Anderson v. Garrison

1965 OK 72, 402 P.2d 873, 1965 Okla. LEXIS 326
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedMay 4, 1965
Docket40797
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 1965 OK 72 (Anderson v. Garrison) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Anderson v. Garrison, 1965 OK 72, 402 P.2d 873, 1965 Okla. LEXIS 326 (Okla. 1965).

Opinion

HALLEY, Chief Justice.

This is an appeal from the District Court of Cleveland County, wherein the plaintiff in error, Helen Anderson (hereinafter referred to as plaintiff), brought an action for partition and accounting on November 1, 1962, against the defendants, Cora B. McAdoo, and her husband, C. C. McAdoo, and Charlie Davis (who are not parties to this appeal), alleging her ownership of an undivided one-third (l4rd) interest in described real estate. Defendant in error, Bill Garrison (hereinafter referred to as inter-venor), entered the action on December 5, 1962, by Motion for Leave to Intervene and Petition in Intervention, to enforce an alleged written contract for sale to him by plaintiff of her interest in the realty described in her petition, and deposited the alleged purchase price of $1,175 with the court clerk.

Thereafter, on January 7, 1963, the trial court entered its order permitting Bill Garrison to intervene by his Petition in Intervention ; whereupon, plaintiff filed her verified Answer to Petition in Intervention on January 22, 1963, containing a general denial and an allegation of fraud. Intervenor replied to the answer of plaintiff on February 5, 1963, by way of a denial of fraud.

On April 9, 1963, after plaintiff had abandoned her second cause of action against the defendants, the matter proceeded to trial before the court without a jury on inter-venor’s petition and plaintiff’s answer thereto. The case was taken under advisement, and on September 7, 1963, the trial court made written findings of fact and conclusions of law and rendered its judgment ordering and directing that plaintiff convey to intervenor an undivided one-third (J4rd) interest in the surface rights to the'realty in controversy as prayed in intervenor’s petition. Plaintiff appeals from the adverse judgment and as grounds for reversal assigns four specifications of error under the single proposition that the trial court erred in its conclusion that the letters and other written memorandum exchanged between plaintiff and intervenor constituted a valid and enforceable contract for the purchase and sale of the realty in controversy under our statute of frauds.

15 O.S.1961 § 136 provides:

“The following contracts are invalid, unless the same, or some note or memorandum thereof, be in writing and subscribed to the party to be charged, or by his agent:
⅝ ⅜ ⅝ * ⅝ ⅜
“5. An agreement for the leasing for a longer period than one year, or for the sale of real property, or of an interest therein; and such agreement, if made by an agent of the party sought to be charged, is invalid, unless the authority of the agent be in writing, sub-scribed by the party sought to be. charged.”

“It is a general rule that parol evidence cannot be permitted to supply an omission of any essential element of the contract.” Halsell et al. v. Renfrow et al., 14 Okl. 674, 78 P. 118, 122, 2 Ann.Cas. 286.

In that case this Court held that a contract for the sale of lands, binding under the statute of frauds, may be gathered from letters, writings, and telegrams between the parties relating to the subject-matter of the contract, and so connected with each other that they be fairly said to constitute one paper relating to the contract. That in order to be sufficient, the letters, telegrams, and writings relied upon must, by reference to each other, disclose every material part of a valid contract. They must set out the parties, the subject-matter, the price, the description, terms and conditions, and leave nothing to parol.

*876 It is clear that a decision of this case requires a careful analysis of the correspondence between the plaintiff and the in-tervenor to determine if they constituted a valid and enforceable contract by applying the above stated tests. The letters between the parties are as follows:

“June 6, 1962
Dear Madam:
I would like to buy your place in Sec 1 — ION—1W, if the price is right. Please let me know the least you will take by return mail.
Sincerely,
Bill Garrison
6501 Anderson Dr.
Ok. City 49, Ok.”

This clearly was not an offer to purchase the described realty by inter-venor, but only an invitation to plaintiff to negotiate. To this letter, the following reply was made by plaintiff:

“Portland. Oregon Sept 7th 1962
MR BILL GARRISON
6501 Anderson Dr
Oklahoma City. Oklahoma;
In Your Letter of the 6/ of June 19621 You wanted to buy my ½ undevided int in the SE ⅞ of Sec 1 T 10 N Range 1 W Cleveland County Okla.
I have an offer for my Surface rights which is all I will sell, I intend to k ep the mineral and Oil and Gas rights.
But if you want the surface rights for $1250.00 Cash you can have it but let me know ¡mediately as I have a Offer but I wont take it and we are negociating now.
Resp (signature)
Helen Anderson
6011 SE Powell Blvd.
Portland, 60regon”

This letter set forth in detail the exact terms upon which plaintiff would sell to intervenor: $1250 cash. It contained the name of the parties, the subject matter, the price, and the terms and conditions; and was therefore an offer to sell. Tiffany v. Rothschild et al., Okl., 258 P.2d 629. Intervenor made no written acceptance of the offer. However, he testified at the trial of the matter that on September 13, 1962, he telephoned plaintiff “to confirm the sale” and to try “to get some mineral rights, if possible,” and that during the conversation, plaintiff “stated that instead of letting me have any at all that she would take $1,200.00 and retain all her mineral rights herself, which offer, I- accepted.” That plaintiff asked “that I pay within thirty days and I asked that I be given sixty days in which to complete payment.” That plaintiff “said that she would probably draw the deed herself but I preferred to do it myself.” “I think she intended to do that herself.”

It is obvious that the above telephone conversation between plaintiff and intervenor did not constitute a valid acceptance of plaintiff’s offer of September 7, 1962, under our statute of frauds, supra. Halsell et al. v. Renfrow et al., supra; and Tiffany v. Rothschild et al., supra. The next letter between the parties was again written by plaintiff and was as follows:

“Portland Or Sept 17/62
M. Bill Garrison
I’ll be proby 10 day — 2 week late with the papers I (unintelligible) so far from several heart attack and I am very week soon as I am able I’ll send them and you can pay $1175. Ill allow you $25.00 to pay for havg a title search
Rep
Helen Anderson”

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Summa Engineering, Inc. v. Crawley Petroleum Corp.
2012 OK CIV APP 69 (Court of Civil Appeals of Oklahoma, 2011)
Ollie v. Rainbolt
1983 OK 79 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1983)
Weever v. Weever
1978 OK CIV APP 17 (Court of Civil Appeals of Oklahoma, 1978)
Goodwin v. Beard
1967 OK 182 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1967)
Pettigrew v. Denwalt
1967 OK 53 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1967)
Western Contracting Corp. v. Sooner Construction Co.
256 F. Supp. 163 (W.D. Oklahoma, 1966)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1965 OK 72, 402 P.2d 873, 1965 Okla. LEXIS 326, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/anderson-v-garrison-okla-1965.