Arnold v. Burks

1917 OK 187, 164 P. 970, 63 Okla. 273, 1917 Okla. LEXIS 542
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedApril 10, 1917
Docket5204
StatusPublished

This text of 1917 OK 187 (Arnold v. Burks) 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
Arnold v. Burks, 1917 OK 187, 164 P. 970, 63 Okla. 273, 1917 Okla. LEXIS 542 (Okla. 1917).

Opinion

HARDY, J.

The parties hereto will be designated as they appeared in the trial court. The plaintiff, L. M. Burks, brought an action against defendant Charles Arnold and had a garnishment issued and served on defendants Bogie, T. J. Presley, and A. J. Presley. On the 24th day of November, 1911, judgment was rendered against defendant Arnold for his debt and against garnishees in stated amounts. On March 11, 1912, defendants filed in the trial court a motion to set aside the judgment theretofore rendered, alleging in substance that said cause was set for trial November 16, 1911, and that said garnishees had on file in said court in said cause their answer, denying any indebtedness to said Arnold, and that me said Arnold had on file therein a motion m make plaintiff’s petition more definite and certain, and that on said day the presiding judge of said court announced that no eases involving “Indian questions” would be trien at that term of court unless by agreement of parties, and that this case involved an Indian question; that defendants' attorney, relying thereon, left Duncan, where court was being held; that on November 24, 1911, the case was called up by attorney for plaintiff in the absence of defendants and their attorneys, *274 and judgment taken against defendant Arnold for the amount sued for and against garnishees as debtors of the said Arnold in certain stated amounts. Soon after judgment was obtained, an execution was issued, but upon the filing of the above motion the execution was recalled to await action on the motion to vacate the judgment. In due time said motion was heard and overruled, and defendants have appealed from that ruling.

The garnishees urge that said judgment against them should be vacated for the reason that at the time same was rendered, they had on file a verified answer denying any indebtedness to defendant Arnold. An examination of the answer shows ■ that said garnishees admitted the execution of their promissory note in the sum of $250 in favor of defendant Arnold, which was due and unpaid, and that said garnishees had contracted and agreed to pay to said defendant the further sum of $350, which amount was at the time of the filing of said answer unpaid. It was further alleged that the amounts agreed to be paid by said garnishees were for certain lands in the Chickasaw Nation, Ind. T., claimed to be owned by said Arnold, which he had sold to garnishees in consideration of said amounts; that garnishees were informed that said property was not in fact the property of sa’d Charles Arnold and that their promise to pay was procured by said Arnold by means of fraudulent misrepresentations and garnishees prayed judgment of the court whether they were in fact indebted to said Arnold in said amounts. This answer cannot be construed as a denial of indebtedness within the authorities relied upon by counsel for defendant. What garnishees in fact did was to state the facts and submit them to the court for a determination of their liability. Under these circumstances the court was authorized, as it did, to determine whether the facts stated rendered garnishees liable for the amount of their obligations, the execution of which was admitted in tlie answer.

In Pace v. Merril Drug Co., 2 Ind. T. 218, 48 S. W. 1061, the statutes regulating the procedure in cases of this character which were in force in the Indian Territory were construed by the Court of Appeals, and the procedure adopted by the trial court in the case at bar was held to be proper. The fourth paragraph of the syllabus in that case is as follows:

“If a garnishee appear and answer that he has property of, or is indebted to, defendant, or states the facts and submits a determination of his liability to the court, the court may order the garnishee to deliver the property, or to pay the amount owing by the garnishee into court, to the amount of plaintiff’s demand, and may enter judgment against garnishee and issue execution thereon for the amount.”

That is just what was done in this case. The garnishees answered admitting the execution of certain obligations to defendant, and stated the facts out of which said obligations grew, and the court, upon consideration thereof and upon sufficient showing, adjudged them to be liable to defendant in the amount of their admitted obligations. This contention is not good for another reason. The entire record in the trial court is not incorporated in the case-made and we are unable to determine whether issue was joined upon the answer as defendant contends it should have been, and a trial thereafter had upon the issues so made. The judgment recites that said garnishees had been duly summoned and had filed answer, and that it had been shown to the court that they were indebted to defendant Arnold in certain sums for which judgment was rendered. A reasonable construction of this recital in the journal entry justifies the conclusion that a sufficient showing was made of a character to satisfy the mind of the court from which the court found that said garnishees were indebted to defendant in the amounts for which judgment was rendered; and this conclusion is supported by the presumption of regularity which attaches to the proceedings of a court of record, acting within the scope of its jurisdiction.' 16 Oyc. 1075.

Defendant Arnold urges that the court erred in rendering judgment against him while he had pending a motion to make the petition more definite and certain. It affirmatively appears that on May 2, 1906, this motion was sustained and the petition which is incorporated in the case-made is designated as “first amended complaint,”' and the indorse-ments thereon show same to have been refiled September 25, 1907, which was after the order to make more definite and certain had been sustained, and'it thus appears that said motion had been acted upon and the pleading amended in response thereto, and no demurrer appears to have been lodged against said pleading as amended.

On the day the case was regularly set for trial plaintiff appeared in person and by his attorney and had his witnesses present, and defendant appeared by his counsel, Mr. Gilbert, who at that time announced that he had no objections to judgment being taken. Had said motion not been acted upon, this of itself would have constituted an abandonment and a waiver thereof.

It is claimed that the petition was insufficient to support the judgment rendered be *275 cause same did. not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action in that plaintiff was seeking to recover for the purchase price of improvements on Indian land without first showing that the person selling the improvements was an Indian citizen. We do not so construe the petition. As we understand it, plaintiff was seeking to recover for the price agreed to be paid for a certain lease upon land belonging to one Minnie Shirley, an Indian citizen. The petition and the contract attached as an exhibit thereto disclose that plaintiff had advanced to said Minnie Shirley and her husband money with which to purchase improvements upon certain iands which had been conveyed to them, in consideration ' of which the Shirleys acknowledged themselves to be indebted to Burks in a certain amount, and had rented him the premises for a certain stipulated rental per an-num. The action is not upon the contract of purchase between the Shirleys and the original owner of the improvements; for that was consummated and the consideration paid.

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Related

McAdams v. Latham
1908 OK 132 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1908)
Pace v. J. S. Merrill Drug Co.
48 S.W. 1061 (Court Of Appeals Of Indian Territory, 1899)

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Bluebook (online)
1917 OK 187, 164 P. 970, 63 Okla. 273, 1917 Okla. LEXIS 542, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/arnold-v-burks-okla-1917.