Churchill v. Muegge

1958 OK 71, 323 P.2d 339, 8 Oil & Gas Rep. 1087, 1958 Okla. LEXIS 347
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedMarch 18, 1958
Docket37734
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 1958 OK 71 (Churchill v. Muegge) 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
Churchill v. Muegge, 1958 OK 71, 323 P.2d 339, 8 Oil & Gas Rep. 1087, 1958 Okla. LEXIS 347 (Okla. 1958).

Opinion

CARLILE, Justice.

This is an appeal on the original record from an order denying a motion to vacate a judgment. Plaintiff in error is proceeding under 12 O.S.1951 § 1038, which authorizes the court to vacate a void judgment “ * * * at any time, on motion of a party, * * * ”. He-does not contend that any of the other statutory provisions authorizing the vacation of a judgment are applicable.

The judgment roll, to which we are limited in arriving at our conclusion, Scoufos v. Fuller, Okl., 280 P.2d 720, discloses that on December 13, 1945, defendants in error, A. H. and Fleta Muegge, filed their petition seeking to quiet title to the Northwest Quarter of Section 15, Township 26 North, Range 2 West, I.M., Kay County, Oklahoma, against various persons, among whom was William L. Churchill. Service on Churchill was by publication. Mailing of the petition and publication service was held legal and approved. On October 6, 1956, Churchill filed his motion to vacate the judgment on the ground that it is void on the face of the judgment roll. Mr. and Mrs. Muegge, and Levi and Ivy Evans, who purchased the property subsequent to the default judgment, were served with process notifying them of the motion to vacate, and they filed answers to the motion. Prior to a hearing Churchill died, and the action was revived in the name of his personal representative, plaintiff in error. The trial court denied the motion and plaintiff in error appeals.

. The plaintiff in error’s first four propositions deal with the sufficiency of the petition to support the default judgment. Briefly, the pertinent parts of the petition allege that plaintiffs are the owners of the title in fee simple and are in possession of the described property; that their title was acquired by deed dated November 27, 1945, a copy of which was attached (the deed contains no mineral reservation or exception, but preceding recorded deeds in chain of title did) ; that they and their predecessors in interest are now and have been for more than 15 years last past in actual open, notorious,' peaceable and adverse possession of the described premises, under claim of title; that each of the defendants claim to have some right, title, interest, lien, estate, or equity in and to the mineral rights in and under the above described land by reason of reservations in warranty deed, or by reason of unreleased oil and gas leases; that said William L. Churchill for more than 15 years past has not exercised any ownership in and to the said mineral rights; that plaintiffs and their predecessors in interest, by conveyances duly made a part of the public records, have had actual open, notorious, peáceable and adverse possession of any and all of the interests of said defendants last named in and to said mineral rights; that owing to the apparent interest in and to said mineral rights the record title of plaintiffs herein is clouded and plaintiffs have been hindered and delayed in their efforts, attempts and rights to sell and convey said mineral rights; plaintiffs further1 allege that if defendants have any title in such mineral rights the same is junior, inferior, subsequent, and null and void as against the interest of these plaintiffs herein, and should be so decreed, and pray that defendants be barred and enjoined from asserting any right, title, interest, estate or equity in the described premises adverse to plaintiffs.

It is contended that the foregoing petition does not sufficiently allege facts showing *342 title by adverse possession to the separate mineral estate of a co-tenant, thereby rendering the judgment void. See Douglass v. Mounce, Olk., 303 P.2d 430; Deruy v. Noah, 199 Okl. 230, 185 P.2d 189; Keeler v. McNeir, 184 Okl. 244, 86 P.2d 1004, which are cited on this point. Plaintiff in error also cites Noble v. Kahn, 206 Okl. 13, 240 P.2d 757, 35 A.L.R.2d 119, and Bates v. Old Mac Coal Co., Okl., 271 P.2d 315.

The general rule relating to an attack of this nature on the final judgment has been long recognized in this jurisdiction. Succinctly, it is:

“Where the court is one having the power to grant the relief sought, and having jurisdiction of the parties, if there is any petition at all invoking the action of the court or challenging judicial inquiry, a judgment based thereon cannot be assailed collaterally because of insufficiency of the allegations in the petition.” Goldsmith v. Owens, 180 Okl. 268, 68 P.2d 849.

Conversely, a judgment which is entirely outside the issues in the case, and upon a matter not submitted to the court for its determination is void, a nullity, and may be vacated at any time. Hinkle v. Jones, 180 Okl. 17, 66 P.2d 1073, 1075. In the Hinkle case the following apt statement appears:

“* * * A careful examination of the petition will disclose the issues that could be presented to the court by the plaintiff and any judgment rendered outside those issues is void.”

An examination of the petition in the quiet title action here attacked discloses that the issue of the superiority of the defendants in error’s title in the mineral estate to that of the plaintiff in error, under the decisions and the rules and principles of law herein referred to was not sufficiently alleged to challenge judicial inquiry or invoke the action of the court thereunder. Therefore, the default judgment based on the petition is void and subject to collateral attack. It will be noted that the plaintiffs, in support of their claim of title to the mineral rights by adverse possession, allege that plaintiffs and their predecessors in interest have by “conveyances duly made a part of the public records, had actual open, notorious, peaceable and adverse possession of any and all of the interest of said defendants last named in and to said mineral rights”. Such allegation is a conclusion on the part of the pleader, and in the absence of some alleged act on the part of the plaintiffs whereby actual development of the land for minerals was shown the allegations would be insufficient to charge adverse possession. It is conceded that the defendant Churchill reserved a mineral interest in the land in question in the prior recorded deed whereby he conveyed title, and the mineral estate so reserved was therefore severed from the surface estate. The opinion in Deruy v. Noah, supra, in referring to a claim of adverse possession of the minerals there involved, states [199 Okl. 230, 185 P.2d 191]:

“In the instant case defendant Deruy made no allegation or claim that he had at any time made any attempt to explore for oil, gas, or other minerals, or that he had done anything whatever toward taking or even authorizing the taking of minerals from the land.”

The court expresses the same principle in Noble v. Kahn, supra, in the following language [206 Okl. 13, 240 P.2d 759] :

“It was not alleged or claimed by plaintiffs that they had taken actual possession of the minerals by drilling wells or opening mines for the statutory period.”
“Adverse possession of a separate mineral estate is not established by the mere possession of the surface by its owner or by the surface owner’s possession of the surface under a deed purporting to convey the mineral estate.” Douglass v. Mounce, supra [303 P.2d 431],
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Bluebook (online)
1958 OK 71, 323 P.2d 339, 8 Oil & Gas Rep. 1087, 1958 Okla. LEXIS 347, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/churchill-v-muegge-okla-1958.