Kerfoot v. Neal

1934 OK 141, 31 P.2d 585, 168 Okla. 1, 1934 Okla. LEXIS 68
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedMarch 6, 1934
Docket20791
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 1934 OK 141 (Kerfoot v. Neal) 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
Kerfoot v. Neal, 1934 OK 141, 31 P.2d 585, 168 Okla. 1, 1934 Okla. LEXIS 68 (Okla. 1934).

Opinion

ANDREWS, J.

M. E. Neal, one of the defendants in error, commenced an action against C. W. Kerfoot, the Kiowa Lumber Company, Wallace Estill, B. Salyer, H. B. Jones, and others, by which he sought a judgment for an amount due him for labor performed in the construction of a dwelling house on the real estate involved in this action and for the foreclosure of a laborer’s lien on that real estate, together with the improvements thereon. The Kiowa Lumber Company, Wallace Estill, and others filed cross-petitions praying for the same kind 'of relief. The defendant C. W. Kerfoot denied all of the claims, and contended that if the claimants were entitled to any lien, it was on the improvements and not on the real estate. The trial court rendered a judgment against B. Salyer and H. B. Jones for the amount of each of the claims and against all of the defendants, establishing coequal liens for those amounts and ordering a foreclosure thereof against the real estate and the improvements. C. W. Kerfoot appealed to this court.

This controversy arose out of a contract between C. W. Kerfoot, B. Salyer, H. B. Jones, and the Kiowa Lumber Company, which the trial court found to be as follows :

“This contract made and entered into by and between C. W. Kerfoot, party of the first part, and B. Salyer and H. B. Jones, parties of the second part, witness: Said C. W. Kerfoot, party of the first part, sell to said Salyer and Jones, parties of the second part, the following described lots for sixty-five hundred dollars ($6,500) : Lots one to *2 four (1 to 4) inclusive, block three (3), three to six (3 to 6) inclusive, block twelve (12), three to eight (3 to 8) and eleven to sixteen (11 to 16) inclusive, in block seventeen (17), all these lots in Dexter Second addition, in the city of Shawnee.
'The conditions of this are as follows: That said Salyer and Jones are to build one (1) 6-room house and three (3) 5-room houses on lots one (1), two (2) three (3) and four (4) in block three (3) in Dexter Second addition to the city of Shawnee. The said Salyer and Jones are to buy all material for these four (4) houses from the Kiowa Lumber Company, a corporation, doing business in the city of Shawnee, Okla. The Kiowa Lumber Company agreeing to furnish the material for these houses on a competitive cash price and after these four (4) houses are completed, if the said Salyer and Jones are not able to borrow enough money to pay the said material bill, and at least two hundred fifty dollars ($250) on each lot, the said Kiowa Lumber Company herein agrees to carry these lumber bills on a first mortgage for twelve (12) months at eight per cent. (8%) interest. If, after these four houses are completed, a satisfactory mortgage is not arranged, or if there has not been a satisfactory sale on these four houses, the said Salyer and Jones may limit the purchase of these lots to the said four lots upon which these houses are built by paying ten dollars ($10) a front foot, or two thousand dollars ($2,000) for these said four lots. The payment may be made as follows : First mortgage to the Kiowa Lumber Company for all the building material, and the second mortgage to the said C. W. Kerfoot, for two thousand dollars ($2¿0po), the full purchase price of these lots, and. this closes the contract in full; but if there is a satisfactory arrangement made, then the said Salyer and Jones may take the full purchase as agreed above and the title is made to the said Salyer and Jones. The said Salyer and Jones are to furnish all the labor for building these houses, without pay, until said Kiowa Lumber Company is paid in full and said C. W. Kerfoot is paid as set out in the above paragraph, and are to relinquish all right to file all labor lien or to relinquish all right to have any of employees file labor lien on any of these houses.
“The said C. W. Kerfoot, pariy of the first part, hereby agrees to give one (1) abstract on all these lots showing good and sufficient title, and clear from any debt whatever, except taxes for nineteen hundred twenty-seven (1927) and thereafter.
“Should said Salyer and Jones be unable to make a loan for sufficient amount to pay said Kiowa Lumber Company material bill and contract to C. W. Kerfoot for one-half of lots, then if said Salyer and Jones would be able to make a first mortgage to some building and loan, company, or some individual loan company for enough money to pay said Kiowa Lumber Company bill, then C. W. Kerfoot would come in and take a second mortgage for the price of his real estate, subject to the first loan, made direct to any other loan company in place of the Kiowa Lumber Company for the actual material bills.
“Said O. W. Kerfoot herein agrees that said Salyer and Jones may take all of lots one (1), two (2), three (3) and four (4) block three (3), three (3), four (4), five (5) and six (6), block twelve (12), fifteen (15) and sixteen (16), block seventeen (17), all these in Dexter addition, for the total sum of five thousand dollars ($5,000) of'said Salyer and Jones may have privilege of taking lots three to eight (3 to S) and eleven to thirteen (11 to 13) inclusive, block seventeen (17), for the sum of ($1,500) fifteen hundred dollars.
“This contract drawn this 29th day of August, 1927. Each party to have a copy thereof.”

The trial court further found;

“* * * galyer and Jones were unable to negotiate a loan in sufficient amount to pay the material and labor bills on the said building, and that'they failed to negotiate any loan thereon for the reason that the property was incumbered by an oil and gas lease prior and superior to any rights they migbj acquire under their contract with Kerfoot.”

The findings are sustained by the evidence.

Herein the plaintiff in error contends that that contract is an executory contract for the sale of real estate, and that since he did not contract any of the indebtedness, the same could not constitute a lien upon tlie real estate; that the Kiowa Lumber Company waived its right to a lien by agreeing to accept a mortgage, and that the cross-petition of the Kiowa Lumber Company was premature in that the Kiowa Lumber Company had agreed to carry its claim for one year. It makes other contentions which are not supported by citation of authority, and which therefore are considered waived.

The contract in question is more than an executory contract for the sale of real estate. It is as well a contract by which the Kiowa Lumber Company was to furnish material for which it was to be paid (a) from the proceeds of the sale of the property to some person other than the parties to (he contract, (b) from money to be borrowed on the property by Salyer and Jones, or (c) by a note secured by a first mortgage due in twelve months. There is nothing therein *3 to indicate that the Kiowa Lumber Company was not to have pay for the material to be furnished by it or that the property was not to be liable for the payment thereof. C. W. Kerfoot was a party to that agreement. He cannot now be heard to say that the property as- well as the improvements constructed thereon are not liable for the payment of the amount due. the Kiowa Lumber Company. We held in Kerfoot v. Salyer, 146 Okla. 194, 293 P. 1033, that:

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Bluebook (online)
1934 OK 141, 31 P.2d 585, 168 Okla. 1, 1934 Okla. LEXIS 68, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kerfoot-v-neal-okla-1934.