Frank v. NATIONAL PRINTING AND OFFICE SUPPLY CO.

1959 OK 108, 343 P.2d 1085, 1959 Okla. LEXIS 334
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJune 2, 1959
Docket38080
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 1959 OK 108 (Frank v. NATIONAL PRINTING AND OFFICE SUPPLY CO.) 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
Frank v. NATIONAL PRINTING AND OFFICE SUPPLY CO., 1959 OK 108, 343 P.2d 1085, 1959 Okla. LEXIS 334 (Okla. 1959).

Opinion

HALLEY, Justice.

■ March 3, 1956, John Frank and wife, Grace Lee Frank, filed an action in the District Court of Creek County, District Court Case No. 30,168, against National Printing and Office Supply Company, Inc., here referred to as Printing Company, E. L. Murphy, his wife, Helen G. Murphy, W. L. Foster, and Earl R. Wiseman, District Director of Internal Revenue.

The principal objective of the plaintiffs was to recover a judgment against the Printing Company and the Murphys for certain sums of money claimed by plaintiffs to be due them by reason of the following facts which are generally not denied.

July 19, 1952, the Printing Company executed a promissory note to the American National Bank of Sapulpa in the principal sum of $25,000, payable in installments, and secured by a chattel mortgage of the Printing Company on certain personal property. The bank also required that the Murphys and the Franks indorse this note as sureties and that the Franks pledge as collateral all their stock in the Frankoma Potteries to further secure the payment of the note.

April 2, 1955, the Printing Company also executed a note to the same bank for the sum of $2,100 signed by the Murphys and the Franks as sureties and secured by the same mortgage and collateral.

It is clear that the Printing Company was the principal maker and obligor of such *1087 notes, and that the Franks and Murphys indorsed each note as sureties. The Franks received no money consideration for signing the notes, but were given one-half of the capital stock of the Printing Company, which paid .them no dividends and was handed back to the Murphys when the Franks paid the balance due upon the $25,-000 note to the bank.

The evidence shows that at the request of E. L. Murphy, John Frank paid two delinquent payments due on the note in the sum of $1,566.82, and that the Printing Company and the Murphys failed and refused to reimburse him.

On July 20, 1955, the bank assigned this note of $25,000 to W. L. Foster, together with chattel mortgage and collateral. February 17, 1956, Foster notified all parties concerned that the note was due and upon the failure of the Printing Company and the Murphys to make any payment, Grace Lee Frank, a surety upon the note, paid the balance due thereon in the sum of $9,583.43. The Franks sought judgment for the total sum paid by them against the Printing Company and against each of the Murphys for their pro rata share of the sum paid by the Franks as sureties upon the note to the bank.

While this joint action by the Franks was pending the trial judge ruled that John Frank was not a proper party to the joint action by him and his wife and upon dismissal by the court, John Frank on September 27, 1956, filed a separate suit in the District Court of Creek County, being No. 30,454, styled John Frank v. The Printing Company, and the same defendants above named in the joint action with his wife. He set up the same facts as recited in that action but prayed for judgment in the sum of $4,100, against the same defendants and in the same proportions as in the joint action. It is not disputed that the bank would not make the $25,000 loan to the Printing Company without the Franks signing the note as sureties and pledging their Frank-oma stock as collateral. The Franks also returned to the Murphys all stock in the Printing Company without consideration and the Franks, while officers in the Printing Company, never took any part whatever in its operation.

The case under consideration by John Frank was consolidated for trial with the two cases filed by Grace Lee Frank and it was stipulated by the parties that for convenience, any pertinent evidence, introduced in either of the three cases consolidated for trial, should be considered as introduced in each of the cases without reference thereto. Under this stipulation the evidence transcribed in District Court Case No. 30,168 (The Grace Lee Frank Case) may be properly considered as evidence in the case by John Frank, here being considered.

Judgment was rendered August 20, 1957, against John Frank. He was allowed no recovery whatever and upon his motion for a new trial being overruled he gave notige of appeal. In his petition in error he has submitted the following assignments of error.

“1. That the court erred in the ■ assessment of the amount of recovery for said plaintiff, John Frank, in that said court allowed no recovery for said plaintiff, John Frank, in said case.
“2. That the judgment of the court was not sustained by the evidence and is contrary to law.
“3. ■ That errors of law occurred at the trial in the admission of evidence and otherwise which were excepted to by said plaintiff, John Frank, at the time of the trial.”

John Frank has submitted only two propositions as follows:

“A surety on a promissory note who has discharged the note or paid a portion of it is subrogated to the rights of the payee, including the rights of the payee in any mortgage that might secure the note to the extent of the full amount paid by the surety as against the principal obligor and to the extent of the pro- rata share thereof of each of the other sureties thereon.
“A surety on a promissory note who has discharged the same or paid a *1088 portion of it may proceed against some or all of his co-sureties and he is not obligated to join all of his co-sureties in an action for contribution, but in no event may he collect more from any one surety than his pro rata share of the amount of the debt discharged by the paying surety.”

The stipulation of the parties that evidence introduced in any one of the three cases consolidated for trial, is to be considered as introduced in the other two cases is approved by the court in the Journal Entry in each case. While there is a separate record in each case of all pleadings and exhibits, there is only a transcript of the evidence introduced in the case of Grace Lee Frank, being District Court Case No. 30,168. A careful examination of the transcript of the evidence in that case convinces us that all of the evidence applicable to each of the three cases being tried was introduced and considered.

We note that on May 8, 1958, after a transcript of the evidence had been filed in this Court a motion to dismiss was filed by defendants rtpon the following grounds, to-wit:

“1. Failure of Plaintiff in Error to set forth in his brief and to brief and argue any specification of error.
“2. Two abstract propositions of law dealing with the rights of a surety on a promissory note are briefed with no effort to show the relevancy of such propositions to any issue in the trial below, and without attempting to show that the trial court in the course of the proceedings below ruled upon such propositions adversely or otherwise.
“3. In an alleged ‘Statement of the Case’, an effort was made to set forth and discuss excerpts from the evidence, but no part of the evidence has been ordered transcribed or made part of the record as required by law nor have the costs thereof been tendered or paid to the court reporter,
“4.

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Bluebook (online)
1959 OK 108, 343 P.2d 1085, 1959 Okla. LEXIS 334, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/frank-v-national-printing-and-office-supply-co-okla-1959.