Harris v. Smith

1931 OK 341, 300 P. 392, 149 Okla. 277, 1931 Okla. LEXIS 245
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJune 16, 1931
Docket19992
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 1931 OK 341 (Harris v. Smith) 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
Harris v. Smith, 1931 OK 341, 300 P. 392, 149 Okla. 277, 1931 Okla. LEXIS 245 (Okla. 1931).

Opinion

RILEY, J.

This is an action brought by Lena Smith against James M. Harris and Vera Harris to recover damages for falsely representing James M. Harris to he a licensed physician enabled to cure any and all human diseases, and falsely representing to plaintiff that she was suffering from a cancer and inducing her to purchase and use a certain remedy called “oil of radium,” which was by them claimed to be a “specific” for such disease.

Defendants first filed motions to strike certain • allegations from the petition, and also demurrer to the petition. These were overruled, and defendants answered by general denial.

Trial was had to a jury, resulting in a verdict for plaintiff of $1,000 actual, and $2,000 exemplary damages.

The first assignment of error is that the court erred in overruling the motion of defendants to strike certain alleged redundant matter from the petition.

The only showing in the record that this motion was in fact overruled is a recital In the case-made from the clerk’s minutes. We are doubtful whether this is sufficient to present the question here, under the holding in this court in Lillard v. Meisberger, 113 Okla. 228, 240 Pac. 1007; Merchants S. W. Warehouse Co. v. Johnston, 113 Okla. 146, 243 Pac. 186; Feterly v. Gage, 122 Okla. 229, 253 Pac. 499; Bouse v. Whitney, 130 Okla. 144, 265 Pac. 1048.

However, we have carefully considered the assignment, and conclude that there was no error in overruling the motion to strike. The motion was general and covered 15 of the 17 paragraphs of the petition. Defendants do not point out what matters therein are claimed to be redundant. Certainly not all of them are so. Crump v. Lanham, 67 Okla. 33, 168 Pac. 43, is the only case cited from this court in support of the assignment, and we find no allegation or statement in the petition similar or resembling the statement contained in that case, which the court said should have been stricken if properly attacked. The contention therein made was denied for the reason that the motion was too general and was not directed solely to that part of the petition said to be objectionable. It is contended here that the paragraphs of the petition attacked were allegations purely evidentiary in character and in no sense statements of ultimate fact. With this contention we cannot agree. Many of the allegations .were proper statements of ultimate fact.

The second and third assignments were presented together and go to the sufficiency of the petition. The second- is based upon the order overruling the demurrer to the petition, and the third to the order overruling objection to the introduction of evidence. The grounds of the demurrer were: (1) That the petition did not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action; and (2) that the petition shows on its face that the grievance complained of occurred more than two years before the commencement of the action, and the action is therefore barred by the statute of limitation (sec. 185, C. O. S. 1921).

It is contended that the petition shows on its face that the acts complained of" occurred more than two years prior" to the commencement of the action, and the whole action is therefore barred. This presents the question whether an action such as this is barred in two years from the alleged fraudulent act, *279 or two years after the discovery of the fraud and the falsity of the representation. The petition alleges the fraudulent acts and false representations and resulting damages as having occurred more than two years before the action was commenced, but by appropriate allegations stated that plaintiff did not discover the fraud and the falsity of the representations as to defendant Harris being a licensed physician, and that the pretended medicine was “radium,” until about three months before the filing of the petition.

Subdivision 3, of section 185, C. O. S. 1921, provides that an action for relief on the ground of fraud must be commenced within two years after the cause of action shall have accrued — the cause of action in such cases shall not be deemed to have accrued until the discovery of the fraud.

The general rule seems to be that actions for relief on the ground of fraud, where the statute provides that the cause of action shall not be deemed to have accrued until the discovery of the fraud, includes actions at law for money judgment. 37 C. J. 972.

In Massachusetts Bonding Ins. Co. v. Guthrie Savings Bank, 85 Okla. 7, 204 Pac. 299, an action to recover money fraudulently appropriated, it was said:

“By virtue of section 4057, R. L. 1910 (sec. 185, C. O. S. 1921), the cause of action did net accrue until the fraud was discovered, and the parties then had two years within which to commence their action. * * *”

Authorities on the question are divided, as is shown in Lightner Mining Co. v. Lane, 161 Cal. 689, 120 Pac. 771, where the authorities on both sides are collected, and where it was held:

“In every case, irrespect’ve of any except’ons in the statute, the fraudulent concealment 0” the facts on which the cause of action depends stays the running of the statute until the discovery of such facts, and tresnassing in an underground mine upon another’s land and secretly extracting ore therefrom necessarily constitutes a fraud, making the statute of limitations run from the actual discovery of tim fraudulent trespass, and not from the taking of the ore.”

In Baily v. Glover, 88 U. S. 349, 22 L. Ed. 636, in discussing the question whether fraud and the concealment thereof would stay the running of the two-year limitation in the federal Bankruptcy Act until the discovery of the fraud, the court said:

“We cannot say in regard to this act of limitations that courts of equity are not hound by its terms, for its very words are that ‘No suit at law or in equity shall in any case be maintained * * * unless brought, within two years,’ etc. It is quite clear that this statute must be held to apply equally by its own force to courts of equity and to courts of law, and if there be an exception to the universality of its language, it must be (•ne which applies under the same state of. facts to suits at law as well as to suits jn equity.”
“But we are of the opinion, as already stated, that the weight of judicial authority, both in this country, and in England, is in favor of the application of the rule to suits at law as well as in equity. And we are also of opinion that this is founded in a sound and philosophical view of the principles of the statutes of limitation. They were enacted to prevent frauds; to prevent' parties from asserting rights after the lapse of time had destroyed or impaired the evidence which would show that such rights never existed, or had been satisfied, transferred or extinguished, if they ever did exist. To hold that by concealing a fraud, or by committing a fraud in a manner that it concealed itself until such time as the party committing the fraud could plead the statute of limitations to protect it, is to make the law which was designed to prevent fraud the means by which it is made successful and secure. And we see no reason why this principle should not be as applicable to suits tried on the common-law side of the court’s calendar as to those on the equity side.”

In Traer et al. v. Clews, 115 U. S. 537, 29 L. Ed. 467, it was held:

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Bluebook (online)
1931 OK 341, 300 P. 392, 149 Okla. 277, 1931 Okla. LEXIS 245, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/harris-v-smith-okla-1931.