Exchange Trust Co. v. Godfrey

1927 OK 215, 261 P. 197, 128 Okla. 108, 1927 Okla. LEXIS 385
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJuly 26, 1927
Docket16899
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 1927 OK 215 (Exchange Trust Co. v. Godfrey) 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
Exchange Trust Co. v. Godfrey, 1927 OK 215, 261 P. 197, 128 Okla. 108, 1927 Okla. LEXIS 385 (Okla. 1927).

Opinion

RILEY, J.

The Exchange Trust Company, a corporation, as administrator of the estate of Bertha Godfrey, deceased, commenced this action for the enforcement of a trust, for the appointment of a receiver, to determine heirship, and to quiet title.

The facts alleged were that Bertha God-frey, by gunshot wound, was .murdered by her husband, J. F. Godfrey, in Tulsa on September 9, 1922, and she died without issue, leaving surviving her, J. E. Godfrey, her husband, L. D. Day and Nancy Belle Day, her father and mother; and she was seised' of certain personal property and real estate. The real estate consisted of the north 60 feet of Lot 1, block 99, original town of Tulsa, Tulsa county, Okla., valued at $25,000, and the east one-half of southeast quarter of section 14, township 22, range 6 east, Pawnee county, Okla., valued at $8,500. The personal property in dispute consisted of the household goods and furnishings of an apartment erected upon real estate first above described.

It is further alleged that the described property was and is the individual and separate property of the deceased and acquired from her individual earnings and means; that J. E. Godfrey held the legal title to the same in trust for Bertha Godfrey, deceased, but that he contributed nothing to the purchase of the same, and, therefore, had no right nor title thereto; that the defendants (naming them) claimed some right or title to said property, but that such interest, if any, was inferior to plaintiff’s; that J. F. Godfrey was on April T, 1923, *110 convicted of the murder of Bertha Godfrey and sentenced to life imprisonment; that L. D. Day and Nancy Belle Day, father and mother, are the sole heirs of Bertha Godfrey, deceased, and entitled to inherit her estate; that defendants are in possession of said property and refuse to give plaintiff possession, and that the defendants are dissipating rents and profits and injuring' the property in Tulsa.

Plaintiff prays for the appointment of a receiver, a judgment for the enforcement of a trust, declaring the property to he held in trust by J. E. Godfrey for the use and benefit of L. D. Day and Nancy Belle Day, for the determination of heirs, depreeing L. D. Day and Nancy Belle Day to be heirs at law and next of kin and decreeing them to be the owners of the equitable and legal title in the described property, and the quieting of title as against the defendants, and for “such other and further relief, be the same general, special, legal, or equitable, as the court may deem proper to decree.”

A general demurrer was filed and overruled. Then O. L. Harmon and Mrs. O. L. Harmon answered, disclaiming interest in certain personal property, that is, personal effects and life insurance, and disclaiming as to the land in Pawnee county, but denying Bertha Godfrey, deceased, owned the furniture in the apartment situated on the real estate in Tulsa, and denied that the real estate was the separate property of the deceased, but alleged that J. P. Godfrey purchased the same from his own means and conveyed the same by warranty deed to L. G. Owens, Ed Crossland, John L. Ward, and W. A. Chase, who were innocent purchasers for value witbjout notice of defects and purchasers upon faith of the record title. The answer admits possession of the Tulsa property by the answering defendants and claims title by purchase of an undivided one-half interest from L G. Owens, and alleges that answering defendants were also innocent purchasers without notice.

W. A. Chase and John L. Ward filed their separate answer, the same in effect as that of the Harmons. Plaintiff demurred to the answers, which demurrer was overruled by the court, whereupon the plaintiff filed a reply.

The evidence discloses that J. E. Godfrey employed Ed Crossland, W. A. Chase, L. G. Owens, and John L. Ward, defendants, as attorneys to defend him in his trial for murder and conveyed to them the real estate in controversy to secure their fee.

On trial the plaintiff insisted that the action was at law and urged the right to try the facts to a jury. The defendants argued that it was an equity case. The court impaneled a jury with the following interlocutory :

“The Court: The contention of the defendants is the property belonged to both the husband and the wife?
“Mr. Moss: That is right.
“The Court: Well, I will call a jury, gentlemen, and if it develops this is purely an equitable matter I will take it away from the jury and decide it myself.” (C.-M., p. 33.)

At the close of plaintiff’s evidence and' at the time of the presentation of a demurrer to the testimony by defendants, the court discharged the jury upon the ground that the cause was in equity, and overruled the demurrer, and at the conclusion of the defendants’ evidence the court found that the property in Pawnee county was no longer an issue, the same having been sold under a mortgage foreclosure; that the property, real and' personal, in issue in Tulsa county was purchased, save and except the sum of $700, by funds of J. F. Godfrey, and that at the time the Tulsa real estate was deeded to J. E. Godfrey it was at the suggestion of Mrs. Godfrey, and that then she made the statement that after his death she would be the owner of the property; that all of the furniture was purchased by check on God-frey’s account in his own name and on his account by Mrs. Godfrey, and that J. E. Godfrey was the legal owner of both the real and personal property: that defendants were purchasers of the property for good and valuable consideration without notice, and that defendants are. the owners of the property (except the defendants who disclaim). J. P. Godfrey then filed a disclaimer over the objection of plaintiff.

Motion for new trial was filed and overruled. and judgment was entered as follows:

“That on the 16th day of January. 1925. this cause came on for trial, Judge A. S. Wells, trial judge. Plaintiffs appeared, defendants appeared, except J. F. Godfrey who makes default, and the court ordered the said J. E. Godfrey in default. Plaintiffs begin their evidence, and it having come <-ime to adjourn, tb.e court adjourned until Hie 17th day of January, 1925. On the 17th day of January, 1925, the cause was resumed, plaintiffs having finished their evidence, rested and moved the court for judgment against the defendant J. E. Godfrey, which motion of the plaintiffs was granted; *111 tlie defendants then interposed a demurrer to plaintiffs’ evidence, and the court having heard the argument, takes the matter under advisement until the 10th day of February, 1925 The cause resumed on said date, overruled the demurrer. The defendants, except J. F. Godfrey, then begin the intro-du.tion of their evidence, to the introduction of which plaintiffs then and there objected, the objection was overruled, and exceptions saved; and the defendants, having completed their evidence, moved the court to vacate its judgment against J. F. Godfrey, which motion the court granted and vacated the judgment against Godfrey, to all of which plaintiffs objected and excepted; the court found that the money and funds advanced by Bertha Godfrey, which went into the purchase of the personal property and real estate set out and described in plaintiffs’ petition, was a gift to the defendant J. F. Godfrey, and that at the time J. F.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1927 OK 215, 261 P. 197, 128 Okla. 108, 1927 Okla. LEXIS 385, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/exchange-trust-co-v-godfrey-okla-1927.