Coakley v. Phelan

1935 OK 918, 66 P.2d 19, 179 Okla. 515, 1935 Okla. LEXIS 1215
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedOctober 8, 1935
DocketNo. 25394.
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 1935 OK 918 (Coakley v. Phelan) 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
Coakley v. Phelan, 1935 OK 918, 66 P.2d 19, 179 Okla. 515, 1935 Okla. LEXIS 1215 (Okla. 1935).

Opinion

RILEY, J.

This is an appeal from a judgment and decree denying the foreclosure of a mortgage lien in an action commenced by plaintiff in error James Coakley. .Plaintiff in error M. McGrath files a cross-petition in error from a judgment and decree against him upon a cross-petition in which he claimed title to a portion of the real property involved under a resale tax deed.

On or about November 14, 1910, E. How-land and Eleanor Howland, the then owners of lots 21, 22, 23, and 24, block 29, Capitol Hill, Okla., executed a mortgage on said *516 lots to secure a note in tlie sum of $400, in favor of E. R. Tileson.

The note was made to mature November 1, 1915, hut contained a clause providing: “This note may be paid November 1, 1913, by giving the mortgagee 30 days’ written notice.”

The mortgage contained a provision that: “Upon failure to pay when due any sum, interest or principal when due secured hereby — the whole sum secured hereby shall at once and without notice become due and payable at the option of the holder hereof, * !|f *’>

On September 21, 1916, an action was commenced in the district court of Oklahoma county by Susanna Eaughn, who claimed to be the owner thereof, to recover judgment on the note without any mention whatever of the mortgage given to secure same, and on November 8, 1910, judgment was entered in said cause, adjudging Susanna Faughn to be the legal owner and holder of the note, and for judgment thereon in her favor. Execution was issued thereon on February 14, 1917, and returned February 26, showing no property found on which to make levy.

A second execution was issued dated June -, 1921, and return June 30, 1921, showing no property found,

A third execution was issued June 7, 1926, and return June 16, 1926, showing no property found.

Thereafter Susanna Faughn sold and assigned the judgment in said cause to plaintiff herein, James Coakley. The assignment was undated, but shows to have been acknowledged December 26, 1928, and filed in the oifice of the court clerk January 24, 1929.

November 28, 1929. Susanna M. Faughn, joined by Flossie Hetherington, Mrs. Rena Price, and Mrs. Ruby Graham, executed an assignment of the mortgage above mentioned to plaintiff herein, James Coakley. Therein Susanna M. Faughn was described as the widow of E. R. Tileson, and the other assignors were described as the only children of said Tileson.

This action was commenced January 20, 1930, having for its purpose the foreclosure of said mortgage.

In the meantime, on July 14, 1915. the mortgagors, E. Howland and Eleanor How-land, conveyed the premises covered by the mortgage to Joe H. Frost, by general warranty deed, but containing the following provisions : “Except one certain mortgage of $400, given to E. R. Tileson with 10 per cent. interest from November 1, 1913, and taxes for years 1911, and 1912, 1913, and 1914, amounting to $966.92, which the grantee assumes and agrees to pay as a part of the consideration of this conveyance.” Said deed was filed for record July 14, 1915. The grantee, Joe H. Frost, was then, and ever since has -been, a resident of the state of Arkansas, and has never been in the state of Oklahoma except a few times, and then only for a day or two at a time.

June 16, 1924, a resale tax deed was issued conveying lot 24 to A. L. Carrico, who, on September 2, 1924, conveyed same by quitclaim deed to Bernasdaffer, who, on October 15, 1924, conveyed same to John T. Phelan, defendant in error herein.

On June 19, 1924, resale tax deed was made by the county treasurer conveying lots 21 and 22 to cross-petitioner in error, M. McGrath.

July 16, 1924, resale tax deed was made by the county treasurer conveying lot 23, to defendant in error, John T. Phelan.

On January 23, 1925, Joe H. Frost and wife conveyed by quitclaim deed all of said lots to defendant in error, John T. Phelan.

When Coakley commenced this action he made Joe H. Frost, John T. Phelan, and M. McGrath parties defendant, and service was had upon Frost by publication.

Plaintiff Coakley in his petition pleaded the note and mortgage, the merger of the note in the judgment, and his ownership of the judgment indebtedness, the assignment to him of the mortgage, the conveyance of tile ’ots by the mortgagors to defendant Frost, and the assumption by him of the mortgage indebtedness, and that said Frost was at the time a nonresident of the state of Oklahoma, and that he had at all times since the assumption of said indebtedness been absent from and not within the state of Oklahoma, and that defendants Phelan and McGrath claimed an interest in said premises, but that whatever right, title, or interest they, or either of them, had or claimed in said property was junior and inferior to his lien and claim, and prayed for judgment establishing said debt against defendant Frost in the sum of $1,040, with interest from November 17, 1929, and foreclosing his lien.

Defendant Phelan, after demurrer was filed and overruled, answered by general denial; specifically alleged that he had never assumed any of said mortgage indebtedness; that defendant Frost did not become liable on his alleged assumption of said indebted *517 ness in that at the time said property was conveyed to Frost the maker of such note had already been sued thereon by the then owner and holder of the note and mortgage without any attempt to foreclose the mortgage and had thereby elected to and had waived her right to pursue the property and had waived her rights under the mortgage; that if said Susanna Faughn, or her assignee, Ooakley, ever had a cause of action by virtue of said mortgage, the same had become barred by the statute of limitations; that plaintiff and her assignor had been guilty of laches in failing to bring suit on the mortgage for almost 15 years.

®y cross-petition he alleged that he was the sole and exclusive owner of the property involved; had been in actual and exclusive possession thereof since January 23, 1925; that he derived his title through a quitclaim deed from Joe H. Frost and N. P. Frost, husband and wife.

He further alleged that the tax deed under which defendant McGrath claimed title to two of said lots was void ini that the county treasurer had not legally advertised said property for sale; that the pretended sale had been for the ad valorem taxes alone and that the pretended sale purported to be made subject to certain paving taxes, etc., that the statute of limitation had run against said deed. Other irregularities in the issuance of said deed were alleged. He prayed that his title be quieted as against both plaintiff and defendant McGrath.

Defendant McGrath answered admitting that he claimed an interest in lots 21 and 22, and claimed title thereto by virtue of the resale tax deed issued to him by the county treasurer, and filed for record December 1, 1925, attaching a- copy of said resale tax deed. By cross-petition he asserted a title superior to that of plaintiff or defendant Phelan, and prayed that his title to said two lots be quieted.

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Bluebook (online)
1935 OK 918, 66 P.2d 19, 179 Okla. 515, 1935 Okla. LEXIS 1215, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/coakley-v-phelan-okla-1935.