Gallemore v. Buzzard

1924 OK 168, 224 P. 293, 98 Okla. 104, 1924 Okla. LEXIS 1150
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedFebruary 12, 1924
Docket12851
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 1924 OK 168 (Gallemore v. Buzzard) 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
Gallemore v. Buzzard, 1924 OK 168, 224 P. 293, 98 Okla. 104, 1924 Okla. LEXIS 1150 (Okla. 1924).

Opinion

Opinion by

THREADGILL, C.

The defendant in error, as plaintiff, filed suit against the plaintiff in error, as defendant, on June 20, 1917, in the district court of Ottawa county for an accounting and breach of contract and damages in the sum of $10, 000. For convenience the parties will be referred to as they appeared in the trial court. Plaintiff’s petition consists of five paragraphs. In the first, it states that he is a miller and the defendant is a banker and a money lender at Fairland, Olcla., that about February 1, 1914, and prior thereto, the plaintiff owned a grist mill near the town of Racine, Newton county, Mo., and a farm incumbered with mortgages; that about February 1,1914, he and defendant entered into a contract for the purpose of moving the mill to Fairland, in which it was agreed that the defendant would get the people of Fairland to donate enough money to buy a mill site at that place for the plaintiff, the same to be free as an inducement for him to move his mill to Fair land, and that the defendant agreed to pay off and discharge the incumbrances on the mill, and pay the expense of moving the same to Fairland and rebuilding it on the donated mill site, and furnish money with which to keep plaintiff supplied with grain sufficient to operate. The money advanced was to be in the nature of a loan to plaintiff. Plaintiff was to sell the farm and turn the money over to the defendant for him. to keep and account for in the operation of the mill and for the purchase of grain for that purpose. The defendant in person' and through the bank he controlled should have the custody of all funds of the plaintiff to see that they were used in carrying out the terms of the contract.

In the second paragraph plaintiff states *105 that the mill site was purchased as agreed; that the defendant advanced him $3,500 for a year at ten per cent, interest, evidenced by note for $3,850 secured by mortgage on the mill and new site; that defendant loaned plaintiff other sums of money, but not enough to keep the mill supplied with grain for grinding purposes; that plaintiff sold the farm and turned the money into the custody of defendant and the defendant and bank had the control of all his funds.

In the third paragraph plaintiff complains that defendant is charging him for the mill site in the sum of $300. The defendant is indebted to him for funds placed in his hands in the sum of $448.67, as shown by an itemized statement attached.

In the fourth paragraph plaintiff states that he sold the farm and placed the proceeds in the hands of the defendant that he might see that the money was used in operating the mill and payment of plaintiff’s indebtedness to the defendant and bank, and the defendant applied all the proceeds of the farm in paying the notes not yet due, and failed and refused to furnish him money to buy grain in the operation of the mill and plaintiff could not operate the mill successfully, and even had to sell it at a sacrifice for lack of funds for ' this purpose.

In the 5th paragraph plaintiff states as follows :

“Wherefore plaintiff says that by reason of the defendant’s aforesaid failure to honestly account to the plaintiff and pay over to him the funds belonging to the plaintiff and in the custody and under the control of the defendant, as aforesaid, and by reason of the failure of the defendant to keep the plaintiff supplied with sufficient funds with which to buy sufficient grain to keep said mill in operation and by reason of defendant’s unlawful appropriation of funds in his hands belonging to the plaintiff to the payment of notes which were not due, plaintiff has sustained a great loss on account of not being able to operate said mill continuously and a great loss in the sale of said mill' at a. sacrifice price and has sustained the loss of the aforesaid sum of $448.67 all to his damage in the sum of $10000, for which amount, and the costs of this action, the plaintiff asks judgment.”

The defendant filed a motion to make the petition morte definite and certain which was as follows:

“1. That he be required to set out the date or dates of the items of accounting listed in his Exhibit A. 2. To state whether or not the alleged contract to have been entered into on or about the first of February, 1914, was in writing and set out a copy thereof or allege a reason whereby same is not done or if same be a verbal contract to so state and to state also the length of time the said contract was to continue. 3. To set out particularly the source and origin of the alleged damages and each i tern thereof for the alleged breach in such manner - that the defendant may know for what specific item and things he is being called upon to respond in damages and if the same be for prospective profits, for what length of time and during what period and from what source the same are alleged by plaintiff to have arisen and the reason for the liability of the defend-» ant to respond thereto.”

This motion was overruled and the defendant excepted. Defendant offered a general demurrer, which being overruled, he filed his answer, in which he admits that he loaned the plaintiff money to pay off certain indebtedness against the mill at Racine, Mo., and assisted him in getting a mill site at Fairland, Okla., but denies generally the contract claimed by the plaintiff. Hé admits the correctness of the account set out in plaintiff’s Exhibit A. except rebate on insurance policy and items of interest on two notes, but states that the exhibit is incomplete and there is nothing due on items stated according to their ■settlement January 21, 1915.

The defendant pleads other items against the plaintiff for services, commissions, and interests and attorney’s fees, and asks for costs and by way of counterclaim asks for $225.43. Plaintiff filed a reply of general denial. The cause was tried to a jury (October 2, 1919, and resulted in a verdict and judgment in favor of the plaintiff in the sum of $261.89, on the accounting, and $4,000 damages, and the defendant has appealed by petition in error and case-made.

In the trial, when all the testimony was in, the plaintiff was permitted by the court to file an amended petition, which does not materially change the original petition except that the defendant was to keep the plaintiff supplied with sufficient grain to operate the mill continuously if it was moved to Fairland.

The defendant filed motion to require, plaintiff to separately state and number his cause of action and state damages claimed on account of failure to lend the money claimed. The record does not show any action on this motion.

*106 1. The first complaint on the part of defendant is that the court erred in overruling his motion to require the plaintiff to separately state and number the causes of action and to make definite and certain. It seems that the defendant in this complaint gets the two motions mixed in his mind. It will be observed that the motion to the original petition did not ask that the petition state and number the causes of action but to make more definite and certain. It is plain that the petition consists of two causes of action, one for an accounting of monies placed in custody of defendant and the other for damages for breach of contract that should have been set out and stated separately as provided by section 267, Comp. Stat. 1921, which reads as follows :

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Doddridge v. American Trust & Savings Bank
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Milbourn v. Buzzard
1926 OK 911 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1926)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1924 OK 168, 224 P. 293, 98 Okla. 104, 1924 Okla. LEXIS 1150, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gallemore-v-buzzard-okla-1924.