First Nat. Bank of Ardmore v. Gillam

1927 OK 402, 273 P. 261, 134 Okla. 237, 1927 Okla. LEXIS 534
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedNovember 8, 1927
Docket16724
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 1927 OK 402 (First Nat. Bank of Ardmore v. Gillam) 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 Ardmore v. Gillam, 1927 OK 402, 273 P. 261, 134 Okla. 237, 1927 Okla. LEXIS 534 (Okla. 1927).

Opinion

HALL, C.

This was a controversy over the proceeds derived from the sale under foreclosure of certain personal property in which both parties claimed rights as mortgagees.

The plaintiff in error was defendant and defendant in error was plaintiff in the court below. For convenience the plaintiff in error occasionally will be referred to in this opinion as “the bank.”

The basic disputed point is the construction of the mortgages held by the bank; that is, the construction as to the obligation secured by the two chattel mortgages, one original and the other a renewal, under which the bank claims the property. Also, the case involves the question of the rightful application by the bank of a certain payment to one of the two motes held by the bank against one E. E. Chivers, a mortgagor common to both the plaintiff in error and the defendant in error. The other matters are but incidental to these two main issues.

The gist of the controversy is that one E. E. Chivers was indebted to J. Robert Gillam, defendant in error, in the sum of $3,875; Gillam, on April 5, 1920, having paid a surety obligation on which Chivers was principal, received from Chivers a chattel mortgage on certain personal property consisting largely of domestic animals located in Johnston and Garvin counties. This mortgage was not filed until October 15th of that year. On June 10th of the same year, Chivers became indebted to the First National Bank of Ardmore, plaintiff in error, *238 to the sum of $2,000, and on that date gave, the bank his note and chattel mortgage covering the same property described in the Gillam mortgage. This mortgage to the ■ bank was renewed on September 9th of the same year. It was conceded that the Bank on June 10th and September 9th had, no notice of the Gillam mortgage. Gillam’s mortgage, therefore, was junior to the bank’s mortgage for .$2,000.

Chivers and a man named Yelie Suggs had been automobile dealers operating under a trade name and partnership called “The Success Motor Company.” This Success Motor Company was indebted to the bank in the sum of $5,000 evidenced by a balance on a note,, which note was signed toy-the company and both Chivers and Suggs. The note was in existence and held by the bank on the date of the execution of the original mortgage to the bank, which was on June 10th. On October 9, 1920, the partnership note was split up and Suggs assumed one-half thereof, and Chivers assumed the other half, and on this date all of Chivers’ indebtedness, that growing out of the Success Motor Company note, and the $2,000 note secured by the mortgage, less a credit of $1,144, was combined into one note. The court treated this circumstance as showing an intent to have this combined indebtedness secured by the mortgage, although this transaction occurred 30 days after the execution of the last mortgage. The court’s instructions to the jury were based upon that theory. The plaintiff in error received the benefit of that • assumption.

A few days before the Success Motor Company note was split up, and the evidence of the indebtedness took a new form, one Sigler, through a real estate transaction, became indebted to Chivers, and he (Sigler) borrowed from said bank $1,144, informing the bank that¡ the money -was to be used by> Chivers to apply on his (Chivers’) indebtedness. Sigler drew his check, payable either to the bank or its cashier and simply left it there. No agency for Chivers was claimed or shown. The bank applied the money as a payment on the note of the Success Motor Company. Chivers testified that as soon as he was advised that Sigler had left the money at the bank, he went to the bank to pay off the balance due on the mortgage note, and learned for the first time where the Sigler money had been applied. He then protested the application of the payment to the Success Motor Company note, and requested that the payment be applied on the $2,000 note. The bank refused to make the application requested by Chivers.

On the question of notice of the Gillam mortgage, the evidence was in direct conflict. The jury decided that question against the contention of the bank, plaintiff in error.

Hollowing the blank spaces for the insertion of the indebtedness which the mortgage was intended to secure, the original mortgage and renewal mortgage executed to the bank by Chivers, each contained a recital couched in a printed, stock form to the effect that the mortgage was intended to secure all past, present, and future obligations of whatsoever nature of the mortgagor to the bank. The exact language of this mortgage will- be set out hereinafter.

The bank contended that its mortgages, the original and renewal, covered all the indebtedness, including that designated and not designated, and therefore was entitled to all the proceeds from the sale of tbei property. The property was sold by the bank.

■ The defendant in error brought his action against the bank alleging that the bank was only entitled to a first mortgage on the property to secure the sum of $880 which was the balance due on the mortgage note after deducting the payment of $1,120, or $1,144, being the money which Sigler left in the bank for Chivers, which was to be applied on his indebtedness.

Under the holdings of the court below, the plaintiff in error should receive $2,339.71 of the $4,500, and the defendant in error should receive the sum of $2,160.29. That was the effect of the judgment.

It is first contended by plaintiff in error that,its mortgage secured all the obligations of Chivers to the bank, although some obligations were not referred to in the mortgage except by a general stock recital embraced in the printed form of the mortgage.

As against that contention^ defendant in error submits that the mortgages (original and renewal), upon which plaintiff in error claims priority, on their face, at least, raise a question as to whether there was any intent on the part of the bank and of Chivers that these mortgages should cover and include the debt of the Success Motor Company. when no attempt was ever made to insert it in the mortgages.

For our purpose the first question to be determined is - whether or not the mortgage is capable of construction without resort *239 to parol evidence. If such is permissible in the present case, there is no necessity for a discussion of the question of the admissibility of parol evidence to explain any of the terms of the mortgage, or to apply) the contract to its subject-matter, as per example, the debt really intended to be secured.

The essential facts upon which this phase of the case pivots are as follows:

(1) On June 10, 1920, E. E. Chivers gave his note for $2,000 to the First National Bank of Ardmore, and to secure the payment of said note executed a mortgage on certain personal property.

(2) On September 9, 1920, said Chivers gave a renewal note in the same sum ($2,000) to said bank, and as security for its payment executed a renewal mortgage covering the same property.

(3) On June 10th and on September 9th, the dates of the aforesaid notes and mortgages, the Success Motor Company was indebted to the said bank in the sum of $5,000, evidenced by a note signed by both Chivers and Suggs individually, as well a for the company.

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Bluebook (online)
1927 OK 402, 273 P. 261, 134 Okla. 237, 1927 Okla. LEXIS 534, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/first-nat-bank-of-ardmore-v-gillam-okla-1927.