Arnold v. Gambrel

1917 OK 441, 167 P. 630, 64 Okla. 283, 1917 Okla. LEXIS 649
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedSeptember 11, 1917
Docket5914
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 1917 OK 441 (Arnold v. Gambrel) 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. Gambrel, 1917 OK 441, 167 P. 630, 64 Okla. 283, 1917 Okla. LEXIS 649 (Okla. 1917).

Opinion

THACKER, J.

On November 9, 1912, the plaintiff in error, who was plaintiff below, in a conversation over a telephone, agreed to purchase of Ed Gambrel or the Gambrel Cotton Company, alias Gambel Cotton Company, in which names he did business, 50 bales of cotton; and some time thereafter, but not later than November 14, 1912, the plaintiff, in accord with that agreement, received and paid a draft drawn upon him for $3,565.62 by the aforesaid Ed Gambrel or the Gambrel Cotton Company, alias Gambel Cotton Company, who were the defendants in the trial court, as the purchase price of such cotton. To this draft there was attached a bill of lading purporting to have been issued by the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway Company, and to carry the , title to said cotton from the defendants to the plaintiff, but which, in fact, had been forged, according to the allegations of plaintiff’s petition, or which had been “raised,” according to what plaintiff was told upon inquiry of the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway Company.

On November 14, 1912, plaintiff had discovered that this bill of lading had been forged and-did not carry the title to these 50 bales, or, so far as appears from the record, any cotton whatever, and commenced this action against the defendants for the said sum of *284 $3,565.62. At the same time the plaintiff caused a garnishee summons to be issued and served upon the State National Bank of Oklahoma City, which then owed the defendant, as one of its depositors, $1,590.62, and a writ of attachment to be issued, and served by the seizure of 22 bales of cotton in the hands of the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Ee Railway Company, as the property of the defendants.

On November 11, 1912, three days before this action was commenced, and therefore a very short time before or after'plaintiff paid said draft for $3,565.62, Higgins & Campbell, a copartnership composed of J. M. Higgins and- Campbell, who are interven-ers in this action, sold Ed Gambrel, or the Gambrel Cotton Company, alias Gambel Cotton Company, the aforesaid 22 bales of cotton for $1,408.57, which was to have been paid in cash, but, as a means of obtaining the cash, accepted the defendants’ check upon the State National Bank of Oklahoma City for that amount after they had been informed by that bank, through a telephone inquiry made for them by the cashier of the Bank of Paoli, that defendant had a sufficient amount on deposit to pay this cheek, and that the same would be paid if presented. This check was thereupon indorsed to the Bank of Paoli, and the amount of the same was credited to the deposit account of Higgins & Campbell.

On November 14, 1912, after the service of the aforesaid garnishee summons upon the State National Bank on that day, the said cheek given by the defendants to Higgins & Campbell as a means of paying said $1,408.57 for said 22 bales of cotton was presented to that bank and protested because of its refusal of payment. Payment was refused upon the grounds, as shown in the bank’s answer as garnishee herein, that, notwithstanding the assurance it had given the cashier of the Bank of Paoli, it feared the $1,590.62 in the hands of that bank as a deposit to the credit of the defendants might be subject to be taken by the plaintiff upon such garnishment summons; and the Bank of Paoli promptly notified Higgins & Campbell of 'the nonpayment and protest, and charged the amount of the check back against them, of which they had notice at least as early as during the first days of the next month. They were then without sufficient funds on deposit to meet that charge, but this cheek was returned them on the 1st of the month.

On December 14, 1912, two days before the State National Bank answered said garnishee summons stating all the facts relating to this check, the Bank of Paoli intervened in this action, claiming that this check for $1,408.57, in view of the information given it by the State National Bank as aforesaid, operated as an assignment of the amount of the same from the defendants to this inter-vener and entitled the latter to $1,408.57 of said $1,590.62 as against the plaintiff’s rights under said garnishee summons.

On Eebruary 25, 1913, the aforesaid Higgins & Campbell (who had had for some time the services of an attorney engaged to look after their interests in this matter) intervened, claiming the title to said 22 bales of cotton when attached by the plaintiff upon the grounds, as in effect alleged by them, that their sale of this cotton to the defendants was for cash and upon the condition of its payment, and that the check taken by them from the defendant as a means of obtaining this cash had been refused payment, so that no attachable title to this cotton had passed from them to the defendant when the same was seized upon the plaintiff’s writ.

The plaintiff filed a general denial of the allegations in the petition of each of the in-terveners.

•The defendants, who absconded about the time Of the commencement of this action, made no appearance in this case; and, after service of summons by publication upon them, this case went to trial to the court without a jury on May 19, 1913, and was taken under advisement. On July 5, 1913, judgment by default was given against defendants, and also against the Bank of Paoli, which had dismissed its petition during the progress of the trial; but the interveners Higgins & Campbell were given judgment “for the value of or the return of the twenty-two bales” of cotton.

The plaintiff brings the case here for review upon the question of Higgins & Campbell’s .adjudged title and right to these 22 bales of cotton, and, as grounds for reversal, he urges: (1) That the evidence in behalf of these interveners was insufficient to support a finding that the title to these 22 bales of cotton did not pass from them to the defendants on November 11, 1912; (2) that Higgins & Campbell did not, with requisite promptness, assert their title and attempt to retake the property, if any title they had, but waived the same by unreasonable delay in this regard; (3) that the evidence for Higgins & Campbell does not sufficiently identify these 22 bales as the ones they sold the defendants; and (4) that the evidence shows that the bill of lading purchased and paid for by the plaintiff, although forged, covered and carried the title to these 22 bales of cotton, being “raised” so as to be a forgqry only as to 28 bales.

*285 Tlie plaintiff's first contention presents a very serious and difficult question for decision ; and liis second contention presents a question almost, if not quite, as serious; but, as we understand the record in this case, there is no basis whatever for his third and fourth contentions, the cotton in question being not only identified in a measure by the “Diamond H” brand placed upon it at the time it was sold by Higgins & Campbell to the defendants, notwithstanding this is also the brand used by the plaintiff, but by a correspondence of the facts of its shipment with the facts of the shipment of the cotton sold by Higgins & Campbell, and also by a correspondence in weight of bales and numbers of gin tags, while there appears to be no evidence even tending in any degree to identify this cotton with the cotton, if any, included in this forged bill of lading, which is not in evidence.

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Bluebook (online)
1917 OK 441, 167 P. 630, 64 Okla. 283, 1917 Okla. LEXIS 649, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/arnold-v-gambrel-okla-1917.