Barnett v. Kemerer

1937 OK 137, 66 P.2d 1053, 179 Okla. 588, 1937 Okla. LEXIS 346
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedMarch 2, 1937
DocketNo. 26381.
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 1937 OK 137 (Barnett v. Kemerer) 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
Barnett v. Kemerer, 1937 OK 137, 66 P.2d 1053, 179 Okla. 588, 1937 Okla. LEXIS 346 (Okla. 1937).

Opinion

CORN, J.

This is an appeal from the district court of Pontotoc county. The action originated in that court by P. A. Kemerer, as plaintiff, against W. J. Barnett, Bank Commissioner, who had charge of the liquidation of the Security State Bank of Ada, which had .gone into voluntary liquidation and had been taken over by the Bank Commissioner in order to wind up its affairs. Tom Young-blood, liquidating agent for said bank, whs also made a defendant. The plaintiff, Kem-erer, obtained judgment in the trial court for $2,000, together with interest. The parties to this appeal will be referred to as plaintiff and defendants, as they appeared in the trial court.

The facts upon which this action is based are substantially as follows: Sometime in 1929, Cannady employed Kemerer and his brother, John Kemerer, by the day, to drill an oil well near Dustin, in Hughes county, yet Cannady had a contract with several large companies that he, Cannady, would drill or have the well drilled to a depth of 4,200 feet. This resulted in Cannady and said companies entering into a contract known among oil operators as a “bottom hole” contract, which means that when the operator drills a well to a certain depth, the owners or the persons for whom the well is drilled will pay a certain sum. This “bottom hole” agreement provided that when Cannady had drilled to a depth of 4,200 feet, he would be paid $8,-000. Such contract from responsible parties would be an asset in the hands of the operator; if he was so situated that he did not have the ready cash to meet his pay roll and wanted to convince his employees that he would have the money to pay them when they completed the well or reached a certain depth, he could show this to his employees or arrange through some bank to finance his project,

On April 2, 1930, Cannady would become indebted to plaintiff and his brother John, for labor as drillers upon said well, in the sum of $2,362, to Joe and Lee Cantell in the sum. of $426, and to Sam Stephens in the sum of $100 for like services, amounts aggregating $2,888.

Cannady was doing business with the Security State Bank of Ada, so he arranged with the bank to advance him certain sums based upon the “bottom hole” contract, and also arranged with the bank to collect the $8,000 from the parties who had agreed to pay same, when it became due. In order to have something to show the laborers employed to drill the well that he had liquid assets with which to pay them for their services when the well was completed, Cannady, on April 2, 1930, wrote L. A. Ellison, vice president of said bank requesting him to issue a letter of credit to be shown to said laborers, and at the same time drew a check on said bank against said contemplated collection for $2,362, payable to the order of P. A. and John Kemerer, in settlement for their labor upon said well, with instructions to L. A. Ellison, its active vice president, to pay said check to the Kem-erers when the amount of said contracts had been collected. Ellison, acting in obedience to said request, did on said date issue a duplicate deposit slip in favor of P. A. and John Kemerer in the sum of $2,362. The $8,000 was collected as contemplated, but before the bank could pay the same to plaintiff, Can-nady stopped payment on the cheek he had placed in escrow for plaintiff, but permitted the bank to retain $362 from said amount, applying same upon a note of like amount that plaintiff owed the bank. John Kemerer, *589 named in the deposit slip, assigned his interest to his brother, P. A. Kemerer, the plaintiff ; therefore, the action proceeded between plaintiff and defendants.

Defendants in their brief have consolidated and argue, under the following head, specifications of error Nos. 1, 3, and 5 to 19, inclusive. to wit:

“Irregularities in the proceedings of the court and the orders of the court by which the defendants were prevented from having a fair trial.”

They follow up these assignments of error by argument and presentation of authorities, which are not supported by the evidence. Their argument is to the effect that where a person goes into a bank, hands the cashier or other officer a note or contract to be collected by the bank, the bank is not, except in case of gross negligence, accountable to that person until the collection has been made, the same being an ordinary transaction which takes place every day with banks and their customers. The instructions requested by defendants are the law based upon such an ordinary transaction above stated, or, in other words, apply where ' there are no “strings tied” to the paper sought to be collected and the bank has made no representations concerning the transaction which have caused a third party to act thereon. It is true a person has a perfect right to stop payment upon an ordinary check he has drawn, payable to another person, before same has been paid, but where the same is placed in escrow with said bank and deposit slip delivered to the payees of said check and said persons have acted on the strength of the check, issued in their favor, to their detriment, a different situation exists.

The check in question was introduced as defendant’s exhibit “A,” which reads as follows :

“Security State Bank 86-1168
“Ada, Oklahoma, Apr. 2nd, 1930 No._ “Pay to the
“Order of P. A. & John Kemerer $2362.00 “Twenty three hundred sixty two & No/100 Dollars.
“This check is in full settlement of account as shown hereon. Acceptance by endorsement constitutes receipt in full.
“192_
“-Payable on collection
“-of purchase orders
“-mentioned in letter of
“-this date.
“(Signed) Ohas. Cannady.”

The deposit slip is as follows:

“Duplicate Deposit Slip.
“Deposited in Security State Bank, Ada, Okla. P. A. and John Kemerer 4-2-1930
“Check as follows:
“For collection subject to payment of purchase order held by us — OK of Ohas Can-nady. $2362.00
Ellison.”

Attached to the above and foregoing deposit slip was the following letter from Cannady to L. A. Ellison, vice president of the Security State Bank, which Ellison authorized Can-nady to show to plaintiff, and for the very purpose, as Ellison afterwards testified, to strengthen Cannady’s credit and ability to pay plaintiff, to wit:

“Chax-les O. Cannady
“203 American Building,
“Ada, Okla. April 2, 1930.
“Re: Bottom hole purchase orders & distribution of funds collected.
“Mr. L. A. Ellison,
c/o Security State Bank,
“Ada, Oklahoma
“Dear Sir:
“With reference to the previous letter and purchase orders which I delivered to you, beg to state further:

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Bluebook (online)
1937 OK 137, 66 P.2d 1053, 179 Okla. 588, 1937 Okla. LEXIS 346, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/barnett-v-kemerer-okla-1937.