Rule 96.09.Several Shares May be Set Off Together.

Rule 96.09 gives the court flexibility when dividing land among co-owners. Instead of insisting that every single owner receive a separate, individually carved-out parcel, the court may combine the shares of some parties into one joint parcel, while the remaining land gets divided up among the other owners according to their respective interests.

This flexibility matters in real-world partitions where combining certain interests makes practical sense — for instance, when several co-owners are content to hold a portion together, or when grouping shares avoids creating oddly shaped, hard-to-use parcels. Instead of forcing a rigid one-owner-one-parcel outcome, the rule lets the court fashion a division that better fits the land and the parties' particular situation.

The rule does not require this approach in every case; it only authorizes the court to use it when circumstances call for it. The remaining land not set off together still gets divided among the other parties according to their several rights, preserving the basic fairness principle that runs through the entire partition chapter: each owner ultimately receives value proportional to their interest, whether that value comes through an individual parcel or a share of a jointly held one.