Earth Products Company v. Oklahoma City

1968 OK 39, 441 P.2d 399
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedMarch 26, 1968
Docket41568
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 1968 OK 39 (Earth Products Company v. Oklahoma City) 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
Earth Products Company v. Oklahoma City, 1968 OK 39, 441 P.2d 399 (Okla. 1968).

Opinion

HODGES, Justice.

Plaintiff, City of Oklahoma City, brought this action against Curtis R. Hurst, an individual, Earth Products Company, Incorporated, and Sand Products, Incorporated, to cancel a certain contract between itself and Earth Products Company, an unincorporated company owned by Curtis R. Hurst. In addition to other relief sought, plaintiff sought a temporary injunction against the defendants and their employees or agents.

At the hearing on the application for temporary injunction, the trial court stated the stipulations of the parties agreed upon at a previous hearing not reported in the record. They are that the parties agreed upon the identity of the contract involved. They agreed that the contract had been properly executed; that the property referred to in the contract is plaintiff’s; that various assignments had been made of Hurst’s interests and rights in and to the contract without formal notice to or consent of plaintiff; and that Sand Products, Inc., which was then removing sand from the premises under its assignment is the ultimate and current assignee of the contract. Plaintiff refused to introduce any evidence. It apparently relied upon the stipulations. After defendants had produced evidence in support of their positions, the trial court reaffirmed its conclusions of law previously made upon the stipulations, and rendered *402 judgment for plaintiff granting the temporary injunction.

By the written contract here involved plaintiff had granted the unincorporated Earth Products Company the exclusive privilege of removing sand in any quantities desired from the city property described for a year with the right of renewal by the company for each of five successive years thereafter. A fixed sum per cubic yard was agreed upon. Upon removal, the sand becomes the sole and exclusive property of the company. There are provisions for the company’s obligations as to slopes, distances from certain banks and depth in certain locations in the excavation and removal of sand. Rights and obligations of the company as to removal of trees are specified.

The trial court held that the contract created a mere license, granted only a privilege to remove sand, was not assignable without the consent of plaintiff, and was revocable at the will of plaintiff, the li-censor.

Of the nine assigned errors upon which the corporate defendants seek reversal, we choose to consider only the alleged errors of law and the sufficiency of evidence in connection with the duration, revocability, and assignability of the contract. We will consider the question of duration of the “license” and its revocability at the will of the “licensor”. We will then consider the assignability of the contract.

It is apparent that much consideration has been given by the trial court and the parties to determination of the precise, technical classification of the relationship created by the contract here involved. It has been called a license, a profit, a prendre and a lease. Distinctions have been drawn between a lease and a license, a lease and an easement, and an easement and a license. The relationship could have been considered in relation to 60 O.S.1961, §§ 49 through 59, which relates to land burdens and servitudes upon land. In our view, however, a determination of the technical classification of the relationship is not decisive, so, without deciding that it is a license, we will for the purpose of this opinion consider the contract to have created a license.

In Durell v. Freese, 151 Okl. 150, 3 P.2d 175, a thorough discussion of the variable nature of a license appears. It can be permanent or temporary. It can be revocable or irrevocable whether permanent or temporary. We recognized there that revo-cability of a license is dependent upon the facts in each case; that there is apparent conflict in the cases in this country as to the applicable tests therefor; and that the courts of equity have tried to apply rules of equity to accomplish justice for the parties. We acknowledged the rule relied upon by plaintiff, to-wit:

“It is an ancient and well-settled doctrine of the common law that a mere license, whether by deed or parol is revocable at pleasure, unless coupled with an interest or grant.” (Emphasis supplied.)

In Durell v. Freese, supra, by quoting with approval from the cases of Rerick v. Kern, 14 Serg. & R. (Pa.) 267, 16 Am. Dec. 497, and Metcalf v. Hart, 3 Wyo. 513, 27 P. 900, 31 P. 407, 31 Am.St.Rep. 122, 123, we reiterated in Oklahoma the doctrine that a license can rise to the dignity of an agreement and clothe the licensee with the rights and privileges of a purchaser for a valuable consideration. This doctrine is well stated in 53 C.J.S. Licenses § 84, as follows:

“A bare license is not a contract. However, a license may become an agreement for a valuable consideration, as where the enjoyment of it must necessarily be preceded by the expenditure of money; and where a license constitutes, in effect, a contract, the rights and obligations of the parties under such license agreement depend on the provisions thereof.” (Emphasis supplied.)

It necessarily follows that where, as in this case, we begin with a contract “in fact” which creates a license, we need not follow any process of judicial logic to ascertain whether a “bare” or “mere” license constitutes “in effect” a contract. *403 Unquestionably, whatever the rights or privileges or the nature of the relationship of the original parties as to the removal of sand from the city property, they were created by the written contract.

A valid consideration for a written contract is presumed by the law. 15 O.S. 1961, §§ 114 and 115. Thus, the original party, Hurst’s unincorporated company, became a purchaser for value. The contract involved a legitimate subject matter (removal of sand), a valid consideration (presumed by law and inherent in the agreements to pay for the sand and to retain and maintain certain conditions on the land), and parties capable of entering into such contract. The contract was, therefore, a valid and whole one.

In McKenna v. Williams, 196 Okl. 603, 167 P.2d 368, we held that the license there was irrevocable during the period prescribed in the instrument creating it, to-wit:

“ * * * so long as the same [a driveway] is maintained and used for such purpose * *

In Towery v. Garber, 196 Okl. 78, 162 P. 2d 878, which involved a bare license granted by parol, we defined the rights of a licensee under such parol agreement in the second paragraph of the Syllabus, as follows, to-wit:

“The licensee to take water from the pipe of another may exercise only such right as is given by the agreement creating the license.” (Emphasis supplied.)

Applying the established principle that the rights and privileges of a licensee are dependent upon the agreement creating the license, we must resort to the written contract in this case to ascertain them.

Substituting the purpose of the license in this appeal for the purpose considered in Towery v. Garber, supra, the last quoted rule will read as follows:

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Bluebook (online)
1968 OK 39, 441 P.2d 399, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/earth-products-company-v-oklahoma-city-okla-1968.