Clark v. Surmeier

139 P.2d 372, 157 Kan. 372, 1943 Kan. LEXIS 181
CourtSupreme Court of Kansas
DecidedJuly 10, 1943
DocketNo. 35,929
StatusPublished

This text of 139 P.2d 372 (Clark v. Surmeier) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Clark v. Surmeier, 139 P.2d 372, 157 Kan. 372, 1943 Kan. LEXIS 181 (kan 1943).

Opinion

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Dawson, C. J.:

This is an appeal from a judgment granting a writ of assistance to put the appellee in possession of a tract of Gove county land.

[373]*373The pertinent facts were these: On and prior to March 1, 1941, one A. W. Marken owned the land in question, but it was then being subjected to foreclosure proceedings in an action by the Federal Land Bank of Wichita against Marken for an indebtedness secured by a mortgage on the property.

On March 1,1941, Marken executed to George F. Surmeier a written lease of the land for two years expiring March 1, 1943, with this qualification:

“It is further agreed and understood by both parties that the above farm is under foreclosure at this time. This lease will expire at the expiration of the redemption period.”

Judgment in favor of-the Federal Land Bank was entered in the foreclosure action on April 17, 1941, and pursuant to an order of sale the land was sold on July 28,1941, subject to the usual redemption period of eighteen months which expired on January 28, 1943— and which thereby shortened the duration of Surmeier’s lease to that date.

It is inferable that the Federal Land Bank as plaintiff had purchased the property at the foreclosure sale and held the certificate of purchase therefor.

The judgment in foreclosure and the order of confirmation both provided that at the proper time the purchaser or his assignee would • be entitled to a sheriff’s deed conveying the premises, which when issued would entitle the grantee to full and immediate possession of the premises; and should such possession be refused by the judgment debtor or any one claiming under him by right acquired subsequent to the commencement of the foreclosure suit, such purchaser, his heirs, successors or assigns would be entitled, upon verified application therefor, to a writ of assistance to oust all such persons from the premises and to place the lawful applicant in quiet and peaceable possession.

On or about August 17, 1942, the present appellee, Vernon M. Clark, Jr., addressed to the Federal Land Bank of Wichita a written offer to purchase the land for $9,600 on stated terms; and in that offer he said:

“I . . . understand that there is an agricultural lease on the land which expires on August 1st, 1943, and agree to purchase this land subject to this lease, except lease is to be assigned, or canceled and rewritten by and between this purchaser and present tenant.”

It would appear that prior to the receipt of that offer the Federal [374]*374Land Bank had assigned its certificate of purchase to the Federal Farm Mortgage Corporation, and on September 17, 1942, a written agreement for the purchase of the land was executed between the latter corporation and Clark, to be consummated when the corporation had acquired title to the property. The agreement referred to the existing tenancy of Surmeier thus:

“It is further agreed by and between the parties that [party] of the second part [Clark] shall take possession of said real estate at the time he notifies party of the first part that he has accepted title thereto; it is further understood that party of the second part shall make his own arrangements with the tenant for possession of said real estate; . . .”

During the autumn of 1942 Clark and Surmeier had some negotiations touching the planting of wheat, and for an exchange of possession of the farms then occupied by them, but they reached no definite and binding agreement further than that Surmeier might plant the wheat ground and that Clark would respect Surmeier’s right to his share of that crop in the harvest season of 1943 notwithstanding the tenancy under his lease of 1941 from Marken would expire on January 28, 1943. One R. H. West, of Oakley, who seems to have participated in the negotiations between Clark and Surmeier, drafted a lease of the farm from Clark to Surmeier, dated August 20, 1942, for a term of one year beginning August 1, 1942, and ending August 1, 1943. Surmeier signed this lease but Clark declined to do so because it contained terms and conditions which did not suit his purposes — one of them being his intention to occupy the property with his family in the spring of 1943, and that he had no intention to recognize Surmeier’s tenancy after that time except in respect to the wheat ground planted by Surmeier in the autumn of 1942.

Surmeier declined to surrender possession on Clark’s demand, and the latter applied to the district court for the writ of assistance already authorized in the judgment in the foreclosure suit of the Federal Land Bank v. Marken, and in the court’s subsequent order of September 13, 1941, confirming the sale in foreclosure.

Clark’s application for the writ alleged the pertinent facts. Surmeier filed a motion to quash the writ, alleging that for the crop year of 1942-1943 he held an agricultural lease from the Federal Land Bank and from the Federal Farm Mortgage Corporation, which lease would expire on August 1, 1943.

Surmeier also pleaded that he had not been made a party de[375]*375fendant in the foreclosure action and no judgment had been rendered against him.

He also alleged that in August, 1942, the Federal Land Bank and the Federal Farm Mortgage Corporation, through their authorized agent and employee, R. H. West, gave him an agricultural lease of the premises expiring August 1, 1943.

Surmeier further alleged that although Clark, applicant for the writ, did hold a contract to purchase the property, such contract was subject to the lease held by Surmeier from the two federal corporations.

Surmeier further alleged that ever since August 1, 1942, Clark knew that he had a lease of the premises, to expire August 1, 1943, and that about August 15, 1942, Clark had acknowledged its existence in writing — (apparently the excerpt from his written offer of August 17, 1942, to buy the property quoted above).

It was further alleged in the motion to quash the writ of assistance that Clark was not a party to the foreclosure action, nor was he the successor or assignee of the holder of the sheriff’s deed, and that he had no right to demand the aid of a writ of assistance; and that neither the Federal Land Bank nor the Federal Farm Mortgage Corporation had requested, directed or authorized the issuance of the writ, and that it was wholly void and without justification and that it should be quashed and held for naught.

On the issues thus raised, the cause was tried by the court. The parties introduced their evidence, part of which was oral testimony, and part was documentary. Other evidence consisted of correspondence which passed between Mrs. Surmeier and certain officers and agents of the Federal Land Bank, the Federal Farm Mortgage Corporation, and R. H. West, local secretary-treasurer of the National Farm Loan Association. The apparent purpose of this correspondence was to prove that the Surmeiers had secured a one-year’s lease of the premises from the holder of the certificate of purchase at the foreclosure sale.

The trial court found generally in favor of the appellee, and directed that the writ of assistance should issue as prayed for — except in respect to the acreage planted to wheat by Surmeier in the autumn of 1942.

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Lundstrum v. Branson
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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
139 P.2d 372, 157 Kan. 372, 1943 Kan. LEXIS 181, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/clark-v-surmeier-kan-1943.