Helms v. Jenkins

1926 OK 538, 247 P. 28, 118 Okla. 239, 1926 Okla. LEXIS 890
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJune 8, 1926
Docket16388
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 1926 OK 538 (Helms v. Jenkins) 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
Helms v. Jenkins, 1926 OK 538, 247 P. 28, 118 Okla. 239, 1926 Okla. LEXIS 890 (Okla. 1926).

Opinion

Opinion by

RAY, • C.

This suit was originally brought by George R. Jenkins against S. R. Helms and Mollie Helms to recover on a promissory note in the sum of $2 200 and interest, executed to Aureldus-Swanson Company, and assigned to the plain biff, Jenkins, and to foreclose a mortgage given to secure the payment of the note. Defendants, by their answer alleged, in substance, that the note and mortgage were executed without consideration, and that the plaintiff, *240 Jenkins, was not a purchaser in (Inc course for value.

Tlie evidence showed the note and mortgage were executed October 11, 1919, to Aurelius-Swanson Company, and offered for sale to the plaintiff, Jenkins, a resident of Chicago. December 5, 1919, Jenkins forwarded his check to Aurelius- Swanson Company for the amount of die note, less the commission, ,and in the letter of transmittal stated he was paying the amount for the Helms loan, subject to approval of the abstract when received; that if the title were not satisfactory, he would return the papers and ask tor ,a return of the money, ■but, if the abstract were approved, he would send the assignment for record, and, on March 1, 1920, sent the assignment to Aurelius-'Swanson Compainy tot be placed of record. The evidence further showed that the proposed loan by defendants Helms was to pay a mlortgage held by the State School Land Department in the sum of approximately $1500. The Aurelius-Swanssn Company, on the 3rd of January, 1920, paid to the School Land Department the .amount of the Helms mortgage, and, on the 19th day of January, it release of the mlortgage was executed and delivered to Aurelius-Swanson Company, and thereafter filed for record. The evidence further showed that the balance of the $2,200 loan, above the amount paid the School Land Department in payment of the Helms mortgage, was rendered by Aurelius-Swianson Company to the defendants Helms, and they refused to accept it.

Defendant S. R. Helms testified that at the time he executed the application for the loan, and the nore and mortgage sued on, and left them with Aurelius-Swansota Company’s local agent iat Sallisaw, it was agreed •by them that the local agent would hold the application, note, and mortgage until he, Helms, could decide whether he wanted to make application for ihe loan of a larger sum; that he executed another note and mortgage fok the sum of $2,700, and delivered them to Aurelius-Swanson Company’s llocal' agent at-Sallisaw, and that tlie agent, in his presence, took from his desk papers purporting to be the original note and mortgage executed toy him, tore them up, and threw them away, with the statement, iri substance, -that he would get rid of the old mortgage. On this evidence judgment was for the defendants against the plaintiff, from which plaintiff appealed. In that case (Jenkins v. Helms, 89 Okla. 77, 213 Pac. 322), it was held that the Aurelius-Swanson Company was bound by the agreement of its local agent, if such agreement were made, to hold the note and mortgage pending Helm’s decision as to whether he wanted toi make a larger lo.au, and that the act of the local agent in (earing up certain papers and representing he was destroying the note and mortgage for $2,200, when in fact he was not, amounted to a false representation and fraud. It was also held that plaintiff, Jenkins, was not an innocent purchaser, and the judgment was affirmed. It was further held, however, that the court should have settled the equities between the parties, and “Aurelius-Swanson Company having paid the School Land Department the amount lof its mortgage, tlie court should have subrogated the plaintiff to the rights of the School Land Department, and protected the plaintiff in the amount actually paid out .and interest.” The opinión concluded:

“The judgment of the court in finding that the plaintiff was not an innocent purchaser is affirmed, and the cause remanded, with directions, to the trial court to proceed and settle the equities between the parties nob inconsistent with the views herein expressed, with costs of this appeal taxed toi the plaintiff in error.”

On rehearing, the directions to tlie trial court were modified, in a per curiam opinion, in this language:

“The petition for rehearing in this case is denied, and the cause is remanded to Ihe district, court of Sequoyah county, with directions to the trial court to hear and determine the cause as to any equities existing- between the parties and the right oi ilie plaintiff in error, if any, to be subrogated to the rights of the state of Oklahoma under a mortgage paid to the Commissioners of tlie School Land Department.”

On the going drawn of rhe mandato tlie plaintiff, Jenkins, filed an amendment to ms petition, in which he alleged, in substame, that at the time'of the purchase of the note and mortgage from Aurelius-Swanson Company, he remitted the amount1 due, and wirli tlie funds so transmitted tlie Aurelius-Swanson Company, under the directions of the defendants, paid to the Commissioners of the Land Office, the amount of their mortgage, together with the accumulated interest in the total sum of $1,559; that upon such' payment the mortgage held by the Land Department was released, and by reason of such payment, he was entitled to be sub-rogated to ail the rights of the Land Department in and to the mortgage lien. The defendants, by their answer, specifically de-' nied that they ever requested Aurelius-Swanson Company to pay the note and mortgage held by the School Land Department.

*241 Tile case was tried on the same evidence as on the farmer trial, and the court found that the plaintiff was entitled to he sub-rogated to all rights of the Commissioners of the Land Office of the state of Oklahoma', and rendered judgment for the amount paid by the Aurelius-Swanson Company to the Land Department in payment of its mortgage and interest, and the judgment was decreed to be a first and valid lien on the real estate mortgaged to the School Land Department.

Defendants, in their appeal, present but one question: “Should the doctrine of sub-rogation be held to extend to the defendant in error, George R. Jenkins, under the facts as presented by this record?”.

The fact that Aurelius-Swanson Company paid the indebtedness due from Jenkins to the state and secured a release of its mortgage, did not give Jenkins a right to sub-rogation. Neither did the fact, if a fact, that Aurelius-Swanson Company paid the state’s mortgage out of the money advanced by Jenkins in payment for Helms’ mortgage, entitled him to subrogation. He was under no duty to pay it. He was a volunteer. Kahn v. McConnell, 37 Okla. 219, 131 Pac. 682.

The fourth paragraph of the syllabus in the case of Kiniry v. Davis, 82 Okla. 211, 200 Pac. 439, is as follows:

“Where the proceeds of a toan, secured by a mortgage, are used to pay a prior mortgage and judgment lien upon the property mortgaged, and said mortgage and judgment lien are released ctf record, the mortgagee furnishing the money to pay such mortgage and judgment lien, being in no way obligated to pay the same, and there being no agreement that such mortgagee be substituted to the rights of the mortgagee or judgment creditors, the doctrine of sub- rogatidn -in such a situation has no application.”

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1926 OK 538, 247 P. 28, 118 Okla. 239, 1926 Okla. LEXIS 890, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/helms-v-jenkins-okla-1926.