Section 11 Necessary Parties

• Library: Real Estate Fundamentals 2011

As to what persons may or must be defendants in a suit to quiet title, § 527.150.1, RSMo 2000, provides that a suit can be “against any person or persons having or claiming to have any title, estate or interest in such property, whether in possession or not . . . .” This provision includes parties with future or contingent interests. Ball v. Woolfolk,75 S.W. 410, 412 (Mo. 1903). All questions of title, even between two defendants, can be determined in a suit to quiet title. Harrington v. Muzzy,258 S.W.2d 637 (Mo. 1953).

Knox v. Morris, 293 S.W.3d 478 (Mo. App. E.D. 2009), involved abandoned land that had been enclosed and adversely possessed for seven years. Then it was conveyed to the plaintiff, who conveyed it to the county. The other claimant, as a tenant of the county, was in possession. The trial court stated that it was impossible to determine...