McMann v. H. F. Wilcox Oil & Gas Co.

1926 OK 702, 250 P. 780, 121 Okla. 167, 1926 Okla. LEXIS 93
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedSeptember 14, 1926
Docket17115
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 1926 OK 702 (McMann v. H. F. Wilcox Oil & Gas 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
McMann v. H. F. Wilcox Oil & Gas Co., 1926 OK 702, 250 P. 780, 121 Okla. 167, 1926 Okla. LEXIS 93 (Okla. 1926).

Opinion

BRANSON, Y. CL J.

T. F. McMann is the plaintiff in error herein, and W. F. Wilcox Oil & Gas Company is the defendant in error. They occupy here the same relative positions as in the trial court; that is to say, the said T. F. McMann appeals from his failure to obtain a judgment which he sought against the defendant in error. They are referred to as plaintiff and defendant. The plaintiff sought .a recovery against the defendant in the sum of $3,600. The essential averments of the pleadings are admitted in the stipulated lacts, the substance of which is necessary to an understanding of the real point in controversy.

“In 1922, one Ossenbeck and the Ossie Oil Company assigned an oil and gas lease in Noble county to the defendant, for which the defendant was to pay the assignors $3,-600 upon the completion of a well to be drilled by the said assignors. The amount to become due, to wit, $3,600, was duly assigned, to the plaintiff. The contract depth of the well was reached January 4, lu25. The said assignment of the amount to become due upon the completion of -the well was made February 6, 1924. The defendant was not notified by the plaintiff that he was the assignee of the amount to become due to the said Ossenbeck and the Ossie Oil Company until January 16, 1925. Without notice that the plaintiff was the owner of the amount to become due, the defendant, on the 10th day of January, 1925, purchased from the Central National Bank of Tulsa, Okla., a promissory note executed by the said Ossenbeck and the Ossie Oil Company in the sum of $4,000, on which $1,000 had been paid, leaving a balance due of $3,000, which note did not mature or become due until the 17th day of January, 1925.”

Without quoting further the substance, of the stipulation, we think it sufficeth to stale that there is no dispute that the note was assigned by the bank to the defendant before its maturity and for value; that the amount due or the note was $3,000, with interest from its maturity; that the well was drilled to the agreed depth, and that thereupon the said agreed price for the assignment of the lease was due; that the assignment to T. F. McMann was made February 6, 1924, but that no notice of his owning the same was served upon the defendant until the 16th day of January, 1925. T. F. McMann demanded payment, which was refused. The judgment of the trial court allowed the defendant to set off the amount of the note against the $3,600, from which judgment the plaintiff appeals and his principal assignment (and the oniv one we will consider here) is that the trial court erred in not giving the plaintiff judgment for the full amount and in allowing an offset to the amount of the note owned by the defendant. We deem it important to tabulate certain dates:

The defendant became liable for the $3,600 on the 4th day of January, 1925 (the date of the completion of the well).

The right of Ossenbeck and the Ossie Oil Company to receive the $3,600 had been as *168 signed by them to the plaintiff February 6, 1924.

The. defendant knew nothing of this assignment till January 1ft, 1925.

The defendant became the owner of the note the 10th day of January, 1925.

It will thus be seen that at the time the notice was given to the defendant that the plaintiff was the owner of the amount of money due, the defendant was the owner of the note which it had purchased from the bank, and the question is as stated by the plaintiff:

“Can defendant set oif against an assignee of an executory contract of the defendant with the assignor a claim independent of the executory contract which the defendant purchased from some other creditor of the assignor subsequent to the assignment of the plaintiff or assignee who performs the execu-tory contract?”

In other words, as a matter of law, was the judgment of the trial court correct when it offset the $3,600 to the amount of the note, since the right to the $3,600 was vested in the plaintiff February 6, 1924, and the defendant did not become the owner of the note until the 10th day of January, 1925, and the defendant received notice of the plaintiff’s ownership of the claim January 16, 1925, and the note did not mature until the 17th day of January, 1925? The defendant concedes in its brief that there is no decision from this court on this specific question. The plaintiff asserts that the proper construction of section 210, in conjunction with sections 209 and 279, C. O. S. 1921, controls to work a reversal of the judgment of the trial court. Said section provides:

“In the case of an assignment of a thing in action, the action of the assignee shall be without prejudice to any set-off or other defense now allowed; but this section shall not' app’y to negotiable bonds, promissory notes, or bills of exchange, transferred in good faith and upon good consideration, before due.”

In support oT his contention he cites Pome-roy’s Code Remedies (4th Ed.) sections 82, 84, 91. and 92. especially the closing part of section 91, which is:

“If. however, the assignment is made before the opposing demand becomes mature, and the latter does not thus become actually due and payable until after the transfer, the debtor’s right of set-off is destroyed by the mere fact of the assignment, and no notice thereof to him is' necessary to produce that effect.” Fuller v. Steiglitz (Ohio) 22 Am. Rep. 312; Myers v. Davis, 22 N. Y. 489; Martin v. Kunzmuller, 37 N. Y. 396.

He further cites the case of Stadler v. First National Bank (Mont.) 56 Pac. 111.

Beginning on page 30, plaintiff further cites: Michigan Savings Bank v. Miller, 96 N. Y. S. 568; Golden v. Paskir, 200 N. Y. S. 123; Collens v. Phillipsborn, 205 N. Y. S. 210; Cosmopolitan Trust Co. v. Rosenbush (Mass.) 131 N. E. 858.

On the other hand, defendant cites numerous cases to the effect that the ownership of the claim by the plaintiff availed him nothing as against an offset of a claim owned by the defendant against the plaintiff’s assignor acquired prior to the date of the notice given defendant of the ownership of the claim by the plaintiff. Some of these cases are as follows: Miller v. Kreiter, 76 Pa. 78; Rayburn v. Hurd, 20 Ore. 229; Smith v. Warner, 16 Mich. 390; McCabe v. Gray, 20 Cal. 510; Baxter v. Little (Mass.) 39 Am. Dec. 707; First National Bank v. Nye County (Nev.) 145 Pac. 932, and cases therein cited; First National Bank v. Lewis (Colo.) 139 Pac. 1102; Gaullagher v. Caldwell (Pa.) 60 Am. Dec. 85; Clark v. Sullivan (N. D.) 55 N. W. 733.

After citing this and numerous other cases, the defendant in its brief then states (page 27) :

“In the case of an assignment of a thing in action, the action of the assignee snail be without prejudice to any set-off or other defense now allowed.”

Referring to the cases cited, the brief says:

“These decisions are all to the effect that such a statute (sec. 210, supra) must be construed in accordance with its express terms so as to allow the debtor, in an action by an assignee, to claim any set-off against the assignor, existing at the time notice of the assignment is given to the debtor. This brings us to the question to be decided in the present case: How must section 210. Compiled Oklahoma Statutes 1921, be construed? * * *”

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Bluebook (online)
1926 OK 702, 250 P. 780, 121 Okla. 167, 1926 Okla. LEXIS 93, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcmann-v-h-f-wilcox-oil-gas-co-okla-1926.