05-09-1988 - Agenda Packet City Council - regular meeting

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Ms. Jeanne Mabusth May 4, 1988 Page 2 Lot 1 and consists of about 2.6 dry buildable acres. The Smith property, consisting of about ll.i acres dry buildable, is designated Lot 2 on the surveys. The applicant (which is an estate) does not now own Lot 1 and in fact the applicant never did own it. Sometime in the 1930's Spencer Smith, who owned the property designated as Lot 2, acquired the property designated as Lot 1. Aparently he caused both parcels to be joined in a single tax parcel, but the southwesterly line (the base of the triangular lot) of the proposed subdivision appears to be the former division line between the parcels prior to the time Spencer Smith bought Lot 1. In 1966 for rather obscure and perhaps uncomprehengible reasons, Spencer (joined by his wife, Ruth) m�,-3e a Contracu foi Deed agreeing to sell Lot 1 to Cedric Dettloff and his wife. Spencer appeared before the Planning Commission and obtained its approval of the proposed sale as eventually carried out. But no record exists of any City Council action. After 1966 Spencer Smith executed a document or a series of documents purporting to give Cedric Dettloff an option to purchase Lot 2 after the death of both Smiths. In the early 1980's, after Spencer and Ruth were placed under guardianships, the guardian, who is now the Personal Representative of the Estate, brought a lawsuit in which he tried co have the option declared invalid, and also to terminate the Contract for Deed which had not been completely paid off. The option was declared invalid. But the Contract was held to be valid and the guardian was directed to give a deed to the property designated as Lot 1 with a specific description of Lot 1 as it now appears on the surveys. In other words, the Court ordered a sale of the Dettloff parcel as presently described in the application. Consequently, and as stated above, the applicant does not own Lot 1. The division lines as presented for approval divide property which a Court has decided the Dettloffs own from property the Smiths continued to own until their respective deaths. Ruth Smith survived her husband and became the sole owner of Lot 2 and died January 1, 1987. This property (which is now being handled in her estate) was left equally to three national charities, none of them officing in Minnesota.