Fullerton v. State Ex Rel. Com'rs of Land Office

1929 OK 475, 282 P. 674, 140 Okla. 122, 1929 Okla. LEXIS 330
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedNovember 5, 1929
Docket19274
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 1929 OK 475 (Fullerton v. State Ex Rel. Com'rs of Land Office) 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
Fullerton v. State Ex Rel. Com'rs of Land Office, 1929 OK 475, 282 P. 674, 140 Okla. 122, 1929 Okla. LEXIS 330 (Okla. 1929).

Opinion

HERR, C.

This is an action originally brought in the district court of Comanche county by the state of Oklahoma, on the relation of the Commissioners of the Land Office against Nannie Selmer to recover lot 1, in block 12, McClung’s addition to the city of Lawton. P. G. Fullerton was subse *123 quently made a party defendant on motion of defendant Selmer.

The Commissioners of the Land Office claim title to said lot as a part of the land granted to the state by Congress under section 12 of the Enabling Act for the purpose of higher education. This lot -was originally part of section 6, township 1 north of range 11 west, Comanche county. This section was selected by the state, as provided by said section, and a portion thereof was subsequently platted and laid out as town lots, as provided by section 9339, C. O. S. 1921. On May 15, 1911, the lot in question, in accordance with the provisions of said section, was sold by plaintiff, Commissioners of the Land Office, to James A. Lowery, and, on the 22nd day of June, 1911, a certificate of purchase was issued him therefor by said Commissioners. The certificate of purchase issued to purchaser contained the conditions as to deferred payments as provided by section 9342, C. O. S. 1921. Purchaser, Lowery, defaulted on his deferred payments to the state, and also permitted the taxes on the lot to become delinquent for the years 1915, 1916, and 1917, and in 1919 the same was sold to the county for taxes. In 1920, P. G. Fullerton purchased the lot at a tax resale, receiving a tax deed therefor from the. county treasurer, and immediately entered into actual possession of the premises, and on November 10, 1921, conveyed the same by warranty deed to defendant Selmer.

Defendant relied on said tax deed as a defense to the action, and also pleaded res judicata. The judgment of the trial court was in favor of plaintiff. Defendant Fullerton alone appeals.

The first and main question argued by appellant is that the judgment is not sustained by the evidence and is contrary to law. In this connection it is urged that his plea of res judicata should have been sustained.

It appears that on the 1st day of June, 1922, the state, on relation of the Commissioners of the Land Office, brought an action in mandamus against N. P. Bledsoe and Lizzie U. Gibson, county treasurer and county clerk, respectively, of said county, praying that they be commanded to cancel the taxes on the lot in question, together with the tax on other lots not here involved. Defendant Selmer, by leave of the court, intervened in said action, and by her plea of intervention claimed title to the lot in question, together with other lots, fully setting forth her chain of title, and prayed that the writ be denied. The writ was by the court granted commanding the county treasurer and county clerk to cancel the taxes as to certain lots therein involved, but the order did not include the taxes against the lot here in question.

Subsequent to the granting of the peremptory writ, as above stated, defendant Selmer herein, and intervener in that action, asked and was granted leave to amend her plea of intervention, which she accordingly did. In. this amended plea, intervener, by appropriate averment, made all the allegations of her original plea part of her amended plea, and,, iii addition thereto, alleged that the writ should not be granted for the reason that plaintiff had an adequate remedy at law, and for the further reason that the premises involved in th^t action had been sold prior to the commencement thereof, and that the writ, if granted, could serve no purpose. .

There is no record showing the disposition of said cause as to the taxes against the lot •here involved, except the minutes of the court clerk and an order of the court approving the same. The minutes, under date of June 20, 1924, recite that demurrer of intervener is sustained and the case dismissed. On September 24th, the court made an order approving the minutes of the clerk of June 20. No judgment was ever recorded showing the disposition of the mandamus suit as toi the taxes on the property here involved.

In our opinion, this record is insufficient upon which to base a plea of res judicata. It has been repeatedly held that the minutes kept by the court clerk are not part of the record and not sufficient upon which to base such plea, but that a record entry of the judgment itself is indispensable in order that such plea may be available. In our opinion, the order of September 24. 1924, approving the minutes of the clerk, does not amount to a record entry of judgment sustaining the demurrer. In the case of Ex parte Stevenson, 20 Okla. 549, 94 Pac. 1071, it is said r

“The record entry of a judgment is indispensable to furnish the evidence of it when it is made the basis of a claim or defense in another court.”

In the case of Cockrell v. Schmidt, 20 Okla. 207, 94 Pac. 521, the court, at page 214, quoted from Greenleaf on Evidence, as follows:

“And the record itself must be finally completed before the copy is admissible in evidence. The minutes from which the judgment is made up, and even a judgment in *124 paper,'signed by tbe master, are not proper evidence of tbe record.”

See, also, Williams v. Foreman, 65 Okla. 304, 166 Pac. 700.

Even though it should be held that the order above referred to constituted an entry of judgment sufficient upon which to predicate such plea, still, the same could not be sustained for the reason that there is lacking identity of the subject-matter of the suit.

The matter involved in the former action was the cancellation of certain taxes. It is true defendants in that action claimed under the identical tax deed here involved. But it does appear that the validity of the deed was passed upon in the former action. Plaintiff's mandamus suit, as shown by the clerk’s minutes, was dismissed«ipon the sustaining of intervener’s demurrer. The record fails to disclose the filing of a demurrer in said action, but it is argued by counsel for defendant in his brief that the court treated the amended plea of intervention as a demurrer. If this be correct, it is evident that the court's ruling must have been based upon the theory that plaintiff had an adequate remedy at law, as the other matters set up in the plea of intervention could not have been adjudicated without taking evidence. The right of plaintiff to the possession of the lot in question was not put in issue by the so-called demurrer to the petition, and a judgment sustaining the same would, therefore, not constitute a good plea in bar to this action. Ratcliff-Sanders Grocer Co. v. Bluejacket Mercantile Co., 63 Okla. 298, 164 Pac. 1142; Hill v. Buckholts, 75 Okla. 196, 183 Pac. 42; Mayerhoff v. Wortman, 92 Okla. 66, 218 Pae. 842. Under these authorities, defendant’s plea of res judicata cannot be sustained.

It is the contention of plaintiff that defendants acquired no title by and through the resale tax deed relied upon by them, for the reason that the county treasurer was without authority to issue the same, and, in support of this contention, it relies upon section 9321, C. O. S. 1921. This section provides:

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Bluebook (online)
1929 OK 475, 282 P. 674, 140 Okla. 122, 1929 Okla. LEXIS 330, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fullerton-v-state-ex-rel-comrs-of-land-office-okla-1929.