Anderson v. Wolfe

368 P.2d 655, 1961 Okla. LEXIS 503
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedDecember 12, 1961
DocketNo. 39287
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 368 P.2d 655 (Anderson v. Wolfe) 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. Wolfe, 368 P.2d 655, 1961 Okla. LEXIS 503 (Okla. 1961).

Opinion

JACKSON, Justice.

In 1944, the law firm of Green and Farmer was retained by one Katherine Anderson to represent her in a suit brought by her mother, Maud Anderson, to have conveyances of about 240 acres of real estate from the mother to the daughter and other children vacated. Green and Farmer successfully defended the law suit in the District Court of Tulsa County and also on appeal in this court (see Anderson v. Anderson, 197 Okl. 635, 173 P.2d 947.) On November 9, 1949, the attorney fee due Green and Farmer not having been paid, Katherine Anderson signed a contract by the terms of which she agreed to convey a 12½ acre tract of real estate out of the 240 acre tract to Green and Farmer in payment of the fee, subject to a life estate in the mother.

The mother died prior to the bringing of the instant action.

By mesne conveyances, the interest of Green and Farmer in the tract of land became vested in Joel A. Wolfe and A. L. Solliday. Subsequent to the execution and recording of the contract of November 9„ 1949, Katherine Anderson executed deeds conveying the 12½ acres, together with adjoining lands, to Henry Kates.

On January 19, 1959, Wolfe and Solliday,, as plaintiffs, began the instant action in which they sought specific performance of the contract, a decree quieting their title, and other relief to be hereinafter noted. Defendants were Katherine Anderson, Henry Kates and other defendants for whom it was alleged Kates was holding the title in trust.

Miss Anderson filed an answer generally alleging fraud in the procurement of the contract, and specifically alleging that she did not read the contract before signing it. She further pleaded that immediately upon returning to her home, and on the same day, she read her copy of the contract and began trying to reach Mr. Green by phone for the purpose of repudiating the contract. She attached to her answer a copy of a letter she wrote Mr. Green on November 15, 1949, wherein she requested that the contract be modified to recite an.attorney’s fee of $515.00.

Judgment in the trial court was for plaintiffs, and only defendant Katherine Anderson appeals.

It is agreed that all parties hereto had notice of all claims of the other parties, and that the trial court’s judgment “must stand or fall” on the validity of the contract between Katherine Anderson and her attorneys, Green and Farmer.

In their answer brief on appeal, defendants in error have renewed a motion to dismiss this appeal. We have examined the argument and authorities presented and find them to be without substantial merit, and will therefore consider this case on its merits.

The first proposition of defendant (plaintiff in error) is generally that Green and Farmer “overreached” their client in the procurement of the contract, refused to take a cash fee, and at all times planned and schemed to get part of the lands of their client.

[657]*657Mr. Green testified for plaintiffs that no specific fee was ever agreed upon, although he did agree that the figure of $500.00 was discussed immediately after the district court trial and before the case was appealed to the Supreme Court. He testified to intermittent efforts to collect a fee from the time the mandate came down from the Supreme Court in 1946, to the time the contract was executed on November 9, 1949. He said with regard to Miss Anderson that “She was always complaining that she had no money * * *, we discussed the apportioning of this land * * * ”,

With regard to the execution of the contract, Mr. Green testified that Miss Anderson came to his office, and that they discussed with Mr. Farmer, his partner, the matter of taking a part of the land as a fee. Mr. Farmer and Miss Anderson then sat down and figured out the legal description of the acreage concerned and Mr. Farmer dictated the contract. After taking some time to read it over, Miss Anderson suggested a change to he hereinafter noted; the change was incorporated in the contract, after which it was signed by all parties and acknowledged before a secretary in the office who was a notary public.

His testimony in this regard is supported in part by the testimony of Mr. Farmer and the notary public.

Miss Anderson testified that on the morning of November 9, 1949, she went to the office to discuss the appointment of a guardian for her mother; that when she was ready to leave, Mr. Farmer brought the contract in to Mr. Green’s office, and Mr. Green asked her to sign it as “just an office record” ; that she then signed it without reading it and left the office, taking a copy with her.

There were no other witnesses to the execution of the contract.

On the question of the amount of the fee, Miss Anderson testified that she and her brother offered to pay $500 immediately after the district court trial, and that she agreed to pay $600 after the case was affirmed in the Supreme Court. Her testimony was supported in part by the testimony of her brother.

Although Miss Anderson pleaded and testified that she began to try to reach Mr. Green by phone on the same day the contract was executed to repudiate it, the record shows that on November 10, 1949 (the next day) she wrote him a letter in which she said in part “Mr. Green I have proved myself — by signing that contract yesterday”.

On November 15, 1949, Miss Anderson began a series of letters to Mr. Green and others filled with vilification, abuse and intemperate language in which she accused him of fraud and trickery and demanded that the contract be rewritten. It was. shown that she made 'complaint to the grievance committee of the Tulsa County Bar Association regarding Mr. Green, then did not appear at the hearing of the charges.

In the letter of November 15, 1949, she said, among other things, “In the first place you told me you just wanted a building site — 2 or 3 acres, and I thought the contract called for that until I got home and read it over— * * * ”, This would indicate that she did know when she signed the contract that some real estate was involved, and that the controversy was in connection with how much real estate. In her answer and cross petition she alleged that she did not read the contract and had no idea what was in it.

There was no allegation or contention, that Miss Anderson was of less than normal intelligence, or that she was inexperienced in business matters. On the contrary, the record shows that she had been involved in a considerable amount of litigation with other members of her family, concerning the family real estate.

In support of her arguments under the proposition that she has been overreached Miss Anderson cites Roseboom v. Baughman, 169 Okl. 442, 37 P.2d 616; Board of Com’rs of Okfuskee County v. Hazelwood, 79 Okl. 185, 192 P. 217, 11 A.L.R. 709; and other cases to the general effect that contracts between attorney and client will [658]*658be closely scrutinized, and that the burden is upon the attorney to show that they are fair, just and equitable.

In this connection we note that the trial court found the facts to be substantially as testified to by Mr. Green and Mr. Farmer. The court further found that the contract was executed by Miss Anderson without the exercise upon her of any undue influence; that it was just and reasonable ; and that the consideration moving to the attorneys was not disproportionate to the value of the services rendered.

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Bluebook (online)
368 P.2d 655, 1961 Okla. LEXIS 503, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/anderson-v-wolfe-okla-1961.