award. A lease or lease proceeds may be held as tenants by the entireties, but whether such an estate was created is a factual question. The evidence created a genuine dispute over whether George intended to convey Grace a survivorship interest in the lease rents: the lease named the spouses as landlords but did not expressly state survivorship, and George’s will supplied evidence inconsistent with an already-existing survivorship right. The case was remanded for further proceedings.
Key Takeaways
- Whether a tenancy by the entireties exists is ordinarily a fact question when the governing instrument does not clearly express that intent.
- A spouse may potentially hold lease rights or lease proceeds as a tenant by the entireties even if the spouse does not hold fee title to the leased land.
- Summary judgment cannot resolve competing evidence about intent to create a survivorship interest.
Why It Matters
The decision underscores that joint references to spouses in a lease do not automatically establish a tenancy by the entireties. Parties claiming survivorship rights in lease income must be prepared to prove all required unities and the parties’ intent, particularly where the underlying property title and estate-planning documents point in another direction.