Hodges v. Simpson

1922 OK 8, 213 P. 737, 89 Okla. 80, 1922 Okla. LEXIS 366
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJanuary 17, 1922
Docket10261
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 1922 OK 8 (Hodges v. Simpson) 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
Hodges v. Simpson, 1922 OK 8, 213 P. 737, 89 Okla. 80, 1922 Okla. LEXIS 366 (Okla. 1922).

Opinions

ELTING, J.

Opinion in this' ease was handed down on the 13th day of December, 1921. Petition for rehearing filed December 21, 1921. Rehearing granted January 9, 1922, and the writer of this opinion directed to write an opinion.

This action, was commenced in the district court of Choctaw county, wiith Rose Hodges as plaintiff, against defendants Lloyd Simpson, C. E. Moseley, Clarence Spradling, and J. H. Garrett, to recover rents due for farming lands under a lease by plaintiff’s grantor to the defendant Lloyd Simpson, and to have a receiver appointed to take charge of the rents pen-dente lite.

On the hearing of the application for appointment of the receiver the trial court denied the application and rendered a judgment against the plaintiff. The plaintiff excepted and perfected this appeal and appears here as plaintiff in error. The parties will be referred to as they appeared in the court below.

The judgment of ithe trial court was f> denial of the receivership, and no determination of the right of the recovery of the rents was finally reached except as it arose incident to the application for the receivership.

*81 There is involved in this cáse this question: It appears from the record that the lands involved in this case were allotted to Vicey Joe, an Indian citizen, and that on the 14th day of July, 1917, she executed an agricultural lease for the term of five years to Lloyd Simpson, the first named defendant in this suit. This lease was carried, either by Simpson or someone for him, to the county clerk of Ohoctaw county, in which county said lands were located, and the same was filed for record on the 14th day of July, 1917, at three o’clock p. m„ and duly recorded in Book 43 of Leases, at page 477. That is the certificate signed by the county clerk by a deputy. There is no question raised as to the form of the execution of the lease, nor is it contended that it is not in condition entitling it to recordation.

From the evidence, it appears that said lease was executed upon a printed form of lease. The printed form of ithe lease has printed on it this language:

“That the consideration of this lease contract to be paid by the lessee to the lessor, is $— per annum, payable as follows,' to wit:”

In the record the undisputed proofs show that the lease, as actually drawn, signed, and executed and presented to the county clerk of Choctaw county, and covering the portion designating the consideration and manner of payment, was as follows, to wit:

“Thait the consideration of this lease contract to be paid by the lessee to the lessor, is 250 and no hundredths dollars payable as follows, to wit:
“$25.00 cash in hand paid, receipt acknowledged ; $25.00 on January I, 1918; $50.00 on the first day of January thereafter until • the whole amount is paid and during the ,'term of this contract.”

It will be noticed that this recital of the consideration embraces all of the printed portion of the printed form of the lease that we have heretofore detailed except that the phrase “per annum” is erased, and the balance describing and reciting the consideration is in writing. The recorder in recording said lease recorded it as it was in the original lease and as executed and acknowledged, and as we have heretofore recited it, except that in recording the lease the phrase “per annum” was left in and recorded as “$250.00 per annum.”

To explain briefly why only the right of receivership was determined by the court, and not the whole issue tried and determined: It was due to the fact that Lloyd Simpson went into the army and overseas shortly after the execution of the lease and was not served, and the case was not in a position that ithe trial of the merits could proceed, and it was sought to impound the proceeds of the rents by placing the same in charge of a receiver.

It is contended by the plaintiff below, plaintiff in error herein, she being a purchaser of the fee of this land from Vicey Joe after the taking of said lease and the recording of the same, that she had a right to rely upon the record and that she was only bound by the lease as shown by the record, and that her rights under the lease were such as were shown by the record, and that she was entitled to enforce against Lloyd Simpson and the terre-tenants, who are the other defendants, at a rental of $250 per annum as shown by the record, instead of $250 for the five-year term, or $50 per annum. And in support thereof she invoked the rule that Lloyd Simpson and those whose rights attached to the land under him and the lease were bound by the acts and negligence of the recorder in recording the lease in the manner in which it was recorded, and were estopped to contend that the - consideration for the lease was $250 for the entire term, or $50 per year, and urged that she relied upon what the record showed, and that she was entitled to recover $250 per annum as provided in the record of .the lease as made by the county clerk of Ohoctaw county.

Upon this contention the trial court held against the plaintiff below, plaintiff in error herein, and denied the application for receivership, and in this we think the trial court is correct.

An examination of the authorities shows there are two lines of authority bearing upon the question of the force and effect of filing and recording instruments under the recordation acts of the various states. One line of authority holds that where one has an instrument and it is in proper form, entitling it to be filed or recorded, and he 1ms delivered the same to the recording officer, the holder of ithe instrument has performed all that the law requires of him, and that he is not responsible for, neither is he estopped by, any mistakes -made by the recording officer in recording said instrument. There is another line of authority holding that the delivery of the instrument to the recording officer is not sufficient, and that the failure of the officer to properly perform his duties and correctly record the instrument can be attributed to the holder of the instrument and those claiming rights under him, and that a subsequent' pur *82 chaser has a right to roly upon (lie record as' made.

We ‘ quote the following from the case of Mangold v. Barlow, 61 Miss. 593, 48 Am. Rep. 84:

“Shall the deed prevail, or the record of it? There is great contrariety of opinion upon this subject in other states. The decided weight of authority seems to be in favor of the view that the record may be relied on by a subsequent purchaser, and .that he cannot be affected by a deed not truly recorded. After the most careful consideration, we range ourselves with the minority, and. hold that a grantee fully acquits himself of all duty imposed by law when he lodges the instrument with the proper officer for record.”

This count in two opinions has committed itself to the first holding elucidated above and aligns itself with the holding in the Mississippi case just quoted. The first case is the case of Covington v. Fisher, 22 Okla. 207, 97 Pac. 615, by Kane, J. This ease involved the foreclosure of a real estate mortgage. In recording the mortgage the recorder made the' mistake in recording the land as the southwest quarter, when it should have been the northwest quarter.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Opinion No. 68-338 (1968) Ag
Oklahoma Attorney General Reports, 1968
Gardner v. Incorporated City of McAlester
1946 OK 360 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1946)
Twyford v. Stephens
1938 OK 536 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1938)
New Era Milling Co. v. Thompson
1924 OK 676 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1924)
Claggett v. Hampton
1923 OK 1175 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1923)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1922 OK 8, 213 P. 737, 89 Okla. 80, 1922 Okla. LEXIS 366, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hodges-v-simpson-okla-1922.