Farmers Nat. Bank v. De Fever

1936 OK 577, 61 P.2d 245, 177 Okla. 561, 1936 Okla. LEXIS 424
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedOctober 6, 1936
DocketNo. 25994.
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 1936 OK 577 (Farmers Nat. Bank v. De Fever) 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
Farmers Nat. Bank v. De Fever, 1936 OK 577, 61 P.2d 245, 177 Okla. 561, 1936 Okla. LEXIS 424 (Okla. 1936).

Opinion

PE® CURIAM.

Alex De Fever, hereinafter referred to as the debtor, on January 14, 1933, made to the Farmers National Bank of Cherokee, Okla., hereinafter referred to as the bank, upon a printed blank, or stock form, which appears to have been prepared and furnished by the bank, a mortgage, which was recorded two days later, of described cattle, farm implements, and the debtor’s two-thirds interest in growing wheat on two tracts of land. The printed form is verbose, with provisions, among which appear certain blank spaces, the insertion in which of the descriptive entries appropriate to the individual transaction completed. the instrument for execution and delivery. The executed mortgage contains, among other things, the matter which now will be quoted, the emphasized words and figures within the quotations being manuscript or typewritten insertions in spaces thus provided therefor:

“That I, Alex Defever * * * in consideration of the sum of Six Hundred and No/100 Dollars to me in hand paid by the Farmers National Bank of Cherokee, Okla. hereinafter called Bank, and for other valuable considerations, receipt of which is hereby acknowledged, have bargained, sold and conveyed, and by these presents bargain, sell and convey unto said bank, its successors and assigns, the following described personal property, now located and situated in the County of Alfalfa, State of Oklahoma, on S. W. (Jr Section No. 30 Township ,27 N. Range No. 11 WIM., to wit:”

—following which, in a blank space provided, is inserted a description of the mortgaged property. Other printed provisions ensue, after which the instrument continues:

“This conveyance, however, is intended as a Mortgage to secure said Bank, its successors and assigns, in the payment of certain indebtedness due and owing by me, evidenced by one certain promissory note as follows: One note dated Jam. 14th, 1933 due July 14th, 1933 for $600.00. One note dated _ due _ for $_and as well to secure the payment of all other indebtedness now due and ojving said Bank. * * *”

On January 14, 1933, that is, contemporaneously with the execution and delivery of this mortgage, the debtor executed and delivered to the bank three promissory notes of that date, one being the note for $600, which the above-quoted provisions of the mortgage identify, another for $168.50, and still another for $852.18. The dates, maturities, and conditions of the three notes are precisely the same, the notes differing only as to these principal amounts.

On June 1, 1933, the debtor made to defendant Agricultural Bond & Credit Corporation, hereinafter referred to as the corporation, a mortgage, bearing that date, of all. or substantially all, the property described in the mortgage wfiich he theretofore had made to the bank. The latter mortgage recited that it was given to secure an indebtedness to the corporation of $746, and was “subject to a mtg. of $600 to the Farmers National Bank.”

On August 3, 1933, the bank began this action in the court below against the debt- or and the corporation, to recover of him upon, the three notes, to foreclose its mortgage for the satisfaction of the respective amounts due upon them, and to bar both defendants from any interest in the mortgaged property.

Its petition alleged, in addition to facts respecting the execution and delivery of the instruments sued on and the amounts-due upon the notes, that the mortgage was given to secure the payment of the notes; that the corporation claimed some right in the mortgaged property, but that such right was inferior to the lien of plaintiff; that the wheat described in plaintiff’s mortgage had been sold, and that “the check in the-sum of $1,574, payable to the plaintiff and defendants,” was in possession of the debt- or ; that certain specified deductions should be made from said amount for the payment of rent and insurance, and that the balance-should be delivered to the bank.

Answers were filed by each of the defendants, which admitted, expressly or through absence of verified denial, the execution of the written instruments upon which plaintiff sued, and that the note for $600 held by the bank was secured by its mortgage, and denied that the other two notes were *563 secured thereby. The corporation also set up in its answer its cause of action upon its chattel mortgage hereinbefore described, alleged that the net proceeds of the mortgaged wheat had been impounded by agreement in the registry • of the court, and prayed for distribution of this amount by the payment of the note held by the plaintiff for $600 to it and of the remainder to the corporation.

No subsequent pleadings were filed.

The transcript discloses the making of the agreement for the impounding of the net proceeds of the wheat pleaded in the answer of the corporation, and that thereafter, by agreement of the parties, the trial court •ordered the payment from the net proceeds •of the amount due upon the note held by the plaintiff for $600, and that the remainder be held for disposition by final judgment.

On May 19, 1934, the issues were tried to the court, without the introduction of evidence, upon stipulation, which added nothing of fact affecting the conclusions deduei-ble from the state of the pleadings already described.

The court adjudged that the lien of the bank’s mortgage to the extent of the note held by it for $600 was superior to the claims of the defendants; that the lien of the corporation’s mortgage was inferior only to the said lien of the bank; that the bank’s claim had been fully paid and satisfied ; that the remainder of the proceeds of the sale of the wheat should be paid to the corporation; and that it was entitled to the possession of the chattels.

To this judgment the bank excepted, and appeals by petition in error with transcript of the record attached.

Of the four assignments of error contained in the petition in error, three, the substantial parts of which are quoted in the first paragraph of the syllabus, may not be considered here for the reasons stated in that paragraph. Connelly v. Adams, 52 Okla. 382, 152 P. 607; Carolina v. Montgomery, 74 Okla. 121, 177 P. 612.

The other assignment of error is:

“The court erred' in its finding that the mortgage of the defendant in error, upon the personal property described in the petition, (was) superior to the mortgage of the plaintiff in error on said personal property.”

While this assignment does not accurately describe the decision of the trial court that the plaintiff’s mortgage secured one of the notes held by plaintiff, but that it did not secure the other two, we will indulge an interpretation which gives the assignment the effect of a complaint of that ruling; so that whether or not that ruling is according to law is the sole issue for decision here.

The frequency with which this precise question arises in the business transactions of the people is manifested by the fact that this is the third time that the point has appeared here as the major subject of controversy, and is also indicated in the light of common knowledge of the extensive use which is made by bankers, farmers, merchants and others of the chattel mortgage as an instrument to secure the payment of debt, in which use printed blanks, or stock forms, are usually employed.

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Bluebook (online)
1936 OK 577, 61 P.2d 245, 177 Okla. 561, 1936 Okla. LEXIS 424, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/farmers-nat-bank-v-de-fever-okla-1936.