Archer v. Osage Federal Sav. & Loan Ass'n

1941 OK 50, 112 P.2d 162, 188 Okla. 603, 1941 Okla. LEXIS 84
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedFebruary 11, 1941
DocketNo. 29864.
StatusPublished

This text of 1941 OK 50 (Archer v. Osage Federal Sav. & Loan Ass'n) 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
Archer v. Osage Federal Sav. & Loan Ass'n, 1941 OK 50, 112 P.2d 162, 188 Okla. 603, 1941 Okla. LEXIS 84 (Okla. 1941).

Opinion

BAYLESS, J.

This is an appeal from the district court of Tulsa county from a judgment in favor of Osage Federal Savings & Loan Association of Paw-huska, a corporation, foreclosing a real estate mortgage against T. Jeff Archer and Vera M. Archer.

Defendants purchased the real estate, which they made their statutory homestead, from plaintiff, and gave plaintiff a note and mortgage for $3,000 payable at the rate of $35 per month. Within the year Archer applied to the plaintiff for an additional loan of $600 to be used in connection with the protection and preservation of the property. Plaintiff decided to make this additional loan and instructed its agent at Tulsa to advise Archer thereof and the terms and conditions thereof. The agent testified that he communicated this message to Archer verbally, and when Archer signified his acceptance plaintiff sent a note and supplemental loan agreement, which Archer and wife executed and returned to plaintiff, whereupon the $600 was paid to Archer. Thereafter the $35 monthly payments made • by Archer were applied by plaintiff as follows: (1) To the payment of the interest on the $3,000; (2) to the payment of the interest on the $600 note; and (3) to the payment of the principal of the $600 note. Sufficient monthly payments were made by Archer, when applied as aforesaid, to keep the interest paid on the $3,000 note and to retire the $600 note. Thereafter the plaintiff filed the action from which this appeal arises, alleging default in the payment of the $3,000 note, which action the defendants resisted by denying the right of the plaintiff to divert any of *605 the monthly payments to the payment of the $600 loan, and by asserting that there was no delinquency in the $3,000 note, and by asserting that the oral agreement for the diversion of the payments was invalid because of the homestead rights of the defendants.

Defendants make several assignments of error, which naturally group themselves into three groups. The first relates to the law of payment and involves both questions of law and issues of fact. The second relates to the rights of the defendants in respect to their statutory homestead. The third relates to an alleged abuse of discretion with respect to the theory upon which the judgment was rendered as embodied in the journal entry.

We now direct our attention to the first proposition. We do not believe there is any difference between the parties respecting the basic law relating to the application of payments. We believe their differences respecting the evidence and the weight thereof have led them to contend for differing applications of the law of payment. The defendants contend that the debtor has the power to direct the application of money paid to a particular debt in preference to other debts, and that once having given directions for the application of payments, the creditor has no right to divert payments thereafter made to another debt. As a basic rule of law we think this is correct. Bank of Chelsea v. Elam, 167 Okla. 650, 30 P. 2d 919, and other cases. We do not understand that the plaintiff differs with this rule of law, but that it contends that directions once given for the application of payments in a certain manner may be thereafter altered or modified, and that the evidence in this case shows, and sustains the court’s judgment to that effect, that defendants later modified the directions to provide for the application of the payments thereafter to be made in another manner. The record shows that when the $3,000 note and mortgage were executed it was the agreement of the parties that the $35 paid monthly should be applied , (1) to the payment of the interest, and (2) the remainder of the $35 to be applied to the principal of the $3,000 note. The plaintiff’s evidence is that when its agent verbally notified Archer that plaintiff was willing to lend him the $600, the agent told Archer that no additional sum should be paid each month, but that the $35 per month then provided to be paid should be applied (1) to the payment of the interest on the $3,000 note; (2) to the payment of the interest on the $600 note; and (3) the remainder of the $35 to be applied to the payment of the principal of the $600 note; and that the principal of the $3,000 note would remain in abeyance until the $600 note was paid. Nothing appears in the $600 note to this effect, the $600 note simply providing for monthly payments of $35 per month. Archer did not deny the making of this oral agreement respecting the application of the $35, but simply said he did not recall it. We think the trial court’s finding in favor of the plaintiff amounts to a finding from this evidence that the oral agreement with respect to the application of the monthly payment as last outlined was made. Defendants contend that such a finding is contrary to the weight of the evidence, but we do not agree. Defendants also contend that such a finding is contrary to law in that it permits the written agreement for the liquidation of the $3,000 loan to be superseded by a subsequent oral agreement; and that even if there was such an oral agreement, and not being embodied therein, it is superseded thereby and had no valid existence after the execution of those two writings. Neither party cites authorities on this precise point. The general rule as stated in 21 R.C.L. 93, § 97, and 48 C. J. 647, § 92, is that the parties may by mutual agreement change the agreement previously made. In the text cited and the authorities discussed in the annotations thereunder, no consideration seems to be given to whether the original agreement for application was in writing and could or could not be altered by a subsequent agreement or direction that is verbal. Since the rule that permits *606 the debtor to direct' the application of funds paid by him to his creditor to the debt he prefers to pay first, with certain exceptions not material here, is for the benefit of the debtor, we do not think of any good reason that would preclude the debtor from altering that direction at any time thereafter. It will be presumed that his subsequent oral directions contrary to his previous written directions are for his best interests as he conceives them, and this is sufficient. In respect to the written direction for the application of the monthly payments, found in the $3,000 note and mortgage, we must hold that it was subject to being modified or altered by a subsequent oral agreement that was fully executed. Section 9502, O. S. 1931, 15 O. S. A. § 237, and numerous decisions of this court cited in the annotations thereunder. We do not see that the oral agreement with respect to the application of the monthly payments alters or varies the terms of the $600 note, because by its terms it provided that $35 per month should be paid, and this when considered in connection with the $3,000 note placed defendants in the position of being obligated to make two $35 monthly payments. It is clear from the record that defendants did not make two such payments each month, and if they desire to contend now that the oral agreement for the application of this one $35 monthly payment' in any wise altered the agreement expressed in the $600 note and supplemental loan agreement, they do not point out to us where there is any such effect. In fact, their whole argument denies the existence of the oral agreement as a matter of fact, and denies its valid legal existence because of its effect upon the $3,000 note. We therefore hold that the oral agreement, found to exist by the court, did not affect the $600 note and supplemental loan agreement.

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

Related

Bank of Chelsea v. Elam
1934 OK 166 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1934)
Greig v. Smith
7 S.E. 610 (Supreme Court of South Carolina, 1888)
Brockschmidt v. Hagebusch
72 Ill. 562 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1874)
Frazier v. Lanahan
17 A. 940 (Court of Appeals of Maryland, 1889)
Bertschy v. Bank of Sheboygan
61 N.W. 1115 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1895)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1941 OK 50, 112 P.2d 162, 188 Okla. 603, 1941 Okla. LEXIS 84, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/archer-v-osage-federal-sav-loan-assn-okla-1941.