First National Bank of Healdton v. Dunlap

1927 OK 67, 254 P. 729, 122 Okla. 288, 52 A.L.R. 126, 1927 Okla. LEXIS 193
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedMarch 22, 1927
Docket14101
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 1927 OK 67 (First National Bank of Healdton v. Dunlap) 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 National Bank of Healdton v. Dunlap, 1927 OK 67, 254 P. 729, 122 Okla. 288, 52 A.L.R. 126, 1927 Okla. LEXIS 193 (Okla. 1927).

Opinions

BRANSON. C. J.

Herein is prosecuted error from the district court of Carter county. In 1921, the First National Bank of Healdton obtained a final judgment in the sum of $3,300 against E. Dunlaj». At the time it became final the said E. Dunlap was the owner of an undivided one-tenth interest in a producing oil and gas lease covering certain lands located in the said county of Carter, th’e description of which is unnecessary. Execution was not issued on the said judgment until the 27th day of November, 1922. Within a few days after execution was issued, the sheriff of said county levied upon, and had appraised for the purpose of sale, the said undivided interest in the said oil and gas lease, so owned by the said E. Dunlap at the time said judgment was rendered against him. Between the date of the finality of the judgment and the issuance and levy of the execution, the said E. Dunlap had sold, transferred, and assigned for 'value his said undivided interest in the said oil and gas lease to the Turman Oil Company, a corporation, and shortly after the levy of the said execution the Turman Oil Company filed a motion in the said cause, praying that the execution as to the said oil and gas lease estate b'e revoked, and that the levy thereof upon the same be quashed. This motion was by the court on the 30th day of December, 1922, sustained, upon the ground that the said judgment so rendered as aforesaid against the said' E. Dunlap did not constitute a lien upon the oil and gas lease interest owned by the defendant Dunlap, and not constituting a li'en thereon, same could not be made subject to execution against, after it had been sold and transferred for value. From the order recalling the execution and quashing the same as aforesaid, the plaintiff, the First National Bank .of Healdton, pe.fected this appeal.

The sole question involved herein, irrespective of the phraseology of the assignments of error, is whether or not the judgment fastened a lien upon the interest owned by the judgment debtor in the sa'd oil and gas lease. If it did, the Turman Oil Company purchased the same' subject to such lien, and the order and judgment of the court quashing the levy was erroneous The oil and gas lease in question had been developed and was producing.

It is the contention of th'e plaintiff in error that the said judgment was a lien upon the said oil and gas leasehold estate by reason of section 690, C. O. S. 1921. This section provides:

•‘Judgments of courts of record of this state, except county courts, and of courts of the United States rendered within this state, shall be liens on the real estate of the debtor within the county in which the judgment is rendered' from and after the time the judgment is entered on the judgment docket. An attested copy of the journal entry of any such judgment, together with a statement of the costs taxed against the debtor in the case, may be filed in the office of the clerk of the district court of any county and such judgment shall be a lien on the real estate of the debtor within that county from and after the date of filing and' entering such judgment on the judgment docket. The clerk shall enter such judgment on the appearance and judgment dockets in the same mann’er and within the same time after such judgment is filed in *289 his office as if rendered in the court oí which he is clerk. Execution shall only be issued from the court in which the judgment is rendered, or in which a transcript of a county court judgment is first filed.” '

In its essence, the argument plaintiff; in error makes is based upon certain definitions of “real, property,” and of the words “land.” “real estate,” and “premises,” as found in the statutes oí this state. It cites and quotes section 2323, C. O. S. 1921, which provides:

“The term ‘real property’ includes every estate, interest and right in lands, tenem’ents and hereditaments.”

And then argues:

“Section 2323 expressly states, not what real property includes, and not what the owner of real property owns, but that the term ‘real property’ includes every estate, interest and right in lands, tenements and hereditaments. If the term ‘real property’ does include every interest and right in land, then where the term ‘real property’ or ‘real estate’ is used in our statutes, surely we are justified in including in the terms of the statute 'every estate, interest, and rignt in lands and hereditaments; or, in other words, we are justified in substituting for the term ‘real property or real 'estate,’ the statutory definition, namely, every estate, interest and right in lands, tenements and hereditaments.”

This quotation from the brief makes it apparent that the plaintiff in error wants this court to engraft section 2323, supra, upon and into section 690, supra, in order to determine the meaning of the said section 690, and thereby fix a lien in its favor upon the oil and gas leasehold estate at the time of the judgment.

We are unable to understand how plaint-ff in error can pres’ent this argument to this court, for the said section 2323 is found in the statutes of this state under the head of “Crimes Against Property,” which is one of the subheads of the general provisions of the statute on “Crimes and Punishments,” and the said definition, argued by the plaintiff in error as if it were a general definition, is qualified by section 2312, which is only eleven sections preceding it, under the same head, “Crimes Against Property,” by this definition:

‘‘Whenever the terms mentioned in the following sections are employed in this chapter, they are deemed to be used in the senses hereafter affixed to them, except where a different sense plainly appears.”

Following this last-named section are numerous definitions, including section 2323, but they are made applicable solely to the chapter on “Crimes Against Property,” and ..cannot under any condition be used to throw any light upon the meaning of the, term “real estate,” as found in said section 690, supra.

Again, he asserts that section 3560, C. O. S. 1921, is persuasive. This section provides :

“The words ‘real property’ are co-extensive with lands, tenements, and heredita-ments.”

Again, he cites section 5250, C. O. S. 1921, which provides:

“2. The words ‘land, real estate ..and premises.’ when-used herein or in any. instrument relating to real property, are, synonyms,”, etc. ' .....

Without engaging in an extensive discussion of these definitions, the attempt to apply the same fqr interpretation purposes bo the said section 690, C. O. S. 1921, is without logic or reason.

There is no statute in this state which provides that an estate in real property, which ordinarily means any interest extending from absolute fee ownership or seisin down to naked possession, shall be considered “real estate.” Cases are cited from this court and other courts, in some of which expressions are found to the effect that an oil and gas lease creates an estate in real property, or an estate in the realty. Bentley v. Zelma, 76 Okla. 116, 184 Pac. 131; Rich v. Doneghey, 71 Okla. 204, 177 Pac. 86; Woodworth v. Franklin, 85 Okla. 27, 204 Pac. 452.

We deem that reference to' these cases will enable the interested reader to discern the question in each particular opinion decided.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1927 OK 67, 254 P. 729, 122 Okla. 288, 52 A.L.R. 126, 1927 Okla. LEXIS 193, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/first-national-bank-of-healdton-v-dunlap-okla-1927.