Kawfield Oil Co. v. Illinois Refining Co.

1934 OK 448, 35 P.2d 961, 169 Okla. 75, 1934 Okla. LEXIS 246
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedSeptember 18, 1934
Docket21825
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 1934 OK 448 (Kawfield Oil Co. v. Illinois Refining Co.) 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
Kawfield Oil Co. v. Illinois Refining Co., 1934 OK 448, 35 P.2d 961, 169 Okla. 75, 1934 Okla. LEXIS 246 (Okla. 1934).

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

Plaintiff in error was defendant in the trial court, and the defendant in error was plaintiff there. The parties will be referred to herein as they appeared in the trial court. In that court on the 17th day of April, 1926, the plaintiff commenced the action to recover approximately $154,000 alleged to be due it from the defendant, through the joint ownership and operation *76 of certain oil properties in Creek county, Okla. Plaintiff alleged that the amount owing could not be determined without an accounting, and that such indebtedness arose through expenses incurred in the operation of the properties by the defendant; that the defendant had not for a long time made any adjustments with the plaintiff; that defendant had incurred much indebtedness; had not paid legal and proper claims; had been involved in much litigation, and that the joint affairs of the companies were in such a condition that it was necessary to have an accounting, and that a receiver be appointed to take charge of the properties. Upon proper application a receiver was appointed and took charge of the joint properties.

Prom time to time the receiver applied to the court for orders and instructions. Under these orders the receiver employed counsel, settled law actions, paid various and sundry claims and compromised differences. Every three months he made a report of his doings.

It was many months before the issues were made up in the case. The answer, when it was filed, set up that there was no amount owing the plaintiff, because the differences between the parties had been settled and adjusted by a contract entered into' between the plaintiff and defendant in August, 1923, whereby the defendant agreed to have its actual interest in the properties fixed at 3/23 thereof instead of 1/3 as its interest had been before that time, and that the plaintiff’s interest should be 20/23 instead of 2/3 as it had been, and in consideration of such agreement the indebtedness running from the defendant to the plaintiff should be satisfied. Later, an amendment to the answer raised a question of jurisdiction, by alleging that both parties were corporations of the state of Illinois, and that this action was an attempt to exercise visitorial powers over foreign corporations. The reply admitted the agreement set up in the answer, but asserted that the defendant had not performed under its terms, in that it had failed and refused to convey to plaintiff the interest in the property agreed upon; and denied the other material allegation. On the trial the court found for the defendant, but required that the defendant make conveyance of said interests to the plaintiff.

The judgment in the main action became final, but the controversy arises because of certain acts of the receiver and the refusal of the court to reconsider a report made by him and approved January 26, 1929. The receiver had made numerous reports to the court, and no exceptions had ever been filed to any of the reports, until the receiver filed a summary report of all his proceedings on January 26, 1929. In this report, among other things, he reported the employment of attorneys and the amount paid them; that in a certain transaction with T. B-. Slick he had entered into an agreement under order of the court to settle a law action which he had filed and modifying the manner and time of paying certain moneys owing by Slick to the plaintiff and defendant jointly; and asked that his compensation as receiver be fixed and allowed. This report was approved by the court on the day it was filed and the receiver was directed to close up other matters and make his final report within ten days. Defendant excepted to the order of the court. The final report was filed on February 4, 1929. On this date the defendant filed its motion to reconsider the report of the receiver filed and approved on January 26, 1929, but this motion was not presented to the court until July 14, 1930, when it was denied. Exception was taken and the appeal is taken from that order.

The plaintiff asks that the appeal be dismissed, and assigns as a reason that the motion is to reconsider a receiver’s report and does not ask that the order approving such report be vacated. However, the motion is broad enough, we think, to be considered by the court as an application to vacate the order and to reconsider the report. Certainly, that must have been the purpose of the motion. But is the order-approving the report a final order from which an appeal may be had? If that order is not a final order, then no appeal will lie from the action of the court in denying a motion to vacate it.

In Vann et al. v. Union Central Life Insurance Co. et al., 79 Okla. 17, 191 P. 175, our Supreme Court, having under consideration a case involving this question, held:

“An order of the court overruling a motion to vacate a judgment on the ground that it is void on its face is a final order, to reverse which a proceeding in error may be prosecuted in this court. •* * * To hold otherwise is to make the trial court the court of last resort in an attack on a judgment by a method expressly provided by statute for testing its validity. It is an order affecting a substantial right. It is not an interlecutory order. It is final. As *77 said by Lord Alverstone, C. J., speaking for the English Court of Appeals: •
“ ‘The test as to whether an order should be considered final or interlocutory is this: If the order finally disposes of the rights of the parties, it ought to be treated as final; if, on the other hand, further proceedings are necessitated, it ought to be treated as interlocutory.’ 2 Standard Proc. 166.”

And this court has consistently held that ‘•an order of the court overruling a motion to vacate a judgment * * * is a final order, to reverse which a proceeding in error may be prosecuted.” Likewise, an order overruling a motion to vacate a final order is a final order from which an appeal may be prosecuted. The order of the court approving the summary report of the receiver finally disposed of numerous rights of the parties in this litigation, involving the payment of attorney fees, settlement of the law action with T. B. Slick, and certain other matters complained of by the defendant. In these respects the order was final, and when the trial court, denied the motion to reconsider, that order itself became an appealable order. Taking this view of that proposition, we hold the motion to dismiss the appeal should be denied.

The next proposition is that the court did not have jurisdiction to appoint a receiver or to order an accounting or to entertain the action, for the reason that it involves the attempted exercise of visitorial powers over foreign corporations. It is asserted that, since both corporations were Illinois corporations, no action would lie except in the courts of that state, involving such visitation and supervision. The properties involved in this action were situated in Oklahoma, and it does not appear from any of the issues made in the case that there was any intention that there should be visitation in the sense complained of. This question, as we view it, is not properly in the case. This action is brought under the procedure provided in our statutes. Section 5441, C. O. S. 1921, provides:

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Bluebook (online)
1934 OK 448, 35 P.2d 961, 169 Okla. 75, 1934 Okla. LEXIS 246, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kawfield-oil-co-v-illinois-refining-co-okla-1934.