This is a very unusual case; it is probably confusing you. Here is a simplified version of the facts:
Grantor (Joyce King) conveys Blackacre (the King Farm) to two couples "to Harry and his wife, Bertha, tenants by the entireties and to Ford and his wife, Helen, tenants by the entireties, with right of survivorship."
In other words, each couple acquired a 1/2 share as tenants by the entireties, and each couple also had a cotenancy of some sort in Blackacre with the other couple. As the authors of the casebook say, the original grantor "may have actually wanted to create a joint tenancy between the two family groups so that the ultimate survivor of the four Michaels would take all of the King Farm." Page 389.
Maybe, maybe not. We don't know for sure. Why don't we know for sure?
Suppose, for example, that Bertha survives Harry and Helen survives Ford? How do Bertha and Helen hold Blackacre--as joint tenants with right of survivorship or as tenants in common with no right of survivorship? In other words, what happens if Bertha dies and Helen is still alive?
Does Helen now own all of Blackacre as the surviving joint tenant?
Or does she merely own her 1/2 share as a tenant in common with Bertha's one half share passing to the beneficiaries under her will (i.e. to Bertha's two sons)?
Notice the construction issue in this case is controlled by a statutory presumption in favor of tenancies in common (a joint tenancy can be created only if the deed clearly expresses an intent by the grantor to create a joint tenancy with a right of survivorship). Page 387.
The Court decides the reference to survivorship in the deed is ambiguous (and thus not clear). Page 388. Thus, the Court holds that "the deed of 1947 created a tenancy in common as between the two sets of married couples, each couple holding its undivided one-half interest as tenants by the entireties." Page 389.
Thus, when Harry died, Bertha became the sole owner of the 1/2 interest as the surviving Tenant by the Entireties. She held this 1/2 share as a Tenant in Common with Ford and Helen.
Then when Bertha died her 1/2 share passed in accordance with her will to her two sons, Ford and Robert.
Got it? Robert thus got a 1/4 share.
