Lawson v. Lawson

1951 OK 264, 236 P.2d 683, 205 Okla. 215, 1951 Okla. LEXIS 624
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedOctober 16, 1951
DocketNos. 34202, 34194
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 1951 OK 264 (Lawson v. Lawson) 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
Lawson v. Lawson, 1951 OK 264, 236 P.2d 683, 205 Okla. 215, 1951 Okla. LEXIS 624 (Okla. 1951).

Opinion

O’NEAL, J.

This is a divorce action. Both parties appeal by separate petition in error. These two appeals, being from the same judgment, were, by order of this court, consolidated under No. 34202.

In No. 34202 plaintiff, Rachel Crockett Lawson, appeals from that part of the decree' which awards Hiley Lawson judgment against her for $1,250, the purchase price of certain cows. Defendant, Hiley Lawson, appeals from that part of the decree which canceled a joint tenancy deed to 80 acres of land.

Plaintiff and defendant were married in Bentonville, Arkansas, on June 21, 1948. Of that marriage no children were born. At the date of the marriage plaintiff was about 49 years of age. She had been married once before. Her husband died and left her about $1,500 in insurance and property.

Defendant, Hiley Lawson, claimed to be 36 years old at the time of the marriage. He had been and was divorced from his first wife. He is the father of a married daughter 20 years of age and a son 18 years of age. Plaintiff and defendant lived together as man and wife until July 5, 1948, a period of 14 days. About one-half of that time the parties spent in quarrelling concerning their property rights. Defendant, Hiley Lawson, claimed a prenuptial contract to the effect that a short time before the marriage, while defendant was in St. Louis, Missouri, plaintiff wrote him a letter in which she promised defendant that if he would return from St. Louis and marry plaintiff she would buy him a farm, and that the parties would pool all of their properties into a common fund to be owned jointly by them. After the death of her first husband, plaintiff owned and operated a business in or near Pitcher, Oklahoma. In this business plaintiff acquired some $12,650 which she had on deposit in the American National Bank at Baxter Springs, Kansas, and the First National Bank in Joplin, Missouri, about $9,000 in government bonds and her business enterprise. She held a note signed by one Ben Able for $250 and other personal property, including a 1941 Chevrolet automobile. In all, plaintiff had about $28,000 in assets.

The parties became acquainted, about one and one-half years before the marriage. Defendant became acquainted with plaintiff by way of dropping into her place of business on the way to and from his work. Defendant owned a small house located on leased land in Commerce worth about $1,000 with household furniture worth about $450 or $500, a Chevrolet worth about $1,275, a few cows and hogs, and about $800 in cash.

About June 10, 1948, some eleven days before the marriage, plaintiff, Rachel Crockett Lawson, then Rachel Crockett, purchased the land here involved, consisting of 80 acres, and being the north half of the northwest quarter of section 12, township 27 north, range 23 east, in Ottawa county, Oklahoma, for which she paid the sum of $10,000 out of her own individual funds; title was taken in her name, Rachel [217]*217Crockett. Plaintiff bought household furniture and paid therefor the sum of $407.44. She advanced defendant money from time to time in the total sum of about $201. She paid for repairs on defendant’s truck $94.03, and also paid a repair bill on defendant’s son’s car, and bore all the household expenses.

Defendant bought seven hogs and 50 hens for which he paid $250 from his own funds. About a week before the marriage, defendant, Lawson, contracted to buy five cows and three calves. He agreed to pay therefore the sum of $1,250 and paid the sum of $200 in cash, leaving a balance of $1,050 unpaid. Plaintiff paid the balance of the purchase price of said cows, $1,050, by check drawn on her own personal bank account. Defendant asserts and testified that he repaid plaintiff said $1,050 in cash. Plaintiff denies this, and claims and testified that defendant did not pay her the $1,050, or any part thereof. The trial court allowed defendant judgment against plaintiff for this $1,250. It is from that part of the decree, plaintiff appeals.

The record shows that about July 1, 1948, some ten days after the marriage, defendant, Lawson, demanded that plaintiff make a joint tenancy deed conveying the 80 acres of land to plaintiff and defendant as joint tenants with right of survivorship. Plaintiff testified that defendant became angry with her and threatened to divorce her unless she complied with his demands. Plaintiff testified that for the purpose of averting trouble, and keeping her marriage intact, she caused a joint tenancy deed to be made and executed naming plaintiff and defendant as joint tenants. She testified that she executed this deed on July 1, 1948, at the abstract office of Nesbitt and Nesbitt, and left it there to be signed by defendant with directions to hold same until she called for it. This was denied by the clerk who made out the deed, who testified that plaintiff directed her to have the deed recorded after it was signed by defendant. Anyway, the deed was placed of record before plaintiff called for it, and she was unable to get the deed returned to her.

Plaintiff testified that thereafter defendant demanded that plaintiff make out her bonds to them jointly; that she put her bank account in their names jointly, and that she destroy a will which she had formerly executed wherein her isister was beneficiary. Plaintiff refused, and testified that defendant called her all manner of vulgar names and applied vile and opprobrious epithets to her. She testified that defendant refused to sleep with her and demanded that she write him a check for $5,000 and gave her 20 minutes in which to do so or he would divorce her. This violent quarrelling continued until July 7, 1948 when plaintiff Rachel Crockett Lawson went to Miami and filed this divorce action.

The trial court issued a restraining order against defendant. Later, August 6, 1948, the court entered an order directing that defendant, Hiley Lawson, remove his property from the farm. Thereupon defendant and his mother went to the farm to remove his property, and while there another violent quarrel developed in which defendant cursed and abused plaintiff and threatened her with bodily harm.

At the trial some 400 or 500 pages of testimony was introduced. At the close of the evidence the trial court made extended findings of fact and conclusions of law, among which was finding of fact No. 4, as follows:

“The Court finds that there was no understanding and agreement wherein there was a meeting of minds upon the proposition that in (sic) condition that defendant would marry plaintiff these property discussions or plans would be carried out. That such discussions or promises were not made in consideration of marriage and that the marriage was not conditioned upon the promises. That all the discussions were to (sic) indefinite and uncertain to rise to the requirements of an agreement as well as not being intended as such [218]*218based upon a consideration of marriage.”

The court further found (finding No. 10) that defendant’s conduct was reprehensible, shocking to plaintiff, and amounted to extreme cruelty. The trial court further found:

“The Court finds that the defendant was guilty of durress (sic), deceit and undue influence towards the plaintiff in that he intended to first get the land deeded to him, then when that was done to get her money deposited in a joint account with him so he could check upon the same, her bonds reissued naming him as joint owner there on for his selfish, financial benefit without the intent to be a faithful husband and carry out the marriage obligations as hereinbefore stated.

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Related

Freeman v. Freeman
1977 OK 110 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1977)

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Bluebook (online)
1951 OK 264, 236 P.2d 683, 205 Okla. 215, 1951 Okla. LEXIS 624, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lawson-v-lawson-okla-1951.