Johnston v. State Bank of Commerce

1927 OK 417, 263 P. 123, 129 Okla. 46, 1927 Okla. LEXIS 499
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedNovember 15, 1927
Docket17735
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 1927 OK 417 (Johnston v. State Bank of Commerce) 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
Johnston v. State Bank of Commerce, 1927 OK 417, 263 P. 123, 129 Okla. 46, 1927 Okla. LEXIS 499 (Okla. 1927).

Opinion

CLARK, J.

Plaintiffs in error were defendants below; defendant in error was plaintiff below. For convenience parties will be referred to as they appear in the trial court.

This action was commenced by the plaintiff against the defendants P. A. Johnston and Mary M. Johnston in the district court of Harper county. Okla., upon a promissory note made and executed by F. A. Johnston in the principal sum of $4.000, and a further action to cancel certain deeds- of conveyance to land in Harper county, Okla., executed by defendant P. A. Johnston to Mary M. Johnston, his wife, on August 18, 1922.

' The court in its proceedings directed the cause against Mary M. Johnston to be docketed as a separate action. The cause of action as against P. A. Johnston on the note was transferred to Beaver county, Okla., on the 24th day of May, 1924. Judgment was rendered in favor of plaintiff against P. A. Johnston for the sum of $4.747, and further sustained the attachment as against P. A. Johnston.

An attachment was issued out of the district court of Harper county and the land involved in this action was levied upon as the property of P. A. Johnston.

Plaintiff alleged that said conveyance was made by P. A. Johnston to Mary M. Johnston without a fair and valuable consideration, in bad faith, for the purpose of hindering, delaying, and defrauding creditors of P. A. Johnston, and especially this plaintiff.

It was further alleged that at the time of conveyance P. A. Johnston was insolvent, that he had no other property of any kind or character within the limits of the state of Oklahoma.

On December 19, 1924, W. H. Johnston filed a petition of intervention in which he alleged that he was the owner of the land involved by purchasing the same from Mary M. Johnston and P. A. Johnston on the 15th day of February, .1923, for a valuable consideration. The allegations of W. H. Johnston’s petition of intervention were placed in issue by plaintiff.

The defendant Mary M. Johnston filed a general denial. The defendant F. A. Johnston filed a separate answer, admitting the conveyance to Mary M. Johnston and denying other allegations in plaintiff’s petition.

Upon the issues thus framed, this cause came on for trial in the district court of Harper comity on the 9th day of September, 1925, with a jury sitting in an advisory capacity. The jury returned a verdict in answer to interrogatories in favor of defendant. Thereafter plaintiff secured leave of court to reopen the ease and submit additional testimony. The cause came on for additional hearing to the court on the 1st of March, 1926. At the conclusion of the trial the court rendered judgment in favor of plaintiff and against the defendants, canceling- the conveyance from P. A. Johnston to Mary M. Johnston and from Mary M. Johnston to W. H. Johnston.

Prom the action and judgment of the trial court, defendants brought this cause here for review, making three assignments of error;

(1) The trial court erred in overruling the demurrer of intervener W. H. Johnston and of defendant Mary M. Johnston to the evidence of plaintiff.

*47 (2) Tlie trial court ened in basing bis judgment on erroneous presumptions of fraud as expressed in bis statement from tbe bench found on pages 200 and 210 of case-made.

(3) The trial court erred in rendering judgment against tbe defendants and intervener contrary to the verdict and findings of tbe jury and against tbe great weight of the testimony, and in overruling motions for a new trial.

Tbe court in tbe journal entry of judgment (C.-M. 211) found that at tbe time P. A. Johnston conveyed said described real estate to bis wife Mary M. Johnston, tbe said conveyance was wholly without consideration : that tbe same was made for the express purpose of hindering, defrauding, and delaying creditors, especially the State Bank of Commerce of Gate, Okla,, plaintiff.

Tlie court further found that on or about the loth day of February, 1923, the defendants P. A. Johnston and Mary M. Johnston executed a deed of conveyance to the intervener, W. H. Johnston, to the lands in controversy and the said deed ,of conveyance was recorded in the office of the county clerk of Harper county, Okla., on March 6. 1923, and subsequent to the levy in attachment herein. The court further found that the deed of conveyance from P. A. Johnston and wife, Mary M. Johnston, to W. H Johnston was not made in good faith by the parties thereto, but that the same was made for the express purpose of hindering, delaying, and defrauding the creditors of P. A. Johnston, and especially to hinder delay, and defraud this plaintiff, the State Bank of Commerce of Gate, Okla.. and that the intervener, TV. IT. Johnston, has never been and is not now in possession of the lands conveyed to him by the defendants P. A. Johnston and Mary M. Johnston, and that the intervener. W. IT. Johnston, is not a purchaser of said lands in good faith for value; that W. H. Johnston received said deed of conveyance from P. A. Johnston and Mary M. Johnston with notice of the fraudulent intent of P. A. Johnston and Mary M. Johnston by said deed of conveyance to hinder, delay, and defraud creditors, and especially this plaintiff.

The court further found that on this date the intervener, W. H. Johnston, is indebted to the defendants Mary M. Johnston and P. A. Johnston upon the purchase price of said lands in the sum of $9,000 and that the same is unpaid and that the attachment lien of this plaintiff upon the lands is prior and superior to the rights and claims of the intervener, W. H. Johnston, thereto.

This being a suit in equity, this court will not disturb the finding of the trial court unless clearly against the weight of the evidence. The note sued on herein was dated January 7, 1922, due April 7, 1922, and the deed by P. A. Johnston to Mary M. Johnston was dated August 18, 1922, after said note became due.

The trial court further found that this deed was made without a fair consideration.

Defendant P. A. Johnston testified as follows :

“I had used some of her money and had been helping the children and my health was' failing, from four years ago, and I am still under the doctor’s care, and we decided that she should have something in her own name.
“Q. How much did you owe your wife when you made this deed?
“A. It would be hard to tell. She worked over 30 years accumulating this property and I used $500 of her father’s estate about 17 years ago.”

He also testified that he never gave his wife a note for the $500, and there was no expressed agreement to repay the same. He testified further that after his children had married he had helped them.

Were the services of the wife sufficient consideration for the deed from P. A. Johnston to Mary M. Johnston? We think not. The wife being a member of the family, her services are supposed to be gratuitously rendered. Was the alleged loan of $500 from Mary M. Johnston to P. A. Johnston sufficient to constitute a consideration for the deed in question against attaching creditors? The evidence disclosed that this $500 was paid to P. A. Johnston 17 years ago. There was no agreement to repay it, no note given, and we are of the opinion that the same was insufficient as a consideration for the deed in question. Carr v.

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Related

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1941 OK 159 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1941)
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Bluebook (online)
1927 OK 417, 263 P. 123, 129 Okla. 46, 1927 Okla. LEXIS 499, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/johnston-v-state-bank-of-commerce-okla-1927.