Fink Bonding Ins. Co. v. Stevens

1939 OK 530, 98 P.2d 898, 186 Okla. 439, 1939 Okla. LEXIS 615
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedDecember 12, 1939
DocketNo. 29108.
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 1939 OK 530 (Fink Bonding Ins. Co. v. Stevens) 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
Fink Bonding Ins. Co. v. Stevens, 1939 OK 530, 98 P.2d 898, 186 Okla. 439, 1939 Okla. LEXIS 615 (Okla. 1939).

Opinion

DAVISON, J.

On the 10th day of August, 1933, the Fink Bonding & Insurance Company, through a committee appointed at a meeting of its stockholders, entered into a contract by the terms of which it was agreed that said company would convey to one Walter N. Stevens all its assets for a consideration of $9,000. Two thousand dollars of said amount was paid upon the execution of the contract, and according to the terms thereof Stevens agreed to pay the balance in installments of $3,500 each, on or before August 10, 1934, and August 10, 1935, respectively. Stevens defaulted in the payment of the two installments mentioned, and on April 12, 1937, judgment was entered against him and in favor of Fink Bonding & Insurance Company, trustee, for the creditors of Fink Bonding & Insurance Company, in the amount of said $7,000 in an action to recover said balance due under said contract that was originally commenced by a former trustee for said creditors.

On different dates, subsequent to August 10, 1933, Stevens executed, as grant- or, six quitclaim deeds to his wife, as grantee, covering six separate parcels of real estate, which we shall hereinafter refer to as if they were numbered from “1” to “6,” inclusive, and designated “tract one,” “tract two,” etc. The present action was commenced by the above-named judgment creditor on November 2, 1938, against Stevens and his wife to obtain the cancellation of the quitclaim deeds to tracts one and five and to have tracts two, three, four, and six declared to be the property of Stevens and to have all of said real estate decreed to be subject to the lien of plaintiff’s judgment and sold to satisfy the same. The plaintiff’s asserted right to the relief sought was based upon allegations that all of the real estate involved was purchased by Stevens and the purported conveyances that he later executed to his wife were without consideration and in fraud of creditors.

After the issues were joined by the plaintiff’s pleadings and the answers filed on behalf of both defendants, the cause came on for trial without a jury.

At the close of the evidence the plaintiff requested that the court make 15 certain findings of fact and five certain conclusions of law.

In entering judgment for the defendants, the trial court refused to promulgate the' conclusions of law requested on behalf of the plaintiff, but made the findings of fact requested, with one exception. Supplemental to these findings, however, the court also found that each of the six parcels of real estate was purchased with the funds of the defendant Mrs. Stevens, and that in each of said purchases, the other defendant, Mr. Stevens, acted as her agent. The court also found that the funds and properties of both defendants were “commingled,” and that Mr. Stevens assumed and exercised the privilege of using any part of the funds of Mrs. Stevens and that she did not object to his so doing.

The plaintiff has appealed to this court specifying eight assignments of error. The position that it has adopted in its briefs is set forth in five propositions.

We will hereinafter continue to refer to the parties as they appeared in the trial court.

Before discussing the argument presented on behalf of the parties it will be necessary to more specifically identify the six parcels of real estate involved herein.

Tract number one was purchased from one L. C. Decius by a warranty deed *441 dated February 9, 1933, naming both of the defendants as the grantees thereof. Title to tract number two was also acquired from L. C. Decius by a warranty deed dated February 10, 1934. Tract number three was purchased from one C. B. Kagy and others on March 15, 1935. Tract number four was purchased April 11, 1936, from E. R. Jones and others. Title to tract number five, which consists of portions of two lots in the city of Muskogee, was acquired from the Farm & Home Savings & Loan Association by a warranty deed dated February 8, 1936. Tract number six, a portion of another city lot in Muskogee, was acquired from the First National Bank & Trust Company of that city by a warranty deed executed March 19, 1937.

In all six of the warranty deeds executed by the above-named vendors, except the one covering tract number one, Mrs. Stevens is the sole and only grantee named. All of said deeds, as well as the six quitclaim deeds executed contemporaneously therewith or subsequent thereto by Stevens to his wife, and covering the same property described in said warranty deeds, were filed of record.

By the first proposition set forth in the plaintiff’s brief, it is contended that the trial court erred in refusing to cancel the quitclaim deeds from Mr. Stevens to Mrs. Stevens for the asserted reason that they were without consideration, and therefore void as to the plaintiff. The defendants’ answer to this contention is that the evidence is insuffi-ent to establish ownership by Mr. Stevens in the tracts in question, but, on the contrary, it shows, as the trial court found, that the funds used in purchasing said real estate were funds of Mrs. Stevens, and that in said purchases Stevens acted merely as agent for her. If these assertions are correct, then, under our decision in Streeter et al. v. State ex rel. Shull, Bank Com’r, 154 Okla. 160, 7 P. 2d 636, the trial court committed no error in refusing to cancel the deeds in question. And if, as the defense counsel say, the property thus purportedly conveyed by Mr. Stevens was the separate property of his wife, then, according to section 1659, O. S. 1931, 32 Okla. Stat. Ann. § 9, the trial court correctly refused to subject it to the lien of plaintiff’s judgment.

In their second proposition, plaintiff’s counsel contend that the findings of the court indicating that the six tracts of real estate were purchased for Mrs. Stevens with her own separate funds are not supported by the evidence and are contrary to other findings promulgated.

In support of this assertion, counsel for plaintiff call our attention to certain testimony concerning the acquisition of the six tracts of real estate from their former owners. This testimony shows that in all of the negotiations and transactions concerning the conveyances we have described said owners dealt directly with Mr. Stevens, and some of them gave testimony to the effect that they did not know that Mrs. Stevens was a party thereto. It also reveals that the consideration paid for each of the six transfers was delivered solely by Mr. Stevens.

We consider the evidence described insufficient to establish that any of the six parcels of real estate were purchased by Mr. Stevens for himself rather than as agent for Mrs. Stevens. There appears to be no evidence in the record directly contradicting the testimony of the defendants that the funds used for the purchase of tracts two to six, inclusive, were all derived from the sale of bonds belonging to Mrs. Stevens that had been purchased with money she had earned while employed by various printing shops and newspapers. The entire purchase price of tracts two, three, and five was delivered in currency. While the evidence shows that to obtain $25 of the consideration paid for tract five Mr. Stevens wrote and cashed a check, and it also appears that the entire consideration for tract three was paid by check, yet it was not proved *442 upon what account these checks were drawn.

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1939 OK 530, 98 P.2d 898, 186 Okla. 439, 1939 Okla. LEXIS 615, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fink-bonding-ins-co-v-stevens-okla-1939.