Wenzel Estate v. Wenzel - No. 20070264
Case Summary
Curtis Wenzel appeals a district court judgment regarding assets owned jointly with the Bruce J. Wenzel Estate.
Curtis and Bruce Wenzel jointly owned land, buildings and machinery used for farming purposes. After the October 2004 death of Bruce Wenzel, Curtis Wenzel and the Estate were unable to agree on rent or how to sell or partition the assets. The Estate also disputed owing half the amount of certain bills incurred by Curtis Wenzel. After a February 2007 bench trial, the district court divided the land and buildings and ordered Curtis Wenzel to buy out the Estate's share of the machinery for the sum of $74,300.
On appeal, Curtis Wenzel argues the district court erred in ordering a sale for partition of the farm machinery because it did not find a partition in kind would result in great prejudice to the owners. He also argues the district court wrongly ordered that a sale be conducted by having Curtis Wenzel pay the Estate half the value of the jointly-owned machinery and erred by not allowing a credit to him for half of manure cleaning and combine repair bills. Finally, Curtis Wenzel argues the district court erred in its grain storage division by awarding him lesser-valued grain storage.