Depuy v. Selby

1919 OK 210, 185 P. 107, 76 Okla. 307, 1919 Okla. LEXIS 197
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJuly 8, 1919
Docket9121
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 1919 OK 210 (Depuy v. Selby) 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
Depuy v. Selby, 1919 OK 210, 185 P. 107, 76 Okla. 307, 1919 Okla. LEXIS 197 (Okla. 1919).

Opinion

JOHNSON. J.

We will refer to the parties as they stood in the trial court, plaintiff in error being defendant below, and defendant in error, plaintiff below.

This action was commenced by the plaintiff on January 28, 1916, by filing his petition, in which he alleged, in substance, that on or about the 15th day of October, 1910, the plaintiff and defendant entered into an oral agreement under and by which defendant agreed to sell plaintiff a tract of land located in McIntosh county. Then follows a description of the land, being 140 acres according to the government survey thereof. Plaintiff alleged that under and by the terms of said oral agreement the defendant agreed to deliver to the plaintiff a general warranty deed, with all the covenants of warranty and a good and sufficient title to the land, free from all incumbrances and claims of any kind or character, and that on the 31st day of October, 1910, the defendant delivered to the plaintiff what purported to be, and what the plaintiff understood to be, a general warranty deed in and to said land, but that instead thereof the defendant delivered what is known as a special warranty deed, conveying only the right, title, and interest of the defendant to said land, a copy of which the plaintiff attached to the petition, marking same “Exhibit A.’1 Plaintiff further alleges that at the time of the execution and delivery of the deed, he was unacquainted with the condition of land titles in Eastern Oklahoma, which fact was well known to the defendant, and that plaintiff knew nothing of the forms of deed sufficiently to convey an absolute fee-simple title; that the defendant, for the purpose of overreaching the plaintiff, falsely represented said deed to be a general warrant deed, .and urged plaintiff to accept the same and pay the purchase price of the land, and the plaintiff, relying upon the representations of the defendant, and believing the same to be true, did pay $1,500 of the purchase price at the time of the delivery of the deed, and executed his notes for $1,000, being the balance of the purchase price, and that on the 12th day of September, 1913, Jesse Malvern, the allottee of the said land, instituted a suit in the district court of McIntosh county against plaintiff and the defendant herein and others, for the recovery of the land in controversy herein; that on the 16th day of March. 1915, judgment was rendered therein, divesting the plaintiff and the said defendant herein of all right, title, and interest in and to said land, and vested the title to the same to the said Jesse Malvern, a copy of which judgment and decree is attached to plaintiff’s petition, marked “Exhibit O that on the institution of said suit the defendant herein agreed to defend said cause and protect the title to said land, and' with the seeming intent' to protect plaintiff, defendant filed a demurrer in said cause, which was overruled, and that he thereafter, with the intent to escape liability, fraudulently and with the intent to prevent the rendition of any judgment against him, filed a disclaimer and retired from said suit, leaving the plaintiff to stand all the burden to the said litigation, a copy of which disclaimer plaintiff attached to his petition, causing same to be marked “Exhibit D,” and the plaintiff was compelled to employ attorneys to represent him in his defense in said suit, and was compelled to pay attorney’s fees.

Plaintiff concludes his petition with a prayer for judgment in the sum of $2,500, and legal interest and attorney’s fees, for costs and for other general equitable and special relief, to which petition defendant thereafter filed his motion to require the plaintiff to make his petition more definite and certain, and to separately state and number his cause of action, which, being overruled, he filed a general demurrer, which among other things, stated that said petition shows on its face that plaintiff’s alleged cause of action was barred by the statute of limitations of this state, which demurrer was overruled by the court, and the defendant thereafter filed an answer consisting of a general denial, and thereafter, by leave of the court, filed) an amended answer, consisting of a general denial, and further alleged that the alleged cause of action in plaintiff’s petition was barred by the statute of limitations of two years, to which amended petition the plaintiff filed a reply, charging the defendant with falsely and fraudulently representing to the plaintiff, before and after the institution of the suit mentioned and during the pendency thereof, that he would hold the plaintiff harmless and defend said suit, and save the plaintiff from any loss on account of same, and agreed to make the title to the land good in any event, and the plaintiff alleged that he relied upon said statements, believing them to be true, and that the defendant would fulfill his promises so made, and that the plaintiff believed at the time of the rendition of the judgment against him in said suit that defendant would make good his title to said land and hold plaintiff harmless, and therefore plaintiff alleges that on account of said conduct the defendant is estopped from pleading the statute of limitations herein.

Upon the issues thus joined, thereafter, on December 13, 1916, the cause proceeded to trial to a jury.

*309 The plaintiff testified that he went into possession of the land immediately after receiving the deed therefor, and remained in possession until the judgment of the court was rendered against him in 1915; that during the pendency of the suit, defendant, at different times, promised to hold him harmless, and that he would make his title good; that after the jitdgment was rendered against him he asked his attorney what he thought about getting anything out of defendant.; that he would leave it,up to him; and that thereafter this suit was filed.

The record discloses that the land in controversy consisted of 140 and a fraction acres; that the plaintiff was evicted in the suit above referred to from 117 acres only, and at the time of the trial the plaintiff still had 23 acres, which he testified was the poor part of the land, and that he had paid all the agreed consideration for the land except $250. The plaintiff gave much other testimony both on direct and cross-examination along the same line as that referred to above, but we do not think the same materially adds to or detracts from the testimony here-inbefore referred to.

At the conclusion of his testimony the plaintiff called .as a witness in his behalf one W. M. Duffey, but this witness gave no testimony material to the issues involved, at the conclusion of which the plaintiff rested, and the defendant demurred to the plaintiff’s testimony for the reasons:

“(1) Because it fails to sustain a cause of action for fraud and deceit; (2) that it fails to sustain any cause of action upon a breach of warranty”

—which was by the court overruled and exception saved by defendant. Thereupon the defendant moved for an instructed verdict in his behalf, which was also overruled by the court, and exception saved by defendant, whereupon the defendant announced, “We stand on the evidence.” Thereafter the plaintiff moved the court to instruct the jury to return a verdict in favor of the plaintiff for the sum of $1,870.32, and interest thereon at 6 per cent, per annum from October 21, 1910, and the sum of $25 expended for attorney’s fees, which motion of the plaintiff for instructed verdict was sustained by the court, to which the defendant excepted.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1919 OK 210, 185 P. 107, 76 Okla. 307, 1919 Okla. LEXIS 197, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/depuy-v-selby-okla-1919.