Gorman v. Overmyer

1947 OK 136, 190 P.2d 447, 199 Okla. 451, 1947 Okla. LEXIS 659
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedApril 29, 1947
DocketNo. 32080
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 1947 OK 136 (Gorman v. Overmyer) 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
Gorman v. Overmyer, 1947 OK 136, 190 P.2d 447, 199 Okla. 451, 1947 Okla. LEXIS 659 (Okla. 1947).

Opinion

OSBORN, J.

This action was brought on January 10, 1944, by the plaintiff, James F. Gorman, against the defendants, George J. Overmyer and Brenda E. Overmyer, husband and wife, to enjoin the defendants, who were the record owners of lot 16, block 6, in Sunset Terrace addition to Tulsa, from using a concrete driveway located partly upon lot 16 and partly upon lot 17, which joined lot 16 on the south, and to collect a reasonable rental for the use of said driveway by defendants. Plaintiff was the owner of the record title to lot 17. Defendants in their answer and cross-petition denied that plaintiff was the real owner of lot 17, and alleged that Bertha Florence Sabin and M. R. Sabin were the equitable owners of the property. They further alleged that the driveway was constructed by the Sabins at a time when they were the equitable owners of lots 16 and 17 under a contract with Sunset Gardens Company, which platted and placed Sunset Terrace upon the market, and that upon the division of the title to the two lots an implied perpetual easement to use said driveway vested in the purchasers of lot 16. They further alleged that the . use of said driveway was necessary for ingress and egress to and from the three-car garage on the rear of lot 16, and asked that the plaintiff, his representatives or agents, be enjoined from interfering with the free use thereof by defendants. They also moved to make the Sabins parties to the action, but apparently no order to that effect was made by the trial court.

Plaintiff, in his reply, realleged his ownership of lot 17, denied that the driveway was necessary to the owners of lot 16, and alleged that at the time [452]*452the mortgage was made by the Sabins, the then owners of lot 16, to the Home Owners Loan Corporation, from whom defendants acquired their title, the driveway was not in existence.

The c.ase was tried as one of equitable cognizance. The trial court found that the driveway was established prior to 1935, and at a time when both lots 16 and 17 were owned by the same persons; that the driveway was reasonably necessary to the owners of lot 16, and that it would be impracticable and expensive to construct a driveway upon lot 16, and that such construction would mar the beauty of the architecture and improvements thereon; that the driveway was constructed apparently for the purpose of serving residences to be erected on both lots 16 and 17, and that the owner of each lot had an implied easement upon the land of the other owner included in said driveway. The court denied the prayer of plaintiff’s petition; adjudged that the defendants were entitled to use the driveway as a perpetual easement and right of way, and required the plaintiff to pay all costs.

Plaintiff, on appeal, contends that the judgment of the trial court is against the clear weight of the evidence, and is contrary both to the law and to the evidence.

From the evidence it reasonably appears that Sunset Terrace addition was platted and placed upon the market by Sunset Gardens Company at some time prior to 1925, and that during the year 1925 Bertha Florence Sabin, who was also known as Mrs. Milton Roe Sabin, contracted with Sunset Gardens Company for the purchase of both lots 16 and 17, and other lots in Sunset Terrace addition. At some time during or about the year 1930, Mrs. Sabin and her husband began the construction of a large brick residence upon lot 16, which was apparently completed during the year 1935. While the contract of purchase between Mrs. Sabin and the Sunset Gardens Company was never reduced to writing so far as the record shows, the record contains a letter from Mrs. Sabin to Mr. A. L. Farmer of Sunset Gardens Company, dated March 16, 1927, in which she advised that she had been unable to make all payments due on lots 16, 17, 18, and 19 in Sunset Terrace addition, and states that she knows Mr. Sabin will construct houses on the lots in keeping with other houses built by him, and that as soon as he could sell the home which he was then completing they would be in position to take care of the above designated lots. There also appears in the record a letter from Bertha Florence Sabin to Sunset Gardens Company, dated October 10, 1935, authorizing and directing it to issue a deed to lots 17 and 18, block 6, and lots 112, block 7, Sunset Terrace addition, to W. E. Jones, and containing the following statement: “. . . and by the issuance of such deed you have complied with your agreement dated October 10, 1935, relative to the delivering of title to me, said W. E. Jones accepting said property at my request and for my benefit.”

Mrs. Sabin testified at the trial of the case that in all her transactions as to lot 17 she acted as the agent of her sister, Miriam Melton, who was the real owner of the property. Miriam Melton testified to the same effect. No reason for such agency is given by either witness, and Miriam Melton admitted that she had no deed, contract or other instrument of writing signed by Mrs. Sabin, or anyone else, showing that she had any right or equity in lot 17.

It appears that defendants acquired their title to lot 16 from Home Owners Loan Corporation, which foreclosed a mortgage made to it by Mrs. and Mr. Sabin, and bought in the property. Mrs. Sabin, in effect, admitted that in the foreclosure action she testified that she and her husband had a contract for the purchase of lot 17, and that they really paid for said lot but sold it and never got a deed; that they sold it to W. E. Jones; that she and her husband got the [453]*453loan from the Home Owners Loan Corporation and made the mortgage on lot 16 to secure the same on April 2, 1935; that the driveway was built after they sold lot 17 to Jones, but that they had an arrangement with Jones that she was buying back the property because she wanted that lot. While in the instant case she testified that the driveway was not built until after October 10, 1935, the date of the deed to Jones, a number of disinterested witnesses testified that it was constructed several years before that date; that it was completed about the time Mr. and Mrs. Sabin moved into the uncompleted house on lot 16, and was used by the Sabins while they were constructing the residence. Defendants also introduced in evidence an affidavit made by Mrs. Sabin on January 12, 1935, in which she stated that she purchased lot 16 by contract on or about November 17, 1925, and that she moved upon lot 16 in the fall of 1931, and occupied the same as her home and had continued to occupy the same as her homestead.

The driveway itself is some seven feet wide, three inches of the concrete being upon lot 16, and the remaining six feet nine inches being upon lot 17, for a distance of some 100 feet back from the front end of the lots, at which point it curves sharply onto lot 16 to the three-car garage on said lot. Concrete steps leading from the front porch of the residence on lot 16 extend to the edge of thé driveway. An architect testifying for defendants stated that by tearing down the steps from the front porch, closing up a clubroom door; making some changes in windows in the rear of the residence; cutting down some trees and cutting away a portion of the slope in the front yard of lot 16, and building new steps in front of the house, it might be possible to construct a driveway between the residence on lot 16 and the south line of that lot, but that to do so would greatly mar the architecture of the house on lot 16, and impair its usefulness and desirability as a residence.

The record shows that Sunset Gardens Company deeded lot 17 to W. E.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1947 OK 136, 190 P.2d 447, 199 Okla. 451, 1947 Okla. LEXIS 659, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gorman-v-overmyer-okla-1947.