Fehlman v. Kinnear

1922 OK 108, 205 P. 1091, 85 Okla. 282, 1922 Okla. LEXIS 83
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedMarch 28, 1922
Docket10144
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 1922 OK 108 (Fehlman v. Kinnear) 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
Fehlman v. Kinnear, 1922 OK 108, 205 P. 1091, 85 Okla. 282, 1922 Okla. LEXIS 83 (Okla. 1922).

Opinion

MILLER, J.

This action was commenced in the district court of Tulsa county by G. E. R. Kinnear, as plaintiff, against the S. O. Oil Company, a copartnership composed of J. O. Peterson, P. E. Fehlman, O. J. Marker, A. L. Schellhammer, and S. E. Walker, as defendants, to recover the value of an oil drilling rig which was destroyed by fire. The ease was tried to a jury, which returned a Verdict against the defendants. Judgment was rendered on the verdict, and the defendants appealed and appear here, as plaintiffs in error. For convenience, the parties will be referred to as they appeared in the lower court. The 14 specific assignments of error set out in the petition in error are discussed in the brief under six heads. It will only be. necessary to consider the first and second, and they will be considered together.

“First: Suits at law must be prosecuted in the name of the real parties in interest.

“Second: Upon a change in the attitude toward each other of the parties to an action, the pleadings should be recast and issues framed accordingly.”

The history of this case leading up to the trial as shown by the pleadings and the record is as follows:

G. E. R. Kinnear, as sole plaintiff, on December 7, 1915, filed his petition in the district court alleging in part:

“That, heretofore, to wit: The plaintiff entered into a verbal contract with the defendants by the terms of which it was agreed that plaintiff should furnish a certain National drilling machine and other tools and appliances, used in and about such a machine and for the purpose of drilling oil and gas wells and a driller and tool dresser; which machine and appliances and driller and tool dresser the defendants were to use in cleaning well No. 7, on the Thomas Henson lease in section 21, township 20, range 13, in Tulsa county, Oklahoma, for and in consideration of the payment to plaintiff by defendants of the sum of twenty ($20.-00) dollars per day for each day same should be used.”

The petition then states that while the drilling outfit was being used to clean out the well, it caught fire and was totally destroyed and plaintiff suffered a loss of $1,140, and prays for judgment for that amount against each of the defendants, naming them. The petition is signed by Dillard & Dillard, attorneys for plaintiff. A motion to make the petition more specific, definite, and certain was filed by defendants, and a demurrer was also filed, but these do not seem to have been passed upon by the court.

Afterwards, and on July 28, 1916, the defendants filed an answer and cross-petition.

On May 12, 1917, the plaintiff filed a garnishment affidavit upon which a garnishment summons was issued against S. W. Parish. Thereafter, S. W. Parish, by his attorneys, Dillard & Dillard, filed an answer as garnishee in which he admitted an indebtedness to the defendants in the sum of $1,301.62.

On May 14, 1917, the plaintiff filed a reply, consisting of a general denial, which was filed by Dillard & Dillard, attorneys for plaintiff.

On May 16, 1917, the defendants filed a motion to bring in S. W. Parish as an additional party defendant and quash the garnishment proceedings herein. The motion is supported by an .affidavit of defendant S. E. Walker, from which affidavit we quote a part as follows:

“That the S. O. Oil Company, so-called, was, at the times referred to in the petition herein, a copartnership composed of J. O. Peterson, P. E. Fehlman, A. L. Schellhammer and himself, and that one S. W. Parish, the garnishee herein, and the said firm or co-partnership were the joint owners of and engaged in joint operations under the oil and gas lease referred to in the petition herein, and that they had been so jointly engaged in operations thereunder for some time prior to and at the time of the fire loss out of which the pretended cause of action herein arose, to the expense of which said operations and in the profits where-from, he, the said S. W. Parish, had shared and contributed from .time to time, and that the sum and amount now admitted by him in his answer and disclosure as a garnishee herein to be due and owing is a part of a disputed balance of the joint account arising from and out of the conduct of their said joint enterprise under the lease of which mention is had and to which reference is so made in the petition herein, and, in a large measure, in connection with the well in question.
“That said S. W. Parish, the said garnishee herein, was formerly associated with the plaintiff herein, G. E. R. Kinnear above named, and his partner in the business of drilling oil and gas wells, and as such had drilled a number of the other wells on the premises referred to in the said petition *284 herein in the course and furtherance of the joint enterprise and undertaking aforesaid, and that the failure to adjust the mutual accounts of the various persons interested in the said joint enterprise and undertaking, in the due course of the conduct of which some nine wells, including the one over .the drilling of which the pretended cause of action herein arose was one, were drilled, has resulted in litigation, of which the action now pending in the above entitled court known as No. 5203 of its files and records, in which the members of the said copartnership above named are the plaintiffs and the said S. W. Parish, the garnishee herein, is the defendant, is a part.”

Upon this motion being presented to the court, on May 21, 1917, the court made an order that the said S. W. Parish be brought in and made a party defendant in the above entitled action.

Thereafter the defendants dismissed their cross-petition, leaving only their answer to the plaintiff’s petition as their pleadings in this case.

On June 8, 1917, S. W. Parish filed his separate demurrer to the plaintiff’s petition, which was signed by Dillard & Dillard, attorneys for S. W. 'Parish. It does not appear that this demurrer was ever passed upon toy the court, and on June 21, 1917, S. AY. Parish filed an answer, which answer was signed by Dillard & Dillard, attorneys for S. AY. Parish. He denied any liability to the plaintiff under the allegations of plaintiff’s petition; alleged that he had been brought in as a garnishee and' had filed his answer admitting indebtedness to the S. O. Oil Company, and that he was now holding the sum of money representing said indebtedness for the benefit of the plaintiff under said garnishment, or for the benefit of the defendants, and asked that the court determine to whom the fund belonged. The third paragraph of this answer reads:

“3rd. For a further special answer in this behalf, this defendant says that he owned an eighth interest in the lease and leasehold estate on which the well was being drilled, as alleged in plaintiff’s petition at .the time the fire occurred which, plaintiff alleges, damaged his property, but that he did not make any contract with the plaintiff for the drilling of said well and said well was drilled against his wishes and over his protest, and that he was not managing nor using the tools of the plaintiff at the time that same were alleged to have been damaged, and that same were not damaged by reason of any negligence or lack of care on the part of the defendant.”

He then states that the S. O.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Conley Drilling Co. v. Rogers
1943 OK 3 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1943)
Coline Gasoline Corp. v. Yancey
1932 OK 321 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1932)
Kinnear v. Dennis
1924 OK 171 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1924)
Owens v. Taylor
1923 OK 103 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1923)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1922 OK 108, 205 P. 1091, 85 Okla. 282, 1922 Okla. LEXIS 83, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fehlman-v-kinnear-okla-1922.