Foster v. Shirley

1935 OK 65, 40 P.2d 1083, 170 Okla. 373, 1935 Okla. LEXIS 691
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJanuary 29, 1935
Docket23968
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 1935 OK 65 (Foster v. Shirley) 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
Foster v. Shirley, 1935 OK 65, 40 P.2d 1083, 170 Okla. 373, 1935 Okla. LEXIS 691 (Okla. 1935).

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

Plaintiff in error is the owner of a judgment obtained in the district court of Oklahoma county on February 18, 1926, against Mrs. E. C. Shirley for approximately $2,400, a certified transcript of which was filed in Custer county and execution .issued thereunder.

He brought his suit against the defendíante in error, alleging that Mrs. Myrle Shirley Sublett is the daughter of Mrs. E. C. Shirley, and that the latter has been the legal and equitable owner of lots 1 and 2 in block 54 of the original town plat of the city of Clinton, Olda., since long prior to the obtaining of the judgment, and that Mrs. Shirley, who was sometimes known as Effie 0. Barringer, under the name of Effie G. Barringer, executed a deed to Mrs. Sublett on January 17, 1929, to lot 1, which plaintiff in error alleges was made without consideration and in fraud of creditors, “for the reason that it was made after the judgment was obtained in this cause, and with the purpose of defrauding the plajptiji herein.” Pie prayed for foreclosure of the judgment lien and for a decree that the title to said lots be declared to be in Mrs. E. C. Shirley, and that the deeds executed by her to Mrs. Sublett be declared void for want of consideration and made in fraud of creditors. Mrs. Shirley answered, disclaiming all right, title, and interest in the property. Mrs. Sublett answered with a general denial and denying that the judgment of the plaintiff in error is a lien on the property. She alleges that she acquired title thereto by good and sufficient warranty deeds from Mrs. E. 0. Shirley long prior to the obtaining of the judgment, and that she acquired said property by payment of a valuable consideration in good faith without notice. By an amendment to his petition, the plaintiff alleged that Mrs. Sublett holds the title as trustee for Mrs. E. 0. Shirley.

At the trial it was admitted that the Poster judgment was duly filed in Custer county on January 18, 1928, and that execution was issued within five years from the date of rendition. It was also admitted that Mrs. E. C. Shirley was, on the 18th day of December, 1914, the owner of the property. The evidence, however, discloses that her husband died about three years before the property was bought, leaving, apparently, his widow, Mrs. Shirley, and two children, J. C. Shirley and Myrle Shirley; that Mrs. Shirley was appointed administratrix of his estate; that the estate consisted of 900 acres of land, a hotel, and some money; that she bought the property in question while acting as administratrix and took title in herself. She testified that “it was deeded to me and then when my administration Was complete and the children came of age — ” She was stopped at this point, and on cross-examination she was asked whether she used the estate money or her personal money in the purchase of the property, and she said: “I had the estate money and traded the farm.” It was further admitted that the Shirley Hotel in Clinton was situated on lot 1, and that on lot 2 was a business house upon which the Local Building & Loan Association has a mortgage. On April 24, 1916, Mrs. Shirley executed a deed to the property to her two children, and on November 23, 1924, Myrle Sublett, nee Shirley, executed a deed of the lots to Effie C. Barringer, who on January 17, 1929, rehonveyed the same to Myrle Sublett. The interest of J. C. Shirley was conveyed to Myrle Sublett November 29, 1924. The mortgage of Local Building & Loan Association was executed by Myrle Sublett to secure a loan of $3,500.

On December 20, 1924, Mrs. Shirley and her two children executed • a deed to plaintiff in error covering the S. W. % 23-12-17, *375 in Ouster county. He testified that after the execution of the deed, the question of securing him against any judgments came up, and in this connection he introduced certain instruments regarding which he said:

“One of them is a written instrument that she gave me in regard to securing, in regard to some security that she was putting up to protect me against a judgment, the other is the warranty deed to hold.”

The first instrument was a memorandum dated April 6, 1925, that Effie C. Shirley has delivered a warranty deed to L. E. Foster to 159 acres of land in Adair county, Okla., “to secure said Foster against a judgment of record in Ouster county, Okla., and assuring settlement of said judgment. When said judgment is settled said Foster is to deliver warranty deed to Mrs. Shirley. In ease of judgment, said Foster is to settle same out of ■ proceeds of said farm.” The second instrument is a warranty deed to the land in Adair county, executed May 5, 1925, by Mrs. E. C. Shirley to L. E. Foster. Plaintiff testified that the deed has not been recorded and he still holds it. He says that he suggested that Mrs. Shirley give' him security on the hotel, and that she replied, in the presence of Myrle Shirley, that she meant to keep it for her future home, and that she never meant to sell or mortgage it any more. Asked if Mrs. Shirley said anything to him with reference to whose name the property was in, he answered that she told him “she had some of it in her children’s name for protection,” because “she had some deficiency judgment that she was expecting to come up to her with reference to this farm,” being the land which he had bought and on which there was a mortgage to the Travelers Insurance Company and one to the bank at Clinton. There is nothing to indicate whether these mortgages are still outstanding and unpaid. The plaintiff further testified that Mrs. Shirley told him the hotel was hers, which statement appears to have been made at the lime he took the security mentioned. He also testified that Mrs. Shirley told him she was going to pay the money she owed him out of the rents from the hotel. Mrs. Shirley testified that the debts against her property were about $24,000, most of it being on the property when her husband died; that the only indebtedness incurred after he died was on the hotel, the mortgage on which she assumed. She was asked whether she had any negotiations with her daughter, Myrle, regarding trading of building and loan stock, and she answered:

“Oh, I don’t know, I can’t remember. I have done so much fooling around. I have given the children their part is all that I can remember.”

We have thus reviewed the material evidence on the question of fraud and to support the plaintiff’s claim that Mrs. Sublett is merely a trustee of Mrs. Shirley, and that he has the right to subject the prop,erty to the payment of his judgment.

■The plaintiff’s judgment was jcenderejS February 18, 1926. He does not appear to have been a creditor at the time of the conveyance of the property to Mrs. Shirley’s children on April 24, 1916. In 27 Corpus Juris, at page 768, it is said:

“Unless the case is one in which the conveyance was made with intent to defraud subsequent creditors, complainant cannot allege that he was a creditor at the time the conveyance was made, or was thus in a position to be injured, for a man who has no creditors has a perfect right to give away his property, unless the act is part of a scheme to defraud future creditors.”

In Carey et al. v. Winslow, 30 Okla. 780, 122 P. 174, it is said:

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Bluebook (online)
1935 OK 65, 40 P.2d 1083, 170 Okla. 373, 1935 Okla. LEXIS 691, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/foster-v-shirley-okla-1935.