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The court applied the presumption of resulting trust to award a mother her initial down payment contribution after a joint living arrangement with her adult son failed.
A mother and her adult son with his spouse disputed the distribution of proceeds from the sale of a jointly-owned home.
The mother had contributed substantially to the down payment and closing costs from the proceeds of her own home sale, while the son and his wife contributed to ongoing household expenses.
The parties had not documented their arrangement or discussed what would occur if the living arrangement failed.
The court applied the doctrine of purchase money resulting trust and found that the son and daughter-in-law failed to rebut the presumption by establishing that the down payment was intended as a gift.
The court awarded the mother her initial contribution plus a proportional share of the remaining proceeds.
