McBrayer v. Miller

1921 OK 319, 200 P. 988, 83 Okla. 179, 1921 Okla. LEXIS 335
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedSeptember 13, 1921
Docket10237
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 1921 OK 319 (McBrayer v. Miller) 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
McBrayer v. Miller, 1921 OK 319, 200 P. 988, 83 Okla. 179, 1921 Okla. LEXIS 335 (Okla. 1921).

Opinion

NICHOLSON, J.

The defendant in error, as plaintiff in the trial court commenced this action on October 2, 1917, against plaintiffs in error for an injunction enjoining and restraining Lee McBrayer from demanding or accepting any rents from the defendant Bud Willis, and from entering upon the premises in the petition described, and removing any of the crops therefrom, and enjoining the defendant Bud Willis from paying any rents on the land therein described for the year 1917 to the defendant Lee Mc-Brayer, and praying that said Bud Willis be required to pay the rents to the plaintiff. A temporary injunction was granted, which upon a final trial was made perpetual.

The petition specifically describes the premises in question, and alleges that tibe plaintiff became the owner thereof on the 22nd day of September, 1917, by purchase from F. E. Coss and wife, and that said F. E. Coss purchased the land from Laura E. Scribner, who secured judgment in the district court of Atoka county on the 14th day of November, 1916, against A.' C. Messick and Miary F. Messick, foreclosing all their interest in said lands, and further foreclosing the interests of any and all persons claiming by, through, or under said A. 0. Messick and ¡Mary F. Messick since the commencement of said action.

It was further alleged that at the time F. E. ¡Coss sold and conveyed said land to said plaintiff, he sold and assigned all his interest in the rents and profits from said land for the year 1917 to the plaintiff; that by* reason of said purchase of said premises and the assignment of the rents for the year 1917, the plaintiff became entitled to a one-fourth of the cotton and one.third of the other crops grown upon the premises for the year 1917, under (he provision of section 3802 of Rev. Laws 1910, wherein it is provided :

“The occupant of any land, without special contract, shall be liable for the rent to any person entitled thereto.”

It is further agreed that the defendant Bud Willis cultivated the land for the year 1917, without any written or verbal contract with the plaintiff; that he was not a tenant of said plaintiff, but under section 3802, supra, plaintiff, being the owner of the premises, was entitled to receive and recover from said Willis one-fourth of the cotton and one-third of the other crops after the same had been gathered. It was further alleged that McBrayer, after having been served with notice that the plaintiff was the owner of said land and that the rents for the year 1917 had been assigned to him, ¡was demanding that said rents and crops be delivered to him, and that each of said defendants had sold and disposed of a portion of said crops. It was further alleged on information and belief that said defendants were insolvent and neither of them possessed property above their exemption and liability; that the defendants would continue to sell and dispose of the crops and make it impossible for plaintiff to keep an actual account of the crops sold, and on account of the defendants’ insolvency it would be impossible to collect a judgment against them; that neither of said defendants had any right, title, or interest in any part of said land except the said Bud Willis, who was in possession thereof, and that neither of said defendants was a tenant of the plaintiff; that the plaintiff had no speedy and adequate remedy at law to prevent irreparable injury from being committed in selling *180 or disposing of said crops, and that a suit at law would involve a multiplicity of suits; that plaintiff could not procure a landlord’s lien and attachment for the reason that the relation of landlord and tenant did not exist between the plaintiff and defendants, and neither writ of attachment or replevin would lie.

To this petition the defendants filed answer in which they averred that during the summer of 1916 the defendant McBrayer rented the land in controversy for a cash consideration from A. C. Messiek for 'the years 1916 and 1917; that -said Messiek was in possession of said land; that he, Mc-Brayer. had no notice of plaintiff’s claim; that under and by virtue of said original contract from said Messiek said McBrayer entered into a verbal contract with the defendant Bud "Willis whereby said Bud Willis was to pay him a one-four'th of all cotton grown on said land, and the relation of landlord and tenant existed between said Lee McBrayer and said Willis during the year 1917, and that by reason of said relationship Willis was legally bound to pay to said Lee McBrayer a one-fourth of all cotton grown upon said premises. It was denied that the said Lee McBrayer was insolvent, and pleaded that he was worth the sum of $2,000, over and above his homestead exemptions and liabilities. It was further averred that said McBrayer had no notice of plaintiff’s claim at the time he rented said premises, but that plaintiff had full knowledge of McBrayer’s claims at the time he purchased said land, if he ever purchased the same. A reply was filed, and upon the trial the court granted the injunction as prayed for.

We have examined the record and are convinced that the court erred in granting the injunction. Section 3802, Rev. Laws 1910, provides:

“The occupant of any land, without special contract, shall be liable for the rent to any person entitled thereto.”

Section 3806, Rev. Laws. 1910, is as follows :

“Any rent due for farming land shall be a lien on the crop growing or made on the premises. Such lien may be enforced by action and attachment therein, as hereinafter provided.”

Section 3809, Rev. Laws 1910, reads:

“When any person who shall he liable to pay rent (whether the same be due or not, if it be due within one year thereafter, and whether the same be payable in money or other things) intends to remove, or is removing, or has, within thirty days, removed, his property, or his crops, or any part thereof, from the leased premises, the person to-whom the rent is owing may commence an action, and upon making an affidavit stating the amount of rent for which such person is liable, and one or more of the above facts, and executing an undertaking as in other cases, an attachment shall issue in. the same manner and with the like effect as is provided by law in other actions.”

In Earl v. Tyler et al., 36 Okla. 179, 128 Pac. 269, this court held that in an action brought by the owner of real estate entitled to the possession thereof against the occupant to recover for the use and occupation of the land occupied, it was not necessary to allege and prove the relation of landlord and tenant, but that the owner might maintain an action for the rents against the occupant, and that the attachment provided for by section 3809, supra, would lie. In construing the sections of the statute above referred to, the court in the body of the opinion uses the following language:

“Section 4094, Comp.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1921 OK 319, 200 P. 988, 83 Okla. 179, 1921 Okla. LEXIS 335, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcbrayer-v-miller-okla-1921.