Brown v. Turner

1949 OK 146, 207 P.2d 927, 201 Okla. 570, 1949 Okla. LEXIS 363
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJune 28, 1949
DocketNo. 33103
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 1949 OK 146 (Brown v. Turner) 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
Brown v. Turner, 1949 OK 146, 207 P.2d 927, 201 Okla. 570, 1949 Okla. LEXIS 363 (Okla. 1949).

Opinion

ARNOLD, V. C. J.

On the 31st day of July, 1944, Arthur Turner, Joella Crenshaw and Chrisella Graham, defendants herein, obtained a judgment, in the sum of $33,382.36, against Jesse C. Brown, plaintiff herein, in the district court of Okmulgee county, Okla. Thereafter the judgment was filed and recorded on the judgment docket of the district court of Tulsa county. On the 4th day of October, 1946, defendants had an execution issued and levied upon lots 23 and 24 in block 6, Northside addition to the city of Tulsa, to satisfy the judgment. Thereafter, and on the 26th day of October, 1946, plaintiff herein, Jesse C. Brown, brought an action against the above-named parties and the sheriff of Tulsa county to enjoin the sale of the premises to remove the judgment lien as a cloud upon his title and to quiet title in him. The action is predicated on the theory that the premises levied upon constituted the homestead of plaintiff and that the judgment upon which execution had been issued had been discharged in bankruptcy.

Subsequent to the institution of the action and prior to judgment, Arthur Turner died and the prosecution of the action was thereafter continued in the name of Iva Lee Turner, adminis-tratrix of his estate.

Defendants in their answer, in effect, conceded that the premises upon which the execution was levied had been impressed with homestead character, but alleged that plaintiff had abandoned the premises as a homestead and had established residence and place of business in Okmulgee, Okla. It is also conceded by defendants that Jesse C. Brown, after the rendition of the judgment, filed a petition in bankruptcy; that he was adjudicated a bankrupt; that the judgment herein was listed and scheduled as an indebtedness against the estate, and that plaintiff thereafter obtained a discharge from all provable debts and all such debts as were properly dischargeable in bankruptcy. They, however, assert and plead that the judgment is based upon fraud, misappropriation and defalcation of plaintiff while acting in a fidu[571]*571ciary capacity, and is therefore not such a debt as is dischargeable in bankruptcy. The trial court sustained defendants on both issues and denied plaintiff’s application for an injunction. Plaintiff asserts that the judgment is not sustained by the evidence but is clearly against the weight thereof and is contrary to law.

The evidence discloses that the premises levied upon consist of less than a quarter acre in area; that there was erected thereon a rooming house consisting of seventeen rooms. It is not, however, pleaded or urged as a defense by defendants that the value of the premises, together with the building erected thereon, exceeded the sum of $5,000. The evidence shows that plaintiff acquired the property some time in the year 1927; that he was a married man and the head of a family; that he set aside, equipped and furnished several rooms in the building consisting of bedrooms, a living room, dining room and kitchen, for living quarters and for the purpose of making the same the home and place of residence of himself and family. The remaining space in the building was used and occupied by him in the maintenance of a funeral home and undertaking business. In 1928 he moved his family consisting of his wife, Cora Brown, and three minor children into these rooms where they lived and occupied the same as their homestead and residence until the 25th day of February, 1936, at which time plaintiff obtained a divorce from Cora Brown; that thereafter Cora Brown moved to Chicago. Plaintiff, however, together with his sister and minor children, continued occupying the rooms in the building as their home until sometime in 1937 when he disposed of his business in Tulsa, moved to Okmulgee and the children were sent to Chicago where they after-wards lived with their mother.

The evidence conclusively shows that the premises involved constituted the homestead of plaintiff from 1928 until 1937, the date upon which he moved from the premises and went to Okmul-gee.

It is well established that when the homestead character once attaches to land it continues to be the homestead until the owner voluntarily changes its character by disposing of the property, or by leaving without intention, or forming such intention after leaving, of not returning and occupying it as a homestead. Temporary absence from the homestead does not constitute an abandonment thereof where there exists a definite fixed intention to return. White Inv. Co. v. Stupart, 152 Okla. 144, 4 P. 2d 77; Russell v. Key, 195 Okla. 49, 155 P. 2d 238; Cooper v. Kiester, 199 Okla. 238, 185 P. 2d 458. Since the evidence shows that the homestead character had once attached to the land and had constituted the homestead of plaintiff, the burden was on defendants to show that he had abandoned the same as a homestead and that when he left the premises and moved to Okmulgee he did so with the intention of not returning to Tulsa and again occupying the premises as a homestead. The trial court found that defendant sustained this burden and found that plaintiff had abandoned the premises as a homestead. Is the finding of the trial court in this respect clearly against the weight of the evidence? The evidence shows without dispute that after the plaintiff removed from the building in 1937 he placed in charge of the premises Charlotte Harris who managed the same and collected the rents; that he remodeled the space and rooms set apart by him as living quarters and converted that space into smaller rooms for the purpose of renting them and that such space was thereafter rented to roomers. The evidence is also conclusive that in 1937, after plaintiff closed his undertaking business in the city of Tulsa, he went to Okmulgee and established a like business and that he actually lived and resided there ever since; that he is now conducting an undertaking business in said city and is personally looking after and managing the business. It is also shown [572]*572that he remarried in 1943 and that he and his wife rented a residence at 607 East Fifth street, Okmulgee, where they now reside.

Plaintiff testified that when he closed out his business in Tulsa and moved to Okmulgee he did so with the intention of eventually returning to Tulsa. In this respect, however, he specifically testified the reason he went to Ok-mulgee was to open up a business; that he and his wife had some trouble; that he thought it would be better for him to go to Okmulgee and open a business because he felt he would do better; that it was his purpose in moving to make some money to meet his obligations and taxes in Tulsa to get things straightened out; that was the only purpose for his moving; that he intended to come back to Tulsa when he got things straightened out; that if he got things straightened out he would come back to Tulsa. In all his testimony as to his intention to return to Tulsa he does not testify that he ever again intended to move into and occupy his former quarters in the building as his home. The evidence taken as a whole fails to show that at the time plaintiff left and abandoned his rooms as a home in Tulsa and moved to Okmulgee that his purpose in moving was only temporary and that he then had a definite and fixed intention to return to Tulsa and again occupy the rooms in the building as his home. His purpose as expressed in his testimony in leaving Tulsa and moving to Okmul-gee was in the hope that he might there establish a business and make money sufficient to discharge his debts and obligations and straighten out his affairs in Tulsa; that if and when he succeeded in accomplishing this purpose he intended to return to Tulsa.

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Related

In Re Simpson
206 B.R. 230 (E.D. Oklahoma, 1997)
Alexander v. Love County Nat. Bank of Marietta
1950 OK 221 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1950)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1949 OK 146, 207 P.2d 927, 201 Okla. 570, 1949 Okla. LEXIS 363, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brown-v-turner-okla-1949.