City of Haileyville v. Smallwood

1968 OK 80, 441 P.2d 388, 1968 Okla. LEXIS 378
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedMay 28, 1968
DocketNo. 40877
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 1968 OK 80 (City of Haileyville v. Smallwood) 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
City of Haileyville v. Smallwood, 1968 OK 80, 441 P.2d 388, 1968 Okla. LEXIS 378 (Okla. 1968).

Opinion

WILLIAMS, Justice.

The judgment of the lower court on appeal herein was entered in an action brought by plaintiff to cancel a warranty deed and quiet her title to a certain described tract of land in Pittsburg County, Oklahoma. The parties herein will be referred to as they appeared below, i. e., plaintiff in error will be referred to as defendant and defendant in error will be referred to as plaintiff.

In September, 1933, plaintiff and her then husband, Pearl Smallwood, purchased a 260 acre tract of land in Pittsburg County, Oklahoma. At the time of this purchase, plaintiff and her husband executed a mortgage in the amount of $500.00 covering the tract. Plaintiff and Pearl Small-wood were divorced in 1948 and the decree entered in the divorce proceeding vested title in plaintiff to the above mentioned 260 acre tract.

Through her pleadings filed below and the evidence submitted at trial, plaintiff sought to establish that sometime in early 1935 the then mayor and clerk of the defendant city approached her concerning the possibility of defendant purchasing approx[390]*390imately 70 acres of the 260 acre tract for the stated purpose of constructing a city lake. The purchase price of this 70 acres was to be the balance due, at that time approximately $400.00, on the mortgage covering the entire tract. Plaintiff agreed to defendant’s proposal and in April, 1935, the parties executed an agreement granting defendant an option to purchase a specifically described 70 acre tract for the aforementioned purchase price. This option was to be exercised within six months.

Subsequently plaintiff was contacted by a Mr. Cruthirds, an officer in a Hailey-ville bank and allegedly an agent of defendant, and was informed that the city needed an additional 30 acres, or a total of 100 acres. The amount of land needed was again changed and a total of 110 acres was requested. Although the city was requesting more land, the agreed purchase price remained the balance due on the mortgage covering the entire tract.

Plaintiff testified that during this period of negotiations it was represented that defendant intended to build a city lake on the tract “immediately”.

In August, 1936, while temporarily residing in Texas, plaintiff and her husband received a warranty deed conveying to defendant as grantee a tract of 110 acres included in plaintiff’s entire 260 acres, an accompanying letter of explanation from Cruthirds, and a plat showing the 110 acre tract covered by the deed. In the accompanying letter, Cruthirds stated that the balance due on the mortgage covering plaintiff’s 260 acres was $312.00 and this the city agreed to pay if plaintiff and her husband would execute the deed conveying the 110 acre tract. The letter further stated that after the location of the lake was determined, there would be some 20 or 30 acres not needed and that the city was willing to reconvey to plaintiff and her husband this unneeded portion. Cruthirds’ letter also indicated that although plaintiff and her husband could not retain water rights as “the Government” would not approve the deed, the city would not deny grantors access to the lake. The letter commented, “I am sure that you can have all water needed, and I personally think this lake if constructed out there will greatly increase the value of your other land.” Plaintiff and her husband apparently accepted this offer and executed and returned the deed to Cruthirds.

Some months later, Cruthirds wrote plaintiff’s brother-in-law (after apparently being unable to contact plaintiff and her husband) to inform him that the mortgage on the 260 acre tract had been paid and that the release thereof was being filed of record.

The lake allegedly to be built on this property in 1936 or 1937 has never been built.

Plaintiff testified that defendant had agreed that if she maintained the fences, she could pasture the property until the lake was built. She further testified that in accordance with this agreement, she had pastured the 110 acre tract from 1937 to 1958 and had maintained the fences during this period at her own expense. Plaintiff admitted that she had not claimed ownership of the land from 1937 to 1958, but testified that defendant had done nothing to interfere with her possession except authorize, on at least one occasion, the cutting of some posts from the tract.

Plaintiff insisted that had defendant not represented that the land was being acquired for a lake which would enhance the remainder of her land and that it would re-convey some 20 to 30 acres not needed for the lake’s construction, the 110 acre tract would not have been conveyed to defendant in 1936.

She also elicited testimony tending to establish that the 260 acre tract taken as a whole was of the value of $5 to $6 per acre in 1936, while the value of her land after the conveyance of the 110 acre tract was some $3 to $4 per acre. Plaintiff and her husband paid $5.50 per acre for the land in 1933.

In 1958, defendant advertised for bids to lease the 110 acre tract and although [391]*391plaintiff submitted a bid (for the stated reason that her counsel advised her to avoid a lawsuit), defendant accepted a higher bid from another party.

Defendant admitted the conveyance to it by plaintiff and her husband of the 110 acre tract, but denied her other allegation?. At trial, the then mayor of defendant city testified that it was still interested in using the property for the construction of a lake but admitted that there were no definite plans. Further, a resident of defendant city in 1936 testified that the purchase price for the 110 acre tract was obtained by defendant through the solicitation of donations and that the tract was obtained for the future construction' of a lake.

At the conclusion of trial, the lower court entered its judgment cancelling the 1936 deed to defendant, ordering defendant to reconvey the 110 acre tract to plaintiff, and quieting plaintiff’s title thereto. From this judgment and an order overruling its motion for new trial, defendant appeals.

For reversal, defendant presents five propositions, some of which present varying aspects of the same question. For purposes of brevity, the propositions will be combined where feasible.

In its first, second and fourth propositions, defendant contends that the lower court erred in overruling its motion to strike certain language of plaintiff’s petition, its demurrer to the petition, and its demurrer to plaintiff’s evidence. This contention is based on the ground that the motion to strike and both demurrers raised the defense that the plaintiff’s cause of action was barred by the two year limitation applicable to actions based on fraud as contained in 12 O.S.1961, § 95 (Third).

Without deciding whether the motion to strike or either of the demurrers adequately raised the defense of a statute of limitation and therefore assuming for the purposes of this opinion that such defense was raised, we do not agree that plaintiff’s cause of action was barred by any applicable statute of limitation.

It is true that plaintiff alleged misrepresentation on the part of defendant as the city lake had never been built. However, in our opinion, plaintiff’s petition and the evidence submitted at trial were directed toward the cancellation of the 1936 deed on the basis of a failure of consideration. In Taylor v.

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Bluebook (online)
1968 OK 80, 441 P.2d 388, 1968 Okla. LEXIS 378, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-haileyville-v-smallwood-okla-1968.