Markley v. Ott

1943 OK 22, 138 P.2d 67, 192 Okla. 550, 1943 Okla. LEXIS 234
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJune 1, 1943
DocketNo. 30897.
StatusPublished

This text of 1943 OK 22 (Markley v. Ott) 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
Markley v. Ott, 1943 OK 22, 138 P.2d 67, 192 Okla. 550, 1943 Okla. LEXIS 234 (Okla. 1943).

Opinion

GIBSON, V. C. J.

This is an action instituted in justice court by a landlord against his farm tenant to recover cash rental and to enforce by attachment the statutory lien upon the crops grown on the leased premises (41 O. S. 1941 §§ 23, 27, 28, 29). The plaintiff below appeals from an order of the district court discharging the attachment and denying his motion to dismiss the appeal from justice court.

By agreement of the parties the crops so attached were sold and the proceeds deposited in bank to await determination of the action.

Plaintiff says the appeal bond was insufficient to confer jurisdiction of the proceedings on the district court, or, in event the bond was sufficient, and the court acquired jurisdiction of defendant’s appeal from justice court, the district court erred in dissolving the attachment..

That portion of the bond which is said to be so indefinite and uncertain as to render it insufficient to transfer jurisdiction from the justice to the district court, reads as follows: “Know all Men by These Presents:

“That whereas, we, —_— as principal and__________and-_ as sureties, are held and firmly bound unto ---------, in the penal sum of $350.00 which sum, well and truly to be paid, we do bind ourselves and each of us, our heirs, executors and administrators, jointly and severally, by these presents.
“The condition of the above obligation is such that, Whereas, on the 29th day of December 1941 193 the above named _________obtained a judgment against the above named principal before Ernest W. Thomas, Justice of the Peace in and for McAlester Township said County and State, for the sum of $122.20 and costs of said suit taxed at $52.30 and said principal intends to appeal from such judgment to the District Court of said County.”

The last paragraph contained the usual and customary conditions under which the bond should become inoperative or remain in full force and effect. It was signed by defendant as principal and by E. A. Johnson and Agnes Carter as sureties, and was approved by the justice as required by the statute. The caption contained the name of the plaintiff and the name of defendant, and fully identified the justice court and the action.

Plaintiff moved to dismiss the appeal, charging that the bond was void for uncertainty and constituted no bond at all. But the trial court overruled the motion and, on application of defendant, granted him five days to amend the • bond or to make a new one, to be approved by the clerk and certified back to the justice court (39 O. S. 1941 § 249). An entirely new bond was filed and approved in the time allowed. Thereupon the court dissolved the attachment and ordered the funds theretofore deposited in the bank released to the defendant.

On appeal from justice court in cases of this character, the statute requires an undertaking to be executed to the adverse party with at least one sufficient surety to be approved by the justice, and to contain certain conditions as defined in the statute to be performed by the principal and sureties. 39 O. S. 1941 § 242.

The bond is essential to the jurisdiction of the appellate court to hear and determine the cause. Price v. Price, 73 Okla. 178, 175 P. 343. But a bond which is so indefinite and uncertain on its face as to render its purpose and the obligation thereof obscure is insufficient to transfer jurisdiction, and an amendment thereof pursuant to section 249, supra, should not be allowed. Washburn v. Delaney, 30 Okla. 789, 120 P. 620; Guess v. Hogue, 186 Okla. 357, 98 P. 2d 598.

Plaintiff relies on those cases for a reversal of the present judgment, with directions to dismiss the appeal.

*552 Defendant says that the court’s order authorizing a new bond was entirely proper under the provisions of said section 249.

That section authorizes the court, on motion, “to order a change or renewal of such undertaking,” “when the surety in the undertaking shall be insufficient, or such undertaking may be insufficient in form or amount.” In Federal Discount Co. v. Clowdus, 50 Okla. 154, 150 P. 1104, the court, in construing the statute with reference to the court’s duty in such case, held as follows:

“Where an appeal bond is attacked because of defects therein, the court should look first to the bond itself, and, if the intention of the parties and the purpose of the bond is manifest from the instrument itself, the court should allow an amendment, by rejecting insensible words, and supplying accidental omissions, so as to give effect to the manifest intention of the instrument, and should dismiss the appeal only when such defects render the bond so vague that its intention and purpose cannot be gathered from the instrument itself.”

That has long been the rule in this state. Graokla Gas Co. v. Chatham, 189 Okla. 697, 119 P. 2d 848.

Plaintiff says the bond fails to state the names of the principal, the surety, and the obligee, and does not show who obtained a judgment; that such defects are not mere irregularities, but are fatal omissions, leaving the purported bond without force or effect and the trial court without jurisdiction.

But it is not difficult to determine all those matters from the face of the bond. The caption thereof clearly identified the plaintiff and defendant, or the obligee and obligor, and the signatures disclosed the principal and sureties. The caption identified the justice court and the number of the cause, and in the body of the instrument the date of the judgment and the amount thereof clearly appeared. The trial court readily identified it as the appeal bond in the particular case, and sufficiently clear in its provisions to constitute a legal and binding obligation. In view of those circumstances the court was authorized by said section 249 to permit defendant to file a new bond in lieu of the irregular one. The original undertaking was therefore sufficient to vest jurisdiction of the appeal in the district court.

In an effort to sustain the court’s action in dissolving the attachment prior to trial de novo, defendant cites the general rule that where the judgment of a justice of the peace is duly appealed to district court, any attachment formerly levied in the action is thereby discharged. The rule relied on is expressed in Nation v. Savely, 66 Okla. 229, 168 P. 805, as follows:

“Where a case in a justice’s court, in which an attachment has been issued and levied upon the property of a defendant, is taken by the defendant on appeal to the district court, the attachment is thereby discharged, and the attached property should be delivered to the defendant.”

That holding is based entirely on the provisions of 39 O. S. 1941 § 367 (sec. 5390, R. L. 1910), which permits the defendant to execute an undertaking to plaintiff, before judgment, in certain form and particulars, to be approved by the justice, whereupon “the attachment in such action shall be discharged, and restitution made of any property taken under it, or the proceeds thereof.”

While that section refers to bonds executed after levy of attachment and prior to judgment, the court in the last-cited case applied it to appeal bonds.

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Related

Price v. Price
1918 OK 566 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1918)
Federal Discount Co. v. Clowdus
150 P. 1104 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1915)
Wilmering v. Hinkle
1916 OK 777 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1916)
Guess v. Hogue
1940 OK 9 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1940)
Graokla Gas Co. v. Chatham
1941 OK 362 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1941)
Nation v. Savely
1917 OK 517 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1917)
Washburn v. Delaney
1911 OK 522 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1911)
Scully v. Porter
46 P. 313 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 1896)

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Bluebook (online)
1943 OK 22, 138 P.2d 67, 192 Okla. 550, 1943 Okla. LEXIS 234, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/markley-v-ott-okla-1943.