Berkey v. Rader

1925 OK 954, 244 P. 184, 116 Okla. 258, 1925 Okla. LEXIS 382
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedNovember 24, 1925
Docket15986
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 1925 OK 954 (Berkey v. Rader) 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
Berkey v. Rader, 1925 OK 954, 244 P. 184, 116 Okla. 258, 1925 Okla. LEXIS 382 (Okla. 1925).

Opinion

Opinion by

STEPHENSON, C.

W. J. Rader and wife executed and delivered their real estate mortgage to the Phoenix Mortgage Company, covering 160 acres of land situated in Pottawatomie county, to secure the payment of an indebtedness in about the sum of 81,600, bearing date as of July 16, 1917. The Phoenix Mortgage Company sold and assigned the mortgage to Jacob S. Berkey, a nonresident, on March 5, 1918. The mortgagors executed and delivered the mortgage in question, to the Phoenix Mortgage Company for the purpose of securing funds to pay the mortgages then o.wed to the American Investment Company in the total of about $1,560. The Phoenix Mortgage Company delayed paying the proceeds of the mortgage to the mortgagors from time to time, until the latter commenced their action on June 14, 1919, against the Phoenix Mortgage Company and Jacob S. Berkey to cancel the note and mortgage. Service was had upon Jacob S. Berkey by publication. The cause came on for trial on April 12, 1920, and resulted in judgment in favor of the mortgagors canceling the note and mortgage. Thereafter. W. J. Rader and- wife sold and conveyed the property by their warranty deed on April 28, 1920, to W. G. Cook and wife, for the recited consideration of $2,500, and the assumption of a $900 mortgage then standing against the property in favor of the American Investment Company. W. G. Cook subsequently executed and delivered his mortgage upon the property to Max Krouch to secure the payment of a note in the principal sum of $1,560. The proceeds from the latter mortgage were used to pay the two mortgages owing to the American Investment Company. Thereafter, W. G. Cook conveyed the land by his warranty deed to J. M. White for the consideration of $2,500. Following this conveyance, J. M. White executed and delivered a mort *259 gage to the First National Bank of Tecumseh, to secure the payment of a note in the principal sum of $1,600. Following the execution and delivery of the several instruments, and within three years from the date of the rendition of the judgment, Jacob S. Berkey filed his motion to set aside the judgment rendered against him canceling the note and mortgage in question. Cook and wife, White and wife, Max Krouch and the First National Bank of Tecumseh were made parties to the proceedings for setting aside the judgment. The defendant Berkey alleged as grounds for setting aside the judgment :

(3) That service was had upon him by .publication, and that he was a nonresident of the state of Oklahoma, and was residing outside of the state of Oklahoma when the judgment was rendered against him canceling his note and mortgage. The defendant further alleged that he did not have actual notice of the pendency of the suit before the rendition of the judgment; that he was the holder of the note and mortgage canceled in the action without notice of any infirmities, and for value.

(2) That the plaintiff Bader was guilty of fraud in the procurement of the judgment, because of the fact that Bader could have ascertained his post office address, if he had inquired of the Phoenix Mortgage Company before commencing the action.

(3) The defendant alleged that fraud was practiced upon him in the following-particular : That he transmitted his interest coupons to the Phoenix Mortgage Company for collection, and that the mortgage company sent him payment for the interest to and including the interest payment due in June, 3.919. That the act of the mortgage company led him to believe that plaintiffs were satisfied with the note and mortgage, and were paying the interest thereon.

White and wife, and Cook and wife, and the subsequent mortgagees, filed response to defendant’s motion, in which they set forth that they were owners and incumbrancers for value and without notice of the matters set forth by defendant in his motion to set aside the judgment, and prayed that defendant’s motion be denied. Bader and wife, who were the defendant’s mortgagors, appeared in the proceeding in opposition to the defendant’s motion. Jacob S. Berkey, the defendant, died sometime after the application was made to set aside the judgment. and before the hearing thereon, and the proceeding was revived in the name of Oliver P. Berkey. as administrator of his estate. Evidence was offered on the part of the administrator to show that the decedent wa,s a holder of the note and mortgage in due course, for value, and without notice of the defects alleged by the mortgagors. The testimony of the mortgagors was that they executed and delivered the mortgage in question to the Phoenix Mortgage Company to secure funds to pay two mortgages owed to the American Investment Company in about the sum of $1,560. That the mortgage company delayed and failed finally to pay the proceeds of the mortgage, and they commenced the proceeding for the cancellation of the instruments.

The evidence did not dispute the testimony of the defendant that Jacob S. Berkey was the holder of the note and mortgagé in due course, for value, and without notice of defects in the title. The testimony showed Cook and wife, J. M. White and wife, purchasers, and Max Krouch, and the First National Bank of Tecumseh, mortgagees, were owners and lienholders for value and without notice of the matters set forth in the defendant’s motion to set aside the judgment, and that they so acquired their interest in the property before the defendant commenced his proceeding to set aside the judgment.

The trial of the cause resulted in a judgment denying the defendant’s motion to set aside the judgment, and the defendant has appealed the cause here for review. The plaintiff in error assigns as error the insufficiency of the record to support judgment for_the plaintiffs and interveners, who were owners and incumbrancers.

It appears that the plaintiff in error does not attack the proceeding had by the plaintiff for the cancellation of the note and mortgage, except the affidavit upon which service was obtained by publication against the defendant. That part of plaintiff in error’s brief relating to this proposition is in the following language:

“The plaintiff, W. J. Bader, perpetrated a fraud upon Berkey in his affidavit to obtain service by publication, when he stated therein that he was ‘unable to ascertain the whereabouts of Jacob S. Berkey’.”

The plaintiff in error’s attack on the affidavit is in the nature of charging the plaintiff with making a false affidavit in order to procure service upon the defendant by publication. The plaintiff in error reasons from this proposition, that the plaintiff Bader practiced fraud upon the defendant in procuring service by publication in order to prevent the defendant from appearing personally, in the defense of the action. The reasoning following this statement as made *260 by the plaintiff in error to justify the assumption of fraud upon the part of the plaintiff in making the affidavit, is that if the plaintiff had inquired of the Phoenix Mortgage Company, it would have been able to inform the plaintiff of the post office address of the defendant. We think this deduction is not supported by the facts appearing in the record. We think it is not. likely that the Phoenix Mortgage Company would have placed the plaintiff in touch with the defendant, as the mortgage company had not yet paid the proceeds of the mortgage to the plaintiff.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1925 OK 954, 244 P. 184, 116 Okla. 258, 1925 Okla. LEXIS 382, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/berkey-v-rader-okla-1925.