Avis v. Hopping

1939 OK 84, 88 P.2d 622, 184 Okla. 527, 1939 Okla. LEXIS 110
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedFebruary 14, 1939
DocketNo. 28332.
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 1939 OK 84 (Avis v. Hopping) 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
Avis v. Hopping, 1939 OK 84, 88 P.2d 622, 184 Okla. 527, 1939 Okla. LEXIS 110 (Okla. 1939).

Opinion

OSBORN, J.

This action was brought in the district court of Wagoner county by Paul Avis, as administrator of the estate of O. 'S. Hopping, deceased, against Susie Hopping, surviving spouse of said O. S. Hopping, to set aside and cancel a warranty deed executed by the deceased approximately four years before his death conveying to the said Susie Hopping two tracts of land in Wagoner county, which are referred to herein as the Childers’ farm and tlie Simon’s farm. The plaintiff alleged this conveyance was without fair and valuable consideration and therefore void as to those persons to whom said O. S. Hopping- was under a legal liability at the time of executing said conveyance under the provisions of section 9697, O. S. 1931, post. The trial court rendered judgment in favor of the defendant, Susie Hopping, and the plaintiff appeals to this court. We *528 shall refer to the parties as they appeared in the trial court.

On June 21, 1927, O. S. Hopping, as surety, joined in the execution of a bond for O. R. Hunter, as executor of the estate of H. E. Brooks, deceased. At that time the legal title to the realty involved herein was in the name of O. S. Hopping, but no property was scheduled on the bond. December 12, 1930, O. S. Hopping executed the conveyance in question, and on June 27, 1932, Ethel Brooks Shaw, as heir of the deceased H. E. Brooks, filed an application in the county court of Tulsa county, in which court the probate proceedings were pending, praying that said O. R. Hunter be removed as executor of the estate, alleging certain misconduct on his part. July 12, 1932, the county court removed said executor, and in the order, made October 3, 1933, settling the final account of O. R. Hunter as executor found that he was heavily indebted to the estate. Thereafter Ethel Brooks Shaw filed suit in the United 'States District Court against the executor and his sureties, including O. S. Hopping, on the executor’s bond, and recovered judgment against them on June 26, 1936. O. S. Hopping had died on December 6, 1934, and the plaintiff herein, as administrator of his estate, had been substituted as party defendant.

The plaintiff filed this suit on December 10, 1936, and alleged that the assets of the estate were wholly insufficient to satisfy the liability of said O. S. Hopping on the aforesaid bond as determined by the judgment rendered in the United States District Court in favor of said Ethel Brooks Shaw. The plaintiff further stated in his petition that this action was brought for the benefit of Ethel Brooks Shaw and prayed that said Ethel Brooks Shaw be decreed to have a claim or lien upon the. realty involved herein superior and prior to the claims of other creditors, if any, of the estate of said O. S. Hopping. Because of the opinion hereinafter expressed, it is unnecessary that we determine whether said judgment creditor, Ethel Brooks Shaw, had such a superior and prior claim or lien upon the property or whether the plaintiff herein as administrator of the estate could assert such a claim in behalf and for the benefit of one creditor to the exclusion of others.

The plaintiff relies upon section 9697, O. S. 1931 (24 Okla. Stat. Ann. sec. 10), which provides:

“Every conveyance of real estate, or any interest therein, and every mortgage or other instrument in any way affecting the same, made without a fair and valuable consideration, or made in bad faith, or for the purpose of hindering, delaying or defrauding creditors, shall be void as against all persons to whom the maker is at the time indebted or under any legal liability”

The plaintiff pleaded and sougnt to prove that the deceased, O. S. Hopping, conveyed the property in auestion to the defendant as a gift, and consequently void under the foregoing statute, irrespective of fraudulent intent, as against all persons to whom said grantor was at the time under any legal liability. First National Bank of Barnsdall v. Little, 122 Okla. 37, 250 P. 799. The defendant contended that the property was conveyed to her in payment of a pre-exist-ing debt owed to her by her husband.

We shall consider the plaintiff’s assignments of error in conjunction with a review of the evidence. In support of the contention that the conveyance was without fair and valuable consideration, the plaintiff introduced in evidence a transcript of the testimony given by the defendant at a hearing before the county court of Tulsa county on citation to disclose assets of the estate of said O. S. Hopping, deceased. At this hearing, which was held on December 9, 1936, the day before the case at bar was filed, the defendant testified that there was no consideration given for the deed except love and affection. Replying to several questions, the defendant stated that the deed was a gift by her husband. This was the only evidence the plaintiff introduced to prove lack of fair and valuable consideration except the deed itself. The consideration set forth there was “the sum of One Dollar and other good and valuable consideration ($1.00 etc.)”. It is upon this evidence the plaintiff’s case must stand.

The first witness for the defendant was W. S. Duggins, execution deputy in the sheriff’s office of Tulsa county, who witnessed O. S. Hopping’s signature to the deed herein. Mr. Duggins testified that Hopping stated at the time he executed this deed, in favor of his wife, the defendant, that he was doing this because of his health and because “he wanted to get his business straightened around and reimburse his wife the money he had used of hers.”

The plaintiff contends that this declaration by O. S. Hopping was inadmissible, and relies upon the statement in 1 Ruling Case Law, at page 501, section 42, as his authority. Under the circumstances in the case at bar the trial court did not err in *529 admitting this statement in evidence. The rule as stated in the above authority upon which the plaintiff relies is as follows:

“To render an entry or declaration of a person since deceased admissible, it must appear to have been made without any interest or motive to falsify the fact, and of this the court should be satisfied; though absence of motive usually appears from the fact that the declaration was made ante litem motam or at a period so remote as to preclude any suspicion that it was .manufactured.”

There was no evidence that O. S. Hopping had reason to believe or knew that he would become liable upon the executor’s bond in the Brooks estate at some indefinite date in the future. All evidence herein is to the contrary.

Susie Hopping, the defendant, who is 72 years old, testified that she had advanced her husband, O. S. Hopping, the money with which to purchase this real property and he executed this deed to reimburse her for that money. According to the defendant the money advanced was from her separate funds. Defendant stated she had inherited part of this money from her father and the balance she had accumulated through her individual efforts. Such a bona fide debt owing a wife by her husband is good and sufficient consideration for a conveyance or transfer by the husband of his real property, either in payment or as security for such debt. Swan v. Bailey, 71 Okla. 30, 174 P. 1065.

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Bluebook (online)
1939 OK 84, 88 P.2d 622, 184 Okla. 527, 1939 Okla. LEXIS 110, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/avis-v-hopping-okla-1939.