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IN THE SUPREME COURT OF IOWA
No. 74 / 05-1965 Filed September 28, 2007 IN THE MATTER OF THE ESTATE OF ROY N. JOHNSON, Deceased, WILLIAM H. JOHNSON, Executor of the Estate of EMOGENE F. JOHNSON, Appellant. ________________________________________________________________________ Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Dallas County, William H. Joy, Judge.

Executor of surviving joint tenant's estate appeals an adverse ruling finding property held in joint tenancy was severed. REVERSED AND REMANDED.

Thomas P. Lenihan, West Des Moines, for appellant.

John E. Casper of Flander, Casper & Rosien, P.C., Winterset, for appellee Beverly Johnson Algoe, as executor for Roy N. Johnson's estate. Jerrold B. Oliver of Jordan, Oliver & Walters, P.C., Winterset, for appellee individually.

2 CADY, Justice. The right of survivorship makes joint tenancies a popular form of property ownership. Yet, the concomitant right of each joint tenant to destroy the joint tenancy, and thus the right of survivorship, is not always popular, particularly for the surviving joint tenant. As Hamlet

observed in a different context, "ay, there's the rub"1 and, in this case, the seeds of the issue presented. A district court decision found a joint tenant successfully exercised his right to destroy the right of survivorship prior to his death, and the surviving joint tenant appeals. We agree with the surviving joint tenant, now the executor of the surviving joint tenant's estate, and find the property remained in joint tenancy until the death of the joint tenant, at which time full title vested in the survivor. We reverse the district court's decision and remand. I. Background Facts and Proceedings. Roy and Emogene Johnson purchased a home in Van Meter, Iowa, in 1963. They were married and took title to the home as joint tenants with the right of survivorship. They continued to live in their Van Meter home for over thirty-five years, where they raised a family and established the property as their homestead. (2007) (defining homestead). In the fall of 1998 Emogene suffered a severe stroke. The See Iowa Code

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