Burke v. Donnermeyer

1968 OK 174, 448 P.2d 446
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedDecember 17, 1968
DocketNo. 41956
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 1968 OK 174 (Burke v. Donnermeyer) 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
Burke v. Donnermeyer, 1968 OK 174, 448 P.2d 446 (Okla. 1968).

Opinion

BLACKBIRD, Justice:

This appeal involves an action, whose effect was nullification of the sale and/or transfer to defendants in error, Mr. and Mrs. Donnermeyer (hereinafter referred to by name, or as “plaintiffs”) by the plaintiffs in error, C. L. and Beulah V. Gibson, [447]*447husband and wife, and one Anna L. Gal-breath, of a business property in Guymon, known as the “Oklahoman Motor Hotel”, and the rescission of the contract for said transfer.

Previously, the owner of the motel buildings and lots, Intri-State Investment Company, had leased said realty (under a so-called “lease-purchase agreement”) to one, Garner, in December, 1963, for a long term, with an option, at the end of the term, to purchase the property for $100.00. The property consisted of a motel and restaurant in one building, and a so-called “Private Club” (for eating and drinking) in an adjacent, but separate building. The two eating places had separate kitchens.

Garner operated the motel only a few months before selling it, and assigning his rights, in the above-mentioned lease-purchase agreement, to the Gibsons and Gal-breath, in August, 1964. A Midwest City real estate broker, named “Drake”, of Western Motel Brokers, handled the transaction. In connection with this change of ownership, Garner furnished the new operators the original, or a copy, of the business’s property and equipment inventory, that had been given to him when he had gone into possession, seven' or eight months previously. Listed on the inventory were linens being used in the business, when Garner acquired it. However, those linens were no longer in the motel, for when they wore out, Garner had started renting other linens from an Amarillo concern. A kitchen range and steam table, used in the club kitchen, did not appear on the inventory.

After operating the business a few months, the Gibsons and GalbreatE decided to sell it, and so notified the broker, Drake, who listed it with a Nebraska real estate agent, the plaintiff in error, Burke, who did business under the name of “Burke Realty Company.”

Burke was acquainted with Mr. and Mrs. Donnermeyer, who were residents of North Platte, Nebraska, and had owned and operated a motel, without a restaurant, in that State for two years, before selling it. When Mr. Donnermeyer asked Burke if he knew of another motel he and his wife could acquire, Burke then informed him of the Oklahoman’s availability, and Donner-meyer evidenced sufficient interest in its purchase to accompany Burke on a motor trip to Guymon, during the latter part of October, 1964, to see this establishment. During their stay at the Oklahoman, Mr. Donnermeyer made it known that his wife would have to see, and approve, any motel he and she purchased, and that she would not want to operate a restaurant.

On Mr. Donnermeyer’s second trip to Guymon, Mrs. Donnermeyer accompanied him and they drove from their Nebraska home to Dodge City, Kansas, where they left their children in Mrs. Donnermeyer’s sister’s home there, met Burke, and he transported them in his car the rest of the way to Guymon. On their way back, when they stopped at the sister’s home again, a form of contract entitled: “UNIFORM PURCHASE AGREEMENT”, was drafted, and the Donnermeyers signed it there on November 1, 1964. Under the terms of the contract, the Donnermeyers delivered to Burke $4,500.00 by check, as an escrow deposit on the property’s purchase price, and therein agreed that they would pay an additional $23,500.00, assume the obligations of the lease-purchase agreement calling for payments totalling $274,000.00 over the period of said agreement’s long term, and execute a note to Garner in the amount of “approximately $19,950.00”. At the Donnermeyers’ request, Burke wrote into the form of said agreement that it was to include “all furniture, fixtures and equipment now considered part of the business. Full inventory to be furnished upon acceptance of this proposition * * * (Emphasis added). The agreement also provided that the property was to be conveyed “ * * * clear of all encumbrances, liens, or special taxes except those of record $ * *»

Thereafter, the Donnermeyers returned to Guymon, and, under the terms of a “SUPPLEMENTAL AGREEMENT” [448]*448with the Gibsons and Ann Galbreath, making various changes and additions to the then existing Uniform Purchase Agreement, went into possession of the Oklahoman Motel as of 12:01 A.M., November IS, 1964, though it was the next day before the transaction was completed by the assignment of the leasehold interest to them, by their assumption of the payments prescribed in Garner’s promissory note of $21,-890.00 from the Gibsons, and by their delivery of their check to Burke for $25,272.61 in payment of the above mentioned $23,-500.00, and other items listed in a “closing” statement. From the proceeds of this check, Burke disbursed $5,000.00 to Garner to pay delinquent installments on the Gibson note, another $5,000.00 to Drake, as his real estate broker’s commission, another $5,000.00 to himself foi a broker’s commission, and the balance to the Gibsons and Galbreath. The Supplemental Agreement also provided:

* * *
It is stipulated that Assignors have been prepaying One Hundred Fifty Dollars ($150.00) per month to be applied against ad valorem taxes, real and personal, which is hereby assigned to Assignees and Assignees shall be responsible for ad valorem taxes, real and personal, payable after this date. * *

The only inventory of the motel property’s “furniture, fixtures and equipment” that was ever furnished the Donnermeyers was a copy of the aforementioned original one that Garner had obtained when he purchased the motel property, almost a year previously, as aforesaid.

After going into possession of the motel property, plaintiffs were unable to lease the restaurant facilities to Mr. Dale Mahan, who was the establishment’s chef at the time they agreed to buy the property, with the understanding, according to Donner-meyer’s testimony, that if they made the purchase, Mahan would take over operation of said facilities under such a lease.

In January, 1965, a delinquent tax notice was issued on the property. On April 8, 1965, Arnholz Coffee Company, which had supplied the motel with its private club’s steam table and kitchen range, repossessed them.

On April 26, 1965, the Donnermeyers, as plaintiffs, filed their petition (as the initial pleading in this action) against the parties appearing here as plaintiffs in error, but hereinafter referred to by name, or as “defendants”. About this same time, Garner and his wife filed a separate district court action against the Donnermeyers asking, among other things, that a receiver be appointed for the motel property.

By an amended petition, plaintiffs thereafter filed in the present action, they sought court nullification of the lease-purchase agreement’s assignment to them from the Gibsons, as well as a money judgment total-ling $52,466.61, which included a total of $21,028.32 they had allegedly paid Intri-State Investment Company in periodic installments under said lease-purchase agreement, and the nearly $30,000.00 they had paid defendants upon going into possession of the motel property, as well as the sum of payments in the amount of $1,665.-68 that they had allegedly paid on the Gibsons’ note to Garner since that time.

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Bluebook (online)
1968 OK 174, 448 P.2d 446, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/burke-v-donnermeyer-okla-1968.