Hancock v. Cochran

1927 OK 239, 258 P. 1046, 126 Okla. 126, 1927 Okla. LEXIS 95
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedAugust 2, 1927
Docket17048
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 1927 OK 239 (Hancock v. Cochran) 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
Hancock v. Cochran, 1927 OK 239, 258 P. 1046, 126 Okla. 126, 1927 Okla. LEXIS 95 (Okla. 1927).

Opinion

REID, C.

On the 19th day of July, 1917, the plaintiff in error .filed his petition In the district court of Pittsburg county against G. C. Cochran. A demurrer to this petition was sustained, and on January 8, 1921, the plaintiff by leave of the court filed an amended petition. »

In this amended petition plaintiff alleged that on the 21st day of September, 1909, the defendant G. C. Cochran, joined by his wife, Maria O. Cochran, executed and delivered to him a warranty deed to certain land situated in Ward county, state of Texas; that said deed was made upon a Texas statutory form, and he attached a copy of the deed to the petition.

Plaintiff further alleged that said, deed contained a warranty against incumbrances, and that said covenant and warranty had been breached, and had failed by reason of the fact that, prior to the delivery of the deed to plaintiff, the said G. C. Cochran had executed a certain instrument and agreement creating a lien on said lands for the annual payment of certain stipulated amounts, and which was unknown to plaintiff at the time the land was sold to him, and that under such deed of trust the land was sold to pay the lien indebtedness, and the plaintiff thereby lost title to his land. *127 JHe prayed for a recovery of the purchase money paid by him, and also for the taxes paid prior to his knowledge of the sale of the land under the deed of trust.

Plaintiff also pleaded articles 628-633 ^.nd 634, title 20, of the Revised Statutes of the State of Texas, 1895, relating to conveyances of lands in Texas.

Under the record presented in this case it appears that G. C. Cochran, the defend-ant, died on the 16th day of April, 1921, and the motion for revivor in question here was filed by the plaintiff ón the 31st day of January, 1925, asking that the action be revived against Maria C. Cochran, as sole and only heir of G. C. Cochran, and upon this motion notice was served on Maria C. Cochran that the motion would be heard on the -3rd day of March, 1925, or as soon thereafter as the court could hear said application.

On the 14th day of March, 1925, without Any appearance of Maria 0. Cochran, the court made an order finding that the cause •of action should be revived against her as the sole' heir of G. C. Cochran, and that all further proceedings be had against her as such, and permitting the plaintiff to amend his petition by substituting her as defendant.

On the 6th day of May, 1925, Maria C. Oochran filed a motion to set aside and vacate the order of revivor, and pleaded to the jurisdiction of the court. The allegations of the motion must be here taken as true. She alleged in the motion that the action had been revived, as against her as the sole heir of G. C. Oochran, but that, in fact, he left other heirs residing in Pitts-burg county, Okla., but that the cause of action sued on did not survive against any •of his heirs; that the attempted revivor was not made on the day appointed in the notice ; that the deceased died in Pittsburg county, Okla., while a resident thereof, and that on the 1st day of May, 1924, she was, upon proper petition, appointed by the county court of Pittsburg county, executrix of his will, and letters testamentary were issued to her; that on the 8th day of May, 1924, she gave notice to creditors to present claims, but that no claim was presented to her by the plaintiff within four months, or at any other time, and that no motion to revive the cause of action against her, or order of revivor, had been made within four months after notice to creditors; that the cause had not been revived in accordance with law, and she excepted to the jurisdiction of the court and asked that the cause be dismissed. She attached to her motion copies of the pruoace proceedings referred to therein.

The question here presented arises upon the aciion of the trial court in sustaining the motion and dismissing the ease.

The plaintiff contends that the cause of action survived against Maria 0. Cochran, as an heir of G. C. Cochran, by reason of the provisions of article 633 of the Revised Statutes of Texas, title 20, 1895, which is as follows:

“Art. 633. (557) Prom the use of the word ‘grant’ or ‘convey’ in any conveyance by which an estate of inheritance or fee simple is to be passed, the following covenants, and none other, on the part of the grantor for himself, and his heirs to the grantee, his heirs and assigns, are implied, unless restrained by express terms contained in such conveyance:
‘U. That previous to the time of the execution of such conveyance the grantor has not’ conveyed the same estate, or ány right, title, or interest herein, to any person other than the grantee.
“2. That such estate is at the time of the execution of such conveyance free from incumbrances.
“Such covenants may be sued upon in the same manner as if they had been expressly inserted in the conveyance.”

It will be observed that, by force of the above statute, certain provisions are implied into the deed under consideration, and it will also be seen that the obligation of the grantor in this deed is in substantial accordance with the liability imposed by section 5259, O. O. S. 1921, upon grantors in warranty deeds made in this state, in which it is provided that the covenant of warranty shall be obligatory and. binding upon any such grantor, his heirs, or personal representatives, as if written at length in such deed.

The plaintiff in error contends that there is only one question presented by the appeal, and that is whether Maria 0. Oochran, as sole heir of G. O. Oochran, deceased, is a proper person against whom this cause •of action should be revived. We think that is correct. It will therefore be unnecessary to determine whether the revivor had been made in accordance with the practice in this state, unless we find the action survived against Maria C. Cochran.

At common law the personal property of a decedent passed into the hands of the administrator for the purpose of paying debts, and the residue was distributed to *128 his heirs, but the realty passed direct to the heirs, and they were bound for the debts of the ancestor, to the extent of realty coming into their hands only when expressly bound in contracts made by such ancestor.

This principle was early expressed in the jurisprudence of this country in the following cases: Hutchinson v. Stiles, Adm’r, 3 N. H. 404; Webber v. Webber, 6 Me. 127; Boyce v. Burrel, 12 Mass. 395.

In the aboye New Hampshire case, the ancestor, Caleb Jones, by his deed, had cov-«nanted with the plaintiff in the action that he and his heirs would warrant the title to the land to the plaintiff. In view of the fact that the decision in that case is one of the earliest opinions we have found discussing the rule applicable to the present case, we feel authorized to quote from it at length. The court said:

“In the case now before us it appears that Caleb Jones, who jnade the covenant, on which this action is founded, died in 1805; that his estate was immediately placed, under the administration of Zadock Jones; and that the covenant, mentioned in the plaintiff’s declaration, was broken in the same year.

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Bluebook (online)
1927 OK 239, 258 P. 1046, 126 Okla. 126, 1927 Okla. LEXIS 95, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hancock-v-cochran-okla-1927.