Hart v. Ferguson

1918 OK 639, 176 P. 396, 73 Okla. 293, 1918 Okla. LEXIS 132
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedNovember 19, 1918
Docket7001
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 1918 OK 639 (Hart v. Ferguson) 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
Hart v. Ferguson, 1918 OK 639, 176 P. 396, 73 Okla. 293, 1918 Okla. LEXIS 132 (Okla. 1918).

Opinion

Opinion by

COLLIER, C.

This is an action instituted in a justice court by the defendant in error against the plaintiff in error for possession of lands described in the complaint. Hereinafter the parties will be designated as they were in the trial court.

The justice of the peace before whom the action was brought certified the case from the justice court to the district court, upon the ground that the issues in the ease involved title to land and the justice court had no jurisdiction. The case coming on to be heard in the district court of Bryan county, the district judge adjudged that it was a case of simple detainer, and that the justice court had jurisdiction, and remanded the ease back to the justice court for trial, where the case was tried and judgment rendered for the defendant for the premises. The plaintiff appealed from the judgment of the justice court to the district court of Bryan county, where the same coming on for trial, the court instructed a verdict for the plaintiff, and on the 31st day of March, 1914, the court entered judgment against the defendant for the possession of the land. On April 2d, a motion for new trial was filed, which was overruled on the 14th of April, exception saved, and notice of appeal given, and appeal perfected to the Supreme Court.

We are of the opinion that the uncontra-dicted evidence shows that the defendant never had legal possession of the land, and the uncontradicted evidence of the defendant’s answer shows that at the time of the trial ne was not in possession of the land, even if the contention of the defendant be accepted as true, that he rented the land for 1913 from a receiver appointed in this case, such renting was illegal, and conferred no right of possession upon the defendant, and there being no evidence whatever to show that the defendant was in legal possession of the land, and there being no dispute that at the time of the trial the plaintiff was entitled to possession of the land in controversy, the court did not err in directing a verdict for plaintiff for the possession of the land.

The district court of Bryan county in the trial of the cause was exercising only appellate jurisdiction, and therefore the action of the court in appointing a receiver and directing the sale of the crop grown upon the land in controvery during the year 1913, was without authority of law and void, and likewise was the order of the court directing that the proceeds of.such sale be paid to the plaintiff.

It is the unbroken line of decisions that, unless especially provided by statute, in an action of unlawful or forcible detainer, possession of the land is the only recovery that can be had. No question of rent, or damage to the land is involved; our statutes do not provide for the recovery of rent or damages in such actions. In Walker v. McGill, 40 Ark. 38, it is said:

“The judgment for the plaintiff in an action of forcible entry, or unlawful detain-er, must be only for possession and cost.”

In Poe v. Bradley, 44 Ark. 500, it is said:

“In an action for unlawful detainer where possession is delivered to the plaintiff under the writ, the only judgment he is entitled to is for cost. No damages are recoverable for detention of the premises.”

In Robinson v. Crummer, 10 Ill. (5 Gilman) 218, it is said:

“The action of forcible entry and detainer is purely a civil remedy, the sole object of which is to regain a possession which has been invaded, and the only 'judgment that can be rendered is that the plaintiff have restitution of the premises of which he has been unjustly deprived.”

In Stover v. Hazelbaker, 42 Neb. 393, 60 N. W. 597, it is said:

“The only judgment that can be pronounced in” an action of forcible detainer “is that the plaintiff have restitution of the premises sued for, or that the plaintiff’s action be dismissed, and that the defendant go hence without day.”

In 19 Cyc, 1168. K. it is said :

“The right to recover damages in actions for forcible entry and detainer and kindred actions is, in many jurisdictions, .expressly conferred by statutes containing various provisions as to the elements and amount thereof. While this is true, it nevertheless seems to be well settled that, in the absence of some statutory provision expressly authorizing it, damages cannot be recovered.”

Section 5513, Revised Laws, provides:

“If the jury shall find the complaint true, they shall render a general verdict of guilty *295 against defendant; if not true, then a general verdict of not guilty; if true in part, then a verdict setting forth the facts they find true.’’

Section 5514, Revised Laws, provides;

“The justice shall enter the verdict upon his docket, and render such judgment in the action as if the fact authorizing the finding such verdict had been found to be true by himself.”

Section 5516 Revised Laws, provides the form of execution to be issued in case of judgment for plaintiff in actions of unlawful or forcible detainer of land, and commands “the forthwith removal of the defepd-ant from the premises, and restitution thereof to the plaintiff, and for costs.”

The statutes under consideration were taken from Kansas and were construed prior to' adoption by this state. In George Ow v. James Wickham, 38 Kan. 225, 16 Pac. 335, it is held:

“Where an action is brought before a justice of the peace under article 13, c. 81. Comp. Laws of. 1885, and there is joined therewith a claim for damages growing out of the same transaction, held, that the proceeding under the forcible entry and de-tainer act is a summary proceeding, and cannot be joined with other causes of action, although such other causes of action may arise out of the same transaction.”

In said opinion it is said:

“Again the forcible entry and detainer act provides in specific terms the form of the verdict and the judgment, and the execution on the judgment; and neither in the verdict, judgment, nor execution, is any\ reference made to damages for th.e detention, or for injury to the property. If it had been contemplated that a judgment may also be rendered in this class of * * ® damages to the property as in actions of replevin, then some provision, it seems to us, would have been made in the form of the verdict, judgment. and .execution. It is true that in many other respects the trial and procedure are the same as in other proceedings before justices of the peace; also, that an appeal may be taken and exceptions on questions of law saved, and the like; and these provisions doubtless led counsel and the court to believe that because of this similarity in other actions, other causes of action might be joined; but the fact must not be lost sight of that the proceeding was designed solely as a summary means of obtaining possession of property, where it was withheld by a defendant without right or color of right.”

We have not overlooked the fact that the Supreme Court of the territory of Oklahoma held in Chisholm v. Weise, 5 Okla. 217, 47 Pac. 1086, and in Rice v. West, 10 Okla. 1, 33 Pac.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1918 OK 639, 176 P. 396, 73 Okla. 293, 1918 Okla. LEXIS 132, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hart-v-ferguson-okla-1918.