Cook v. Bingman

1947 OK 111, 179 P.2d 470, 198 Okla. 421, 1947 Okla. LEXIS 478
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedApril 8, 1947
DocketNo. 32351
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 1947 OK 111 (Cook v. Bingman) 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
Cook v. Bingman, 1947 OK 111, 179 P.2d 470, 198 Okla. 421, 1947 Okla. LEXIS 478 (Okla. 1947).

Opinions

ARNOLD, J.

Plaintiff commenced his action in the district court of Okmulgee county August 12, 1941. By the amended petition,', upon which the-case was tried,” he sought judgment for the sum of $40,-. 000 actual damages and $10,000 punitive damage for the alleged conversion of certain personal property described as oil well drilling tools, equipment and. supplies. O. A. Bingman died in June, 1943, and the action was duly revived' against his executors, but the case proceeded to trial under the original caption. The allegations of plaintiff’s ■ amended petition, and his evidence in support thereof, may be summarized as'1 follows:

Prior to 1928, plaintiff was engaged in oil field drilling operations in the Cromwell field in Seminole county. He Was the owner of three complete strings', of standard drilling equipment: Some of these tools were used in drilling operations in plaintiff’s own name, but a part thereof was used in drilling operations under the name of Micco Oil & Gas Company, a brade name under which plaintiff also operated, but he was the. sole owner of all of the tools and equipment. When his drilling operations in the Cromwell field' ended he had these 'Strings of tools stacked on a lease near Cromwell with a caretaker, in charge. Some time in 1928, the exact date hot being disclosed, the sheriff of Seminole county levied upon and advertised these tools and equipment for sale under a personal tax warrant. By an oral .arrangement made by plaintiff with one A. Michelson, of Wewoka, the latter purchased these tools and equipment at the sheriff’s sale for the sum of $200. Thereafter plaintiff contacted the defendant and arranged with him to have these tools and equipment hauled from the Cromwell field to Okmulgee and stored on a lot there owned by defendant. Defendant paid the cost of hauling this property in the sum of $750. Prior to that time plaintiff was indebted to defendant in various sums of money, some evidenced by promissory notes, and on February 4, 1929, plaintiff made, executed and delivered to one D. M. Smith his promissory note for $5,000, which note Smith immediately endorsed, without . recourse,- to the defendant. ■ This:-[422]*422$5,000 note represented a merger of all of plaintiff’s indebtedness to defendant, including the $750 paid for hauling the property and another item hereafter mentioned paid to Michelson. Seven days after the execution of this $5,000 note, the plaintiff and Michelson went to the office of the defendant in Okmul-gee and there Michelson executed and delivered to defendant a bill of sale covering all of this property which Michelson had purchased at the tax sale. There was nothing in the bill of sale to indicate anything other than a straight sale and delivery of the property to the defendant by Michelson. The defendant then paid Michelson $200, being the purchase price at the tax sale, and $25 additional as Michelson’s profit on the transaction. Both plaintiff and Michelson testifed that their arrangement was for Michelson to buy in the property at the tax sale with the right in plaintiff to redeem the property and acquire title thereto by paying Michelson the amount for which the property sold at the tax sale plus a reasonable commission or profit. Both testified that Michelson executed the bill of sale to the defendant at- the direction of plaintiff, and plaintiff ■■ testified that the bill of sale of the property represented a pledge of the property to the defendant as security for the payment- of the $5,000 note.

Plaintiff alleged in his amended petition, and testified on the trial, that a short time after the placing of the property on Bingman’s lot in Okmulgee and the execution and delivery of the bill of sale to the defendant, plaintiff sold and delivered to defendant certain items of the tools and equipment comprising a complete string of standard drilling tools and equipment in full consideration and payment of the $5,000 note. No demand was made by plaintiff for' the cancellation and delivery of said note to him nor did he make any demand for the surrender of the bill of sale held by the defendant evidencing title to all of the property.

Plaintiff’s witness, Art Crutchmer, who hauled the property from Cromwell to Okmulgee, testified that he heard the conversation between plaintiff and defendant in reference to the sale of a part of this property in satisfaction of plaintiff’s indebtedness, and that immediately thereafter, by direction of defendant, he, Crutchmer, hauled the property so designated from where it had been placed on Bingman’s lot to other places designated by defendant; that the remainder of said property remained on the lot for about three years.

In 1931 the defendant made a contract with one A. M. Perrine, representing the Limestone Oil & Gas Company, for the sale on credit to that company of a complete string of standard equipment drilling tools. With the knowledge and consent of plaintiff, Bingman took a part of the property remaining on the lot and added it to other property of his own to complete the full string-of standard drilling tools which he had contracted to deliver to the Limestone Oil & Gas Company. The-only evidence in the record disclosing, what portion of plaintiff’s tools were so used to supplement Bingman’s tools sold to that company is a statement delivered to plaintiff in 1932 by one of Bing-man’s sons showing that plaintiff’s property represented 52% of the property sold and delivered to the Limestone Company. This property was sold and' by Bingman hauled and delivered to the purchaser at a point west of Holdenville by the same Art Crutchmer who hauled it from Cromwell, and he testified that about three years after he hauled the property from Cromwell to the lot in Okmulgee he removed all that remained of said property from said lot at the direction of the defendant and stored it in a stone barn at the edge of the city. This would make it in 1932 that Bing-man, the defendant, exercised dominion and control over all of the remainder of plaintiff’s said property which had not been sold and delivered to him by plaintiff and which was not included in the sale to the Limestone Oil & Gas Company with plaintiff’s consent. In 1940 Bingman sold all of the tools and equip[423]*423ment stored in the stone barn to some purchaser who was shipping them to Cuba, and the same Art Crutchmer did the hauling from the stone barn and the loading onto the railroad cars.

From 1932, when the remainder of the property now claimed by the plaintiff was removed from the lot in Okmulgee and stored in a stone barn by defendant, until the filing of this suit, plaintiff made no demand on the defendant for a return of the pledged property, his only objection, so far as the record discloses, being that which he made to the statement furnished him in 1932 as to his interest in the proceeds of the transaction with the Limestone Oil & Gas Company.

Defendant filed an answer which was quite lengthy and detailed as to the transactions between plaintiff and defendant, but in view of the ground on which the trial court based its decision in the action, it is only necessary here to state that included in defendant’s answer was a special plea of the statute of limitation of two years in bar of plaintiff’s cause of action.

At the conclusion of plaintiff’s evidence defendant demurred thereto on the ground that the evidence showed plaintiff’s cause of action to be barred by the two-year statute of limitation, and the trial court sustained the demurrer to the evidence on this ground and dismissed plaintiff’s action.

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Bluebook (online)
1947 OK 111, 179 P.2d 470, 198 Okla. 421, 1947 Okla. LEXIS 478, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cook-v-bingman-okla-1947.