Carter v. Barry

1932 OK 7, 7 P.2d 448, 154 Okla. 145, 1932 Okla. LEXIS 370
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJanuary 19, 1932
Docket20686
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 1932 OK 7 (Carter v. Barry) 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
Carter v. Barry, 1932 OK 7, 7 P.2d 448, 154 Okla. 145, 1932 Okla. LEXIS 370 (Okla. 1932).

Opinion

CLARK, V. C. J.

This action was commenced in the district court of Stephens county by one of the defendants in error, R. B. Barry, plaintiff below, against the plaintiffs in error herein for possession of lands described in the petition and the rental value thereof for the years of 1926, 1927, and 1928, in the total sum of $1,500. That after the commencement of said action the defendant in error herein, T. H. Mc-Casland, was made party plaintiff therein and .amended petition was filed in said cause by the defendants in error against the plaintiffs in error herein.

For convenience the parties will he referred to as they appeared in the trial court.

Plaintiffs’ amended petition alleged in substance : That they were owners of a valid agricultural leasehold estate on the lands described in the petition and entitled to immediate possession thereof. That defendants are in the wrongful possession of said premises and wrongfully withholding the same from plaintiffs.

That said land was a part of the homestead allotment of Willie C. Samuel, full-blood Choctaw Indian. That on the 10th day of March, 1925, said allottee executed and delivered to plaintiff R. B. Barry, agricultural lease on said premises, beginning on the 1st day of January, 1926, ending on the 31st day of December, 1930, which lease on the 7th of August, 1925, was approved by acting Superintendent of the Five Civilized Tribes.

That defendants were in possession of said premises during the years of 1926 and 1927, and collected and received the rents and profits therefrom and refused to pay same to plaintiffs, thus damaging plaintiffs in the sum of $1,500.

*146 That there was filed in the United States District Court of the Eastern District of Oklahoma an action by the United States of America against the defendant G. W. Carter, in which action i|t was determined on the 9th day of November, 1927, that defendant G. W. Carter had no right to the possession of said premises for the years 1920 and 1927, and that plaintiff R. B. Barry herein was entitled to possession of said premises for the years 1926, 1927, 1928, 1929, and 1930; said cause has not been appealed from and has become final and is a final adjudication as to the rights of plaintiffs to possession of said premises.

That the plaintiffs are entitled to the rental value of the premises for the years 1926, 1927, and 1928. That demand has been made by plaintiffs on defendants for said rents on said premises and refused, and defendants have refused to .recognize the plaintiffs’ rights; and prayed for the appointment of receiver for the year 1928, and further prayed for the rental value of said lands for the year 1928 in the sum of $750. Attached to said petition were exhibits of agricultural lease, patent to the land and decree of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma. Defendants filed demurrer to petition, which was overruled, to which action of the court defendants excepted.

The defendants filed answer by way of unverified general denial.

Upon the trial of said cause before a jury, special interrogatories were submitted to the jury and the jury found the fair cash rental value of said land to be $165 for each of the years, 1926, 1927, and 1928; and further found that the plaintiff Barry had notified the defendant Carter in the year 1925 that he had a lease on the land in controversy.

The trial count rendered judgment for plaintiffs for the immediate possession of the premises and judgment in the total sum of $495. Motion for new trial was filed and overruled, to which action the defendants excepted and gave notice of appeal in open court and bring the cause here for review.

Plaintiffs in error first contend that the measure of damages would be the actual rents received by the defendants, from the land if the plaintiffs were in fact entitled to possession thereof, and not the rental value on the market, for the reason that defendants were not trespassers.

The defendants’ evidence disclosed that the defendant Carter had been in possession of the lands for a number of years under a lease from the allottee and was in possession of the lands at the time the plaintiffs took their lease, under a five-year lease from the allottee, and that on the 26th day of December, 1925, the defendant took a new one-year lease from the allottee for the year 1926.

Section 5997, C. O. S. 1921, reads as follows:

“The detriment caused by the wrongful occupation of real property, in cases not embraced in sections 5998, 6004, 6005, and 6006, is deemed to be the value of the use of the property for the time of such occupation, not exceeding six years next preceding the commencement of the action or proceeding to enforce the right to damages, and the costs, if any, of recovering the possession.”

Sections 5998, 6004, 6005, and 6006, C. O. S. 1921, referred to in section 5997, read as follows:

Sec. 5998. “For willfully holding over real property by a person who entered upon the same as guardian or trustee for an infant, or by right of an estate terminable with any life or lives, after the termination of the trust or particular estate, without the consent of the party immediately entitled after such termination, the measure of damages is the value of the profits received during such holding over.”
Sec. 6004. “For the failure of a tenant to give up the premises held by him, when he has given notice of his intention to do so. the measure of damages is double the rent which he ought otherwise to pay.’’
Sec. 6005. “For willfully holding over real property, by a tenant after the end of his term, and after notice to quit has been duly .given, and demand of possession made, the measure of damages is double the yearly value of the property, for the time of withholding, in addition to compensation for the detriment occasioned thereby.”
Sec. 6006. “For forcibly ejecting or excluding a person from the possession of real property, the measure of damages is three times such a sum as would compensate for the detriment caused to him by the act complained of.”

In the case of Drennan v. Harris. 67 Okla. 313, 161 P. 781, in the fifth paragraph of the syllabus, this court said :

“ 'The detriment caused by the wrongful occupation of real property, in cases not embraced in sections 2874. 2880. 2881, and 2882, is deemed to be the value of the use of the property for the time of such occupation, not exceeding six years next preceding the commencement of the action or proceeding to enforce the right to damages, and the costs, if any of recovering the possession.’ Section 2873, Revised Laws 1910.”

*147 Also, see Campbell v. Dick, 71 Okla. 186, 176 P. 520.

It is our opinion that the measure of damages in. the case at bar was controlled by section 5907, supra, and that the court did not err in rendering judgment for the amount found by the jury to be a fair cash rental value of the lands in controversy for the period sued for.

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Related

U.S. Mortgage v. Laubach
2003 OK 67 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 2003)
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Carter v. Barry
1932 OK 117 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1932)

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Bluebook (online)
1932 OK 7, 7 P.2d 448, 154 Okla. 145, 1932 Okla. LEXIS 370, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/carter-v-barry-okla-1932.