Hancock Oil Co. v. Hopkins

150 P.2d 463, 24 Cal. 2d 497, 1944 Cal. LEXIS 251
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 13, 1944
DocketL. A. 18087
StatusPublished
Cited by26 cases

This text of 150 P.2d 463 (Hancock Oil Co. v. Hopkins) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hancock Oil Co. v. Hopkins, 150 P.2d 463, 24 Cal. 2d 497, 1944 Cal. LEXIS 251 (Cal. 1944).

Opinions

EDMONDS, J.

Two corporations, lessees of certain real property, demand that the lessors and certain other persons interplead their rights to the landowner’s oil royalties accrued and to accrue under the terms of the lease. A general and also a special demurrer, interposed by some of those against whom interpleader is sought, were sustained without leave to amend, and the question for decision concerns the right of a tenant to maintain such a suit against his landlord and a stranger to the lease.

According to the complaint, in 1936 W. L. Hopkins and Gertrude Ann Hopkins, his wife, leased certain real property to Hancock Oil Company of California and R. R. Bush Oil Company. Landowner’s royalties of approximately $1,500. have accrued. It is also alleged that in 1941, Independent Distributing Co., a copartnership composed of Merritt Bloxom, Eugene E. dwell and Murray M. Olwell, brought an action asserting that W. L. Hopkins, Gertrude Ann Hopkins, and two persons sued by fictitious names, hold the real property described in the lease in trust for them. The relief sought in the suit of Independent Distributing Co. was an accounting of the rents of the land.

The copartnership and the copartners, together with W. L. Hopkins and Gertrude Ann Hopkins, H. James Hopkins and W. L. Hopkins, trustees of Wilbur T. Hopkins Trust, and H. James Hopkins and W. L. Hopkins, trustees of the H. James Hopkins Trust, are named as the defendants in the present suit, the charge of the complaint being that the copartnership and the copartners claim to be the owners of the land described in the lease and entitled to all of the landowner’s royalties accrued and to accrue under that agreement. A further assertion of the complaint is that the defendants other than the copartnership and the copartners also claim the same royalties and by reason of these conflicting claims the lessees cannot safely determine to whom the rent should be paid. In conclusion, the plaintiffs declare that the suit was not commenced in collusion with any of the defendants.

[502]*502To this complaint Merritt Bloxom, Eugene E. dwell, Murray M. dwell and Independent Distributing Co. filed an answer alleging that they are the owners of the property and entitled to all of the rents and profits from it. They also assert that the defendants named Hopkins are holding title to the property in trust for them. The defendants other than the copartners and the copartnership interposed a general demurrer and a special demurrer upon the ground of uncertainty. Each demurrer was sustained without leave to amend and the corporations’ appeal is from the judgment which followed that order.

From an opinion of the trial judge, it appears that the demurrers were sustained upon the sole ground that a tenant may not question the title of his landlord at the date of the lease; accordingly, a suit by a tenant to interplead his landlord and one who claims the rent agreed to be paid in accordance with the terms of the lease by which he holds possession of the real property is in violation of this fundamental principle. The appellants assert that a suit in interpleader does not constitute a denial of the landlord’s title but is simply a means by which the tenant may discharge his obligation to pay rent under the lease without becoming involved in the conflict between different claimants to the amount due and unpaid. They take the position that section 386 of the Code of Civil Procedure, as amended in 1881, abrogates the common law rule and so liberalizes the remedy as to permit a tenant to interplead his landlord and a stranger to the lease where both claim the rent.

The respondents, in defending the judgment in their favor, argue that the rights of the parties are governed by the common law rule prohibiting a tenant from interpleading his landlord with a stranger to the lease where their titles or claims are not in privity. They point out that a denial of the remedy under such circumstances is based upon the statute declaratory of the common law that “A tenant is not permitted to deny the title of his landlord at the time of the commencement of the relation.” (Code Civ. Proc., § 1962(4).) They also insist that the common law rules governing inter-pleader are still in effect notwithstanding the provisions of section 386 of the Code of Civil Procedure.

The common law bill of interpleader had four essential elements: (1) The same thing, debt, or duty must be [503]*503claimed by both or all the parties against whom the relief is demanded; (2) all of the adverse titles or claims must be dependent, or be derived from a common source; (3) the one seeking the relief must not have nor claim any interest in the subject matter; and (4) he must have incurred no independent liability to either of the claimants. (See 4 Pomeroy’s Equity Jurisprudence [5th ed. 1941] § 1322, p. 906.)

These requirements have been termed historical limitations upon this otherwise expeditious equitable proceeding (see comment, 29 Cal.L.Rev. 35, 36, and 41; 4 Pomeroy’s Equity Jurisprudence [5th ed. 1941] § 1324, footnote p. 910), and in 1881 section 386 of the Code of Civil Procedure was amended to broaden the remedy. The statute, as modified to remove in part the artificial restrictions which have kept interpleader within technical and narrow bounds, declares, insofar as is here pertinent: “And whenever conflicting claims are or may be made upon a person for or relating to personal property, or the performance of an obligation, or any portion thereof, such person may bring an action against the conflicting claimants to compel them to interplead and litigate their several claims among themselves. The order of substitution may be made and the action of interpleader may be maintained, and the applicant or plaintiff be discharged from liability to all or any of the conflicting claimants, although their titles or claims have not a common origin, or are not identical, but are adverse to and independent of one another. ’ ’ The provision of this enactment, that interpleader lies “although their titles or claims have not a common origin . . . but are adverse to and independent of one another,” directly abrogates the common law requirement that all the adverse titles or claims must be dependent or be derived from a common source, and it is therefore clear that privity between the conflicting claimants need not be shown to invoke the remedy under the code. But the effect of the amendment upon the common law requirement concerning the thing, debt or duty which is the subject of the complaint in inter-pleader is clearly seen only when the statute is considered in connection with the purpose and policy of the remedy.

Early in the history of interpleader, it was held that one who sought to maintain such a suit must show outstanding claims, identical in every respect and without the slightest [504]*504degree of variation, to the same thing, debt or duty. In the case of conflicting claims to specific personal property, this rigid formalism did not seriously interfere with the effectiveness of the proceeding. But where, as is generally the situation modernly, the subject matter of the conflicting claims was an obligation, a debt or a duty, the requirement as to the identity of the defendant’s demands very often prevented a stakeholder from using interpleader where he was doubly vexed with respect to one liability.

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Bluebook (online)
150 P.2d 463, 24 Cal. 2d 497, 1944 Cal. LEXIS 251, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hancock-oil-co-v-hopkins-cal-1944.