Elerick v. Reed

1925 OK 866, 240 P. 1045, 113 Okla. 195, 44 A.L.R. 474, 1925 Okla. LEXIS 952
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedOctober 27, 1925
Docket15668
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 1925 OK 866 (Elerick v. Reed) 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
Elerick v. Reed, 1925 OK 866, 240 P. 1045, 113 Okla. 195, 44 A.L.R. 474, 1925 Okla. LEXIS 952 (Okla. 1925).

Opinion

*196 RILEY, J.

This' action was commenced on April 18, 1923, in the district court of Oklahoma county by defendant in error, Clyde A. Reed, who as plaintiff below! sought in equity to quiet title to certain real estate held by him by virtue of a tax deed, the real estate being described as follows: Lots twenty-six (2G), twenty-seven (27) and twenty-eight (28) of block three (3), Putnam Heights addition to- the city of Oklahoma, county of Oklahoma, state of Oklahoma.

Service by publication was had upon the Military Park & Development Company, a corporation, M. F. lOwens, E. Hammond Jones, and D. C. Graham. These defendants subsequently defaulted. On May 15, 1923, the plaintiffs in error, C. E. Bleyick and A. M. Elerick, filed an application and were granted leave to intervene, interveners having alleged in their application, ownership of the -property in controversy by virtue of a judgment and mortgage foreclosure and by v-iytue of a deed of conveyance, all entered and recorded prior to the issuance of the tax deed herein mentioned. The interveners were, by the trial court, made parties defendant for all purposes, and will hereinafter be designated as defendants. Defendants filed their demurrey, pending which plaintiff amended his petition and attached thereto a new tax deed executed May 31, 1923. The defendants’ motion to make more definite and ceytain, to strike, and their demurrer to the amended petition were filed, ojverruled, and exceptions allowed. Defendants filed their answer and cross-petition, alleging ownership of the property described as theretofore set out in their application to intervene, and further specifically denying the authenticity of the .plat upon which the description and location of the property here in controversy is based. It was alleged that in the said court, in cause No. 11830, entitled “William Bonnar v. Military Park & Development Company et al.,” a final judgment was rendered determining that the proper plat described the property here involved as blocks 1, 2, and 3, Putnam Heights addition. The defendants denied the existence of the lots described by plaintiff by any authentic plat, and alleged that by reason of the invalidity of the alleged plat relied upon by plaintiff and the invalidity .of the proceedings based thereon, including levies, taxes and tax deeds, they, the defendants, were entitled to possession and the quieting of title in them.

Plaintiff Reed replied, denying generally and alleging peaceful possession for more than a yeay and the expenditure of $3,500 in good faith in permanent improvements, to the property described. On September 18, 1923, the court rendered judgment.

The vital part of the judgment of the court affecting the appeal is as follows :

“* * * And the court being fully advised in the premises finds that the tax deeds upon which plaintiff relies are ¡void and of no force,.effect, or virtue and do not 'cotavey title to said propeyty to the plaintiff as against said C. F. and A. M. Elerick, and finds that said property is the property of C. F. and A. M. Elerick. * * *”

The -court rendered judgment for the plaintiff Reed-in the sum of $270.73 for taxes paid on the property and made a finding that plaintiff Reed had made valuable and lasting improvements upon the property and continued the cause for further proceedings as provided for under the Occupying Claimant’s Act, sections 474-478, Compiled Oklahoma Statutes, 1921.

On September 22, 1923, the matter of compensation for improvements made by plaintiff came on for trial and the court appointed appraisers as -provided by law. The plaintiff demanded a trial by jury. The court then dismissed the appraisers and the cause was continued until October 8, 1923. Here the first trial of the cause ended. No appeal was had from the judgment thus, far rendered and the judgment became final.

The jury, after having considered the testimony concerning the value of the property, being instructed by the court and having heard the argument of counsel, rendered four findings concerning the property in dispute, which are as follows:

11) The actual value of the permanent and lasting improvements upon said property, independently of the real estate, is $2,000.

(2) The rental value of the real estate and the permanent and lasting improvements from April 18, 1922, to November 7, 1923, is $15 per month.

(3) The rental value oif the yeal estate described, independent of improvements, is nothing.

(4) The actual value of the real estate, independent of lasting and permanent improvements. is the sum of $400.

Following is the judgment of the court based on the verdict of the jury:

“Thereupon the court entered judgment for the plaintiff and against the defendants C. F. anfi A. M. Elerick on the verdict of *197 the jury and tlie court further ordered and granted the defendants, C. F. and A. M. Elerick, ten days from this date in which to elect whether to receive the value of the real estate without the improvements as found by the jury, and tender a deed in compliance with the statute or to pay said O. A. Reed the value of the permanent 'and lasting improvements as found by the jury, all in accordance with the verdict of the jury and the statute in such cases made and provided. To all of which rulings and judgment herein the defendants. C. F. and A. II. Elerick, excepted and except and thereupon gave notice of appeal. * * *”

The defendants Elerick. as appellants, have filed ten assignments of error, numbers 3 and 4 of which deal with instructions given and refused by the trial court. Nowhere in the brief of the appellants do we find set out the instructions complained of, nor the ones the court refused. Rule No. 26 of the Supreme Court, effective July 10, 1923, provides in part as follows:

“® * * Also, where a- party cron-plains of instructions given or refused, he shall set out in totidem verbis in his brief separately the portion to which he objects oy may save exceptions. * * *”

We have reviewed the instructions given, and are of the opinion that the same fairly cover the law. applicable to the case.

Appellants consider together assignments of 1 to 6, inclusive, and 8, contending that the plaintiff should not be allowed -any recovery whatever for improvements and that the trial court erred in overruling the defendants’ demurrer and! in failure to sustain the objection to the introduction of evidence, and in rendering judgment upon the verdict of the jury, all of these assignments of error going to the judgment for the recovery of the value of the improvements. The greater part of the argument is based upon the premise that the tax deeds, he¡re brought in controversy, are void upon their face.

The original tax deed attached to the plaintiff’s .petition indicates in the substance of the wording thereof that the several lots were sold together for one purchase price, and the instrument is void upon its face. Lowenstein v. Sexton, 18 Okla. 322. 90 Pac. 410.

In the case of Eldridge v. Robertson. 19 Okla. 165, 92 Pac. 166, it is said:

“A tax deed 'which does not show upon its face the amount for which the tract or parcel of land which it purports to convey was sold is for that reason void.”

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1925 OK 866, 240 P. 1045, 113 Okla. 195, 44 A.L.R. 474, 1925 Okla. LEXIS 952, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/elerick-v-reed-okla-1925.