Exendine v. Iron

1931 OK 584, 4 P.2d 1035, 153 Okla. 177, 1931 Okla. LEXIS 450
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedOctober 6, 1931
Docket20426
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 1931 OK 584 (Exendine v. Iron) 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
Exendine v. Iron, 1931 OK 584, 4 P.2d 1035, 153 Okla. 177, 1931 Okla. LEXIS 450 (Okla. 1931).

Opinion

ANDREWS, J.

This is an appeal from a judgment of the district court of Osage county in favor of the defendants in error and against the plaintiffs in error.

A. S. Sands, the executor of the estate of Wy-e-gla-in-kah, deceased, as such executor, filed a petition in the district court of Osage county against A. A. Exendine, as the executor of the estate of Wah-lcon-tah-he-um pah, deceased, and H. H. Brenner, a surety on his bond, for the recovery of a money judgment for the sum of $9,250.42. The defendants therein demurred to the allegations ■of the petition, and when their demurrer was overruled they filed an answer. Upon the application of the plaintiff, Wakon Iron and Raymond Redcorn were substituted as plaintiffs by order of the court. The plaintiffs filed a motion for a judgment on the pleadings and the defendants filed a motion for a continuance in order that they might amend their answer. The motion for a continuance was denied and judgment on the pleadings in favor of the plaintiffs and against the defendants was rendered by the court. Prom that judgment the defendants appealed to this court.

The parties hereinafter will be referred to as plaintiffs and defendants.

The defendanls contend that their demurrer to the plaintiffs’ petition should have been sustained for the reason that the petition failed lo state facts sufficient to state a cause of action against the defendants or either of them. They contend that the petition was “fatally defective in this, that it wholly failed to allege that there had been a settlement and final accounting by the defendant, Exendine, as executor of the estate of Wah-kon-tah-he-um-pah, deceased, and that a decree of the county court had been made thereon and entered, showing a balance due.” They admitted that the petition “inferenti ally” alleged such a settlement and decree and contend that the journal entry of judgment of the county court (Exhibit “C” referred to in the petition) shows that the order of the county court was made on “a supplement to a final report” and not on a “final report,” as required by the statute and as pleaded in the petition, and that this is a fatal variance 'ill which the exhibit controls.

That the exhibit controls over the allegations of the petition where there is a conflict therein, is definitely settled by the decisions of this court. Burks et al. v. American Nat. Bank, 89 Okla. 62, 213 P. 301; Gourley v. Northwestern Nat. Life Ins. Co., 94 Okla. 46, 220 P. 645.

The petition reads, in part, as follows:

“Plaintiff states that there has been a violation and breach of the conditions of the aforesaid bonds in this, to wit: Said defendant Exendine has failed to faithfully execute the duties of his office and trust as such executor according to law in that it became and was his duty after the issuance of the above commission to him to receive and collect funds belonging to the aforesaid estate and to disburse the same to the persons entitled thereto upon a final settlement of such estate.
“That on the 18th day of April, 1928, the honorable judge of the county court of Osage county, Okla., heard and' considered the final report of the said Exendine as executor, and after a hearing had thereon the aforesaid judge approved sa'id report and said defendant Exendine was. ordered and directed by said court to pay to plaintiff as executor of the estate of Wy-e-gla-in-kah, (he balance of the funds remaining in his hands as shown by such report amounting to $10,355.52. A true and correct copy of the aforesaid order and judgment is hereto attached marked exhibit ‘O’ and made a $art hereof.”

We ihink that those allegations were direct and that they were sufficient as against a demurrer, unless there is something in the exhibit, pleaded as exhibit “C” to the contrary. The allegation of the petition was that the “final report” of the executor was heard and considered by the county court. A supplement to a final report is authorized by the provisions of section 1359, O. O. S. 1921, and is in itself a final report, in the absence of a subsequent report.

The name given an instrument is of no effect. Hocker v. Rackley, 90 Okla. 83. 216 P. 151; Horstman v. Bowermaster, 90 Okla. 262, 217 P. 167; Stoner v. Weiss, 96 Okla. 285, 222 P. 547.

The exhibit pleaded as a part of the petition shows that the order of the county court was based on the report supplemented as well as on the supplement thereto, and that it was not based on the supplement thereto alone. That order recites:

“The court further finds that there is now due from A. A. Exendine as executor the sum of SI 0.355.52, and that sa'id executor now has in his possession and under his control and ready for distribution the sum of SI .150.10: that said executor is unable to cc^ourt for the sum of $9,250.42 for which <™rvTiif- im and his bondsmen, H. IT. Bren *179 ner and A. N. Ruble, dee’d., are jointly and severally liable”

—and directs t'bat the sum therein found to be due from the executor should be paid to A. S. Sands as executor. The order is in compliance with the provisions of section 1360, C. O. S. 1921.

There is nothing 'in Re McGannon’s Estate, 60 Okla. 288, 150 P. 1109, to the contrary. That case involved an appeal from an order affecting an account and there was therein no collateral attack on a judgment of a county court as is sought to be made herein.

■ The fact that the order of the county court was denominated “journal entry” rather than “order” or “decree” is 'immaterial.

A decree of a county court, determining the amount due, is essential to the maintenance of an action on an executor’s bond. Pennington v. Newman, 36 Okla. 594, 129 P. 693. Such a decree was pleaded by the plaintiffs in the' body of their petition and such a decree was shown by the exhibit attached thereto. The petition stated a cause of action and there was no error in overruling the demurrer of the defendants thereto. Shaffer Oil & Ref. Co. v. Thomas, 120 Okla. 253, 252 P. 41.

The defendants contend that their answer presented a triable 'issue of fact, but an examination of the answer discloses that the only issue of fact presented thereby was the correctness of the finding and judgment of the county court, which, under our practice, was a collateral attack on a judgment of a county court. There is no allegation In the answer that the county court was without jurisdiction of the subject-matter or of the person or that it did not have jurisdiction to make the particular order made. The record pleaded by the plaintiffs, on its face, shows jurisdiction to make the same.

The unverified general denial did not put in issue the judgment of the county court shown by the petition (section 287, O. O. S. 1921) and there was no plea of payment of the amount determined by the county court to be due. There was no triable issue of fact presented by the pleadings and the triál court could do nothing else than render a judgment on the pleadings in response to the motion of the plaintiffs.

In Boudinot v. Locust, 55 Okla. 662, 151 P. 579, 155 P. 698, this court held:

“The (sureties Upon an administrator’^ bond are.

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Bluebook (online)
1931 OK 584, 4 P.2d 1035, 153 Okla. 177, 1931 Okla. LEXIS 450, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/exendine-v-iron-okla-1931.