Johnson v. Brewer

427 So. 2d 118
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 16, 1983
Docket53602
StatusPublished
Cited by33 cases

This text of 427 So. 2d 118 (Johnson v. Brewer) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Johnson v. Brewer, 427 So. 2d 118 (Mich. 1983).

Opinion

427 So.2d 118 (1983)

Larry L. JOHNSON
v.
Otho BREWER and Ossie Brewer.

No. 53602.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

February 16, 1983.

Brunini, Grantham, Grower & Hewes, Christopher A. Shapley, Jackson, for appellant.

Fred L. Cooper, Richard D. Foxworth, Columbia, for appellees.

Before BROOM, P.J., and BOWLING and HAWKINS, JJ.

*119 BROOM, Presiding Justice, for the Court:

Fraudulent procurement of an oil, gas and mineral lease is the chief aspect of this case, filed by Otho Brewer and wife, Ossie Brewer (complainants/appellees) against Larry L. Johnson (defendant/appellant), in the Chancery Court of Marion County, the Honorable Sebe Dale, Jr., chancellor. The chancellor's decree set aside the lease on the ground of fraud. We affirm.

Among other things, appellant Johnson asserts here that the trial court erred in (1) holding that the consideration paid for the lease raised a presumption of fraud; (2) its finding of "grossly inadequate consideration" was without adequate evidentiary support and was manifestly wrong; and (3) the decree was based upon erroneous legal principles.

Appellee, Otho Brewer, owns record title to a tract of land in the Expose community of Marion County. He is nearly 80 years old, has a sixth grade education, and has limited reading ability. On July 1, 1972, Brewer executed an oil, gas and mineral lease on his land in favor of one J.L. McCollum. This lease had a 10-year primary term; Brewer retained a 1/8th royalty. At that time, Brewer was married to Annie Brewer, who obviously signed the instrument but signed as a witness instead of as a lessor. The land in question at that time was the Brewer's homestead.[1]

Subsequent to Otho Brewer's signing the above mentioned lease, gas was discovered in the area of the subject land and the land *120 was designated as part of a unit by the Oil and Gas Board. In 1980, after the death of Otho Brewer's first wife Annie, a landman, Kevin Jeffreys, was examining land records in the Marion County Courthouse. Jeffreys was approximately 25 years old, a Millsaps graduate, and had several years experience as a landman for various oil and gas companies. While doing this work in the courthouse, Jeffreys came across the lease from Otho Brewer to L.J. McCollum and noticed what possibly constituted a flaw (Annie's signature as a witness) in its execution. He notified his employer, Larry Johnson (appellant herein), of the existence of this potentially defective lease. Johnson sought legal advice concerning the lease and received conflicting legal opinions as to its validity. Nonetheless, he directed Jeffreys to attempt to obtain a second or "cover" lease on the property in question.

Shortly after the execution of the McCollum lease in 1972, Annie Brewer died, and in 1975 Otho Brewer married Ossie Brewer. Kevin Jeffreys went to Expose and obtained a second lease (the one in controversy now) from Otho and Ossie Brewer on the property in question, giving them a draft for approximately $1500 ($50 an acre) bonus for signing the lease. Interestingly, the draft was never presented for payment though no issue is made of this fact.[2]

The Brewers' position is that Jeffreys fraudulently obtained the "second lease" from them purporting it to be a correction of the first lease which Otho Brewer's wife, Annie, had erroneously signed as a witness.

Otho Brewer testified that, according to his understanding gained from Jeffreys, Annie's signature in the wrong place required the new instrument in order to insure that the signatures on the lease were in the proper location. Ossie Brewer and her daughter, Joyce Hartwell, corroborated this testimony. Kevin Jeffreys, on the other hand, testified that he completely explained the entire situation with regard to the McCollum lease and indicated that he merely wanted another lease "just in case" the first lease should prove to be invalid.

Next day, as Otho Brewer was on his way to the bank to present the draft Kevin Jeffreys had given him, he encountered one Taylor and informed him of the events that had transpired. Taylor informed Brewer that Brewer had not received adequate consideration for a lease, and subsequently Brewer executed to Mr. Taylor and a Mr. Wilkinson another lease on the same property for a 1/4th royalty and a $30,000 bonus, such bonus being payable $1500 immediately and $28,500 upon the cancellation of the first two leases.

Pursuant to appellant Johnson's motion, the chancellor included fact-findings and law conclusions in his opinion disposing of the case. From this decision, in which the chancellor found that the lease executed in favor of Johnson was obtained through the fraudulent misrepresentation by Kevin Jeffreys, appellant Johnson brings this appeal.

Johnson's assignments of error are closely interrelated and therefore will be discussed in conjunction with each other. Our decision will discuss the issues presented by the parties, first by an examination of the testimony in order to determine whether the chancellor's decision to set aside Brewer's lease to Johnson was supported by adequate evidence. The question of whether such evidence rises to the standard of "clear and convincing" evidence required for a finding of fraud will then be examined in light of the first assignment of error regarding the chancellor's conclusion of law that shockingly inadequate consideration raises a presumption of fraud.

In determining whether there was adequate evidence to support the chancellor's decision to set aside the Johnson lease on the basis of fraud, we are mindful of the elements which must be proven in any action seeking to establish fraud. Crawford v. Smith Brothers Lumber Co., Inc., 274 So.2d 675 (Miss. 1973), set forth the requisite elements of proof in an action grounded in fraud:

*121 [T]he elements of actionable fraud consist of: (1) a representation. (2) Its falsity. (3) Its materiality. (4) The speaker's knowledge of its falsity or ignorance of its truth. (5) His intent that it should be acted on by the person and in the manner reasonably contemplated. (6) The hearer's ignorance of its falsity. (7) His reliance on its truth. (8) His right to rely thereon. (9) And his consequent and proximate injury. ([Gardner v. State] 235 Miss. [119] at 130, 108 So.2d [592] at 594.)

Id., at 678.

First element we must look for here is a representation, or the concealment of a fact by one under a duty to reveal such fact. In the instant case, the alleged representation upon which this action is based was the representation from Jeffreys to Brewer that the document Jeffreys sought Brewer to sign was merely for the purposes of correcting Brewer's original lease to L.J. McCollum, executed in 1972. Otho Brewer testified at trial that Jeffreys told him he needed to sign the paper but did not tell him that it was a separate lease. Brewer stated that Jeffreys told him that what he was signing was the same lease. He indicated that Jeffreys told him only that he was working for his "boss", and that as a result of Jeffreys' representations, Brewer thought that he was merely correcting his lease already in force. Brewer's testimony was as follows:

Q. Did you read that instrument?
A. No, sir.
Q. Did he read it to you?
A. No, sir.
Q. Did you look at both sides of it?
A. No, sir. He never showed me, but just told me where to put my name right here.
Q.

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Bluebook (online)
427 So. 2d 118, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/johnson-v-brewer-miss-1983.