Intertype Corporation v. Strosnider

1923 OK 5, 211 P. 1022, 88 Okla. 68, 1923 Okla. LEXIS 543
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJanuary 2, 1923
Docket10808
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 1923 OK 5 (Intertype Corporation v. Strosnider) 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
Intertype Corporation v. Strosnider, 1923 OK 5, 211 P. 1022, 88 Okla. 68, 1923 Okla. LEXIS 543 (Okla. 1923).

Opinion

COCHRAN, J.

This was an action brought by the Intertype Corporation, as plaintiff, against John Strosnider, as defendant, for the possession of one Intertype machine. From judgment in favor of the defendant, the plaintiff has prosecuted this appeal. The record shows that defendant formerly owned the Timas-Democrat at Pawnee, Okla., and in 1917 sold the plant to Harry Lloyd, receiving some cash and a mortgage on the plant for the balance of the price. Lloyd sold the plant to A. M. Armstrong, and thereafter plaintiff sold Armstrong one In-tertype machine for $3,230, for which Armstrong paid $100 in cash and delivered to the plaintiff one Junior linotype, which wa« a part of the plant originally owned by defendant and on which defendant had a mortgage, and received a credit for this linotype of $400 on the purchase price of the new machine, and the remainder of the purchase price was to be paid in monthly installments, for which notes and mortgages were to be executed. The contract between Armstrong and plaintiff covering this conditional sale was never' filed for record as provided for by section 6745, Rev. Laws 1910. and Armstrong never executed the notes and mortgage which he agreed to execute. The defendant'transferred 'his-notes and mortgage on the plant of the Times-Democraf to the Pawnee National Bank as collateral security for indebtedness of the defendant to the bank, and. default having been made in the payment of the note secured by such mortgage. the bank took possession of the property secured by the mortgage and also the Intertype machine purchased from the plaintiff, and, having posted notices of sale of the chattel mortgage, sold said property, including the Intertype machine, and the defendant purchased the property at such sale. Default having been made in' the payment of the amounts due to the plaintiff by Armstrong, the plaintiff demanded from the defendant the machine which plaintiff had sold to Armstrong and which had been purchased -by defendant at the foreclosure sale. The plaintiff asserted title to such property by reason of the provisions of the conditional sales contract executed by Armstrong to plaintiff at the time of the purchase of the machine. The defendant refused to deliver the machine to the plaintiff, and this action was filed by plaintiff for possession of the machine. The ease was tried to jury, and verdict returned for the defendant.

The trial court held that the contract executed by Armstrong to the plaintiff was a conditional sales contract and came within the provisions of section 6745, Rev. Laws 1910, and submitted the case to the jury on the part of the defendant on two theories. First, that the defendant had no knowledge of the existence of the sales contract of the defendant and was a bona fide purchaser of the property; that although the machine was not covered by the mortgage, it was voluntarily turned over to the Pawnee National Bank in satisfaction of the indebtedness of Armstrong to the bank or to have the same sold and the proceeds applied on the mortgage indebtedness. Second, that there was a substitution of the-machine purchased by Armstrong to the plaintiff in place of the original machine covered by the mortgage held by the bank.

Frequent reference is made, in the instructions of the court and in the brief of the defendant, to the defendant as an innocent purchaser; but the facts in this case do not bring the defendant within the meaning of those words as used in section 6745, Rev. Laws 1910. He was the mortgagee in the mortgage which was foreclosed by the Pawnee National Bank, and, as such, he had full knowledge of the property covered in such mortgage. The record discloses that this property was advertised and sold as mortgaged property, and as tire purchaser of such property at that sale he had full knowledge that the Intertype machine was not covered by the mortgage. The bank, however, was a creditor of Armstrong and, the conditional sales contract not having been recorded, the plaintiff would not be permitted to assert any title to the machine as against the bank, or the purchaser at its sale, provided the bank acquired any rights to said property by reason of the substitution of the new machine for the one covered by the mortgage or by reason of an agreement between Armstrong and the bank by which the machine was delivered to the bank in satisfaction of *70 the mortgage indebtedness or by which che Iiroperty was delivered to the bank under an agreement to sell the property for Armstrong and apply the proceeds on the sale on the mortgage indebtedness.

We have examinad ihe record carefully for evidence to support the theory that this property was voluntarily delivered to the bank by Armstrong in satisfaction of the mortgage indebtedness of Armstrong to the bank, or under an agreement by which the bank was to sell the property and apply the proceeds on the mortgage indebtedness. In that connection, the attorney representing the bank and making the sale testified as follows:

“Q. You say that you represented the Pawnee National Bank in the sale of this property under the mortgage sale? A. Yes, sir. I did. Q. Did you have any conversation with Armstrong relative to his surrendering the plant oyer to the bank? A. I did; yes, sir. Q.' Did' that include the piece of machinery that is in controversy in this trial? A. Yes, he turned over the whole. Q. You may state for the court and jury just what he did in turning' the plant over to you. A. He told me in substance that he was going to quit the plant, because he could not pay for it, and he told °us to lake possession of the plant and go ahead and do-what tver we wanted to do. Q. After he told you to take possession of tire plant, did the bank take possession of it? A. Yes, sir. Q. And then proceeded co sell it? A. Yes, sir. Q. He did not at any time during the, progress of tire sale of the plant interfere with the sale of the plant, did he? A. No. he did not at all.”

The above is nil of (he testimony on that phase of the case, and only shows a voluntary delivery of the property to the bank for the purpose of foreclosure under its mortgage, and the bank, by reason of that action, was placed in no better position than if it had taken possession of the property by action and then proceeded to foreciose such mortgage by notice. This testimony cannot be held to be sufficient to constitute an agreement between Armstrong and the bank by which the title to the property was vested in the bank or authority given to the bank to sell the property for Armstrong independent of the rights of the bank under the mortgage. In instruction No. 12, tihe jury were instructed ' on the law of substitution as follows:

“You are instructed that there is some evidence in this case as to a mortgage given by one Lloyd on the fixtures of the Pawnee Times-Democrat, but which mortgage contained no provision for including after-acquired property, and that, under such circumstances such mortgage would not in any event cover the personal property involved in this action, to wit, the Intertype machine.
“However, you are instructed that if the mortgage in question covered a linotype machine, and the said A. M.

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Bluebook (online)
1923 OK 5, 211 P. 1022, 88 Okla. 68, 1923 Okla. LEXIS 543, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/intertype-corporation-v-strosnider-okla-1923.