First Nat. Bank of Altus v. Hays

1928 OK 2, 262 P. 675, 128 Okla. 282, 1928 Okla. LEXIS 103
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJanuary 3, 1928
Docket17239
StatusPublished

This text of 1928 OK 2 (First Nat. Bank of Altus v. Hays) 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
First Nat. Bank of Altus v. Hays, 1928 OK 2, 262 P. 675, 128 Okla. 282, 1928 Okla. LEXIS 103 (Okla. 1928).

Opinion

FOSTER, C.

This action is based on a cause originally filed in the district court of Jackson county by First National Bank of Altus, Okla., against Baker Cotton Oil Company, to replevin eight bales of cotton grown by L. McYeary and B. M. McYeary in 1921, on a farm located in said county owned by John T. Hays.

The bank based its claim under a chattel mortgage given by McYeary. The Baker Cotton Oil Company answered that it purchased the said hales of cotton from John T. Hays, and asked that said John T. Hays be made a' party. Hays filed an answer and cross-petition by way of intervention in said cause, in which he admitted the allegations of Baker Cotton Oil Company, and denied the allegations in the petition of the plaintiff, First National Bank; Hays claiming a landlord’s lien, superior to the mortgage of the bank, for rent due on other land on which the MeXearys were liable to Hays in cash, and in addition thereto ¡by way of cross-petition alleged various claims against the bank amounting to a total of $3,892, which are set out in detail in said cross-petition.

The plaintiff bank filed a reply to the answer and cross-petition of the said John T. Hays consisting .of a general denial, and a further allegation that one W. M. Ingram, who, as vice president of said bank, at all times acted as the agent of the said John T: Hays, and, with authority from him, paid out the sums of money alleged in the answer and cross-petition of Hays, and that the said Hays consented to all the acts of Ingram and that he ((Ingram) made a final settlement with Hays in which he accepted payment in full of all sums due. To this reply the said John T. Hays filed a general denial.

A demurrer was filed by the bank to the answer and cross-petition of Hays, which was by the lower court sustained as not-being a proper pleading in said cause, but was docketed for separate trial and given a separate number.

The court then proceeded to hear the re-plevin suit between the bank and the Baker Cotton Oil Company, which resulted in a verdict in favor of the bank for the possession of five of the eight bales of cotton sued for, from which judgment the Baker Cotton Oil Company appealed to this court, and said judgment was affirmed as to the priority of the lien of the hank under its mortgage over the landlord’s lien of John T. Hays for rent on the other land on which no crops were grown, and held that the hank was entitled to possession of the five bales of cotton, said case being styled Baker Cotton Oil Co. v. First National Bank of Altus, reported in 101 Okla. 113, 223 Pac. 172, Justice McNeill, who rendered the opinion of the court, used the following language in the concluding paragraph of said cause:

“The judgment of the trial court is affirmed in so far as the right of possession of the five bales of cotton is concerned, and the further fact that under the circumstances the lien of the landlord, as it relates to the tenant’s portion of the crop, is inferior to that of the mortgagee. While we think the court should have proceeded with an accounting between Mr. Hays and the 'bank, in so far as it related to all the cotton, the cost of picking must be charged to the tenant’s share. These matters may be determined in the action now pending and undis-posed of. and the finding of this court is to be considered affirming the right of the bank to the possession of the five bales of cotton and the question of the lien, holding that the mortgage is prior to the landlord’s lien on the three-fourths of the cotton belonging to the tenant. It would serve no useful purpose to reverse the case and again try this issue, and the court in an accounting proceeding can settle the rights between Hays and the bank and the bank and the cotton company.”

After the case was affirmed in this court, the matter of the accounting was set down for bearing in the district court of Jackson county, the First National Bank, John T. Hays and the Baker Cotton Oil Company being present in person and by attorneys The matter was tried before the court without a jury and resulted in a judgment in favor of John T. Hays against First National Bank, on his answer and cross-petition, in the sum of $108, and a further judgment holding that the Baker Cotton Oil Company by its purchase of the five bales of cotton from John T. Hays acquired a clear and valid title to the same, and that the Baker Cotton Oil Company had good title to said five bales of cotton at the time the replevin suit was commenced, and it is from this judgment that *284 the first National Bank of Altus now prosecutes this appeal.

The substance of the court’s finding on this accounting is as follows :

(1) That the bank had converted the sum of $176.50 due to Hays for his part of the cotton crop grown by one Keys on said land in the year 1921.
(2) That the sum of $46.78 is due from the bank to Hays on account of the wheat crop grown 'by McYeary in the year 1921.
(3) That the sum of $39.11 was wrongfully paid by the bank, out of the money belonging to Hays, to Bonebrake-Hightower Company for expenses in securing cotton pickers to pick the cotton crop grown by McYeary.
(4) That the eight bales of cotton involved in the replevin suit above referred to was a part of the crop of cotton grown by McYeary which consisted of eleven bales, two of which were delivered to the plain tiff bank and nine to John T. Hays; and that after paying the expense of picking and cultivating the said crop, the said' John T. Hays had received from the sale of the nine bales of cotton only the sum of $153.88. in excess of what he should have received as the landlord’s share of said cotton for that year.

The bank in its motion for a new trial and petition in error sets up manly assignments of error, but we believe its entire contentions and argument are confined to the following two propositions;

(1) That the judgment of the trial court is not supported by sufficient evidence.
(2) That the holding of the trial court, to the effect that the Baker Cotton Oil Company secured a good title to the five bales of cotton by its purchase from Hays, is in conflict with the holding of this court in Baker v. Mrst National Bank, supra

Concerning the first finding of the court, after an examination of the testimony, we find that during the year 1920 one Keys was a tenant on the farm belonging to Hays located in Jackson county; that under the contract between Keys and Hays, the latter was to receive one-fourth of the cotton crop after all expenses were paid. Keys was also indebted to the bank. The bank was allowed to receive the money from Keys from the sale of the cotton, and in determining the amount due to Hays the lower court found that the bank deducted all the expense from the total amount of cotton sold from the crop of Keys, and from this net amount gave Hays credit for one-fourth thereof, when as a matter of fact Hays should have received credit for one-fourth of the sale price of the cotton. The expense should have been deducted from ' the other three-fourths going to Keys. This made a difference of $176.

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Related

Baker Cotton Oil Co. v. First Nat. Bank
1923 OK 1143 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1923)

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Bluebook (online)
1928 OK 2, 262 P. 675, 128 Okla. 282, 1928 Okla. LEXIS 103, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/first-nat-bank-of-altus-v-hays-okla-1928.