McNaughton v. Lewis

1926 OK 993, 254 P. 972, 124 Okla. 181, 1926 Okla. LEXIS 608
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedDecember 14, 1926
Docket17066
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 1926 OK 993 (McNaughton v. Lewis) 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
McNaughton v. Lewis, 1926 OK 993, 254 P. 972, 124 Okla. 181, 1926 Okla. LEXIS 608 (Okla. 1926).

Opinion

Opinion by

STEPHENSON, C.

The plaintiff commenced her action against the defendants to quiet title to real estate, and for rents and royalties received toy the defendants from the land. The trial of the cause resulted in judgment for the plaintiff. The defendants have perfected their appeal to this court, and assign several of the ruling- of the court in the trial of the action as cause for reversal.

The land involved in this action consists of 50 acres of the allotment of the plaintiff,. situated near the town • of Graham, in Carter county. The father of the plaintiff, who was her guardian, sold the land through a probate sale proceeding in the county court of Carter county to O. T. Bar-inger, for $400, in June, 1912. The purchaser sold and conveyed the land by his warranty deed- to W. R. Hurley for $650 in December, 1912; W. R. Hurley sold and *182 conveyed a two-thirds interest in tlie land by his warranty deed to W. H. Irwin and 1<\ D. McNaughton, two of the plaintiffs in error, for $434, in January, 1913; W. H, Irwin, in July, 1913, sold and conveyed by his warranty deed an undivided interest in the land to David A. Shepherd and Telfair Hodgson, the other two plaintiffs in error.

The land was rough, rocky, rolling land suited for pasturage, and had no oil value until the discovery of oil in the vicinity| of the land in the year 1916. The plaintiffs in error leased the land for oil and gas development, and have since realized about $10,000 in bonuses and royalties. The plaintiff married in the year 1920, and commenced this action in August, 1924, a few months within the three-year statute of lirni-lation, after attaining her majority, for bringing an action to set aside and cancel tlie probate sale proceedings for the sale of her land.

The plaintiff alleged, for her cause of action, that the guardian and O. T. Baringer fraudulently procured the sale of her land through the county court of Carter county, lint the petition does not point out the acts of the parties relied on as fraud; (b) that the land was sold at private sale for less than 90% of its appraised value; (c) that tlie guardian used $100 of the purchase price to procure the relinquishment of a lease on the property executed and delivered by the guardian to A. A. Davis.

The defendants answered that the county court appointed appraisers ón May 18¡. 1912, who duly qualified for, performed the service and made sworn return of the appraisement to the county court on May 18th for $400; that the guardian made return of sale to the court on May 18th, showing C. T. Baringer as tlie purchaser of the land on the latter date, for the sum of $400.

The plaintiff replied that the county oourt duly appointed appraisers, who made and returned their appraisement of the land to the county court on March 19, 1918, for the sum of $550, that the appraisement had not been set aside by the court at the time of the second appraisement and sale of the land for $400. It is the further contention of the plaintiff that the record shows that the appraisers qualified in the city of Ard-more on the date that the second appraisement was returned; that the land was situated 30 miles from the place, and that the Appraisers could not have gone out onto the land toy "the usual means of travel at that time, to view the la.nd, before' they made their return.

J. B. Champion, a member of the Ardmore bar, testified that he acted as attorney for the guardian, and that it was impossible to procure a bid of 90% of the first appraisement of $550, on account of the land being-appraised above its value.

Section 1280, O. O. S. 1921, reads in the following language:

“No sale of real estate at private sale shall be confirmed by the court unless the stmi offered is at least 90% of the appraised value thereof, nor unless such real estate has been appraised, within one year of tlie time of such sale. If it has not been so appraised, or if the court is satisfied that the appraisement is too high or too low, appraisers must be appointed, and they must make an appraisement thereof in the same manner as in case of an original ap-praisement of an estate. This may be done at any time, before the sale or the confirmation thereof.”

The statute provides that if an appraisement is made too high or too low in the first instance, the court shall appoint new appraisers, who are required to reappraise the property, either before the sale, or before the confirmation.

The witness testified that he applied to the court to set aside the first appraisement on account of the appraisement being above the value of the land; that the court set aside the appraisement and appointed the second appraisers, who made and returned the second appraisement for $400 on May 18th.

The plaintiff states that the order settting aside the first appraisement was insufficient for the reason that it referred to the ap-praisement as having been made in April, 1912, whereas the appraisement, in fact, was made in March.

There had been but one appraisement of the land, and the order, necessarily, would be considered as relating to the ap-praisement made in March, even though the order had not referred to the date of the appraisement. The fact that the order referred- to the appraisement as having been made in April did not result in causing uncertainty as to the appraisement to which it related; the order would have been sufficient if it had not referred to the date on which the appraisement was made.

The witness testified that he went out on the streets and found three parties who lived near the land and were familiar with the land and its.value;, that he made appln cation to the court to appoint them for making 'the ' reáppraísement. The witness fur- *183 tlier. .testified that the parties reappraised the land on their knowledge and information of the land, and its value, and did not go out and review the land after they were appointed; the return of appraisement is regular on its face in every respect. A party who operated a store at Fox, near the land at the time the second ajjipraisement was made, testified, in the trial of this cause, that he was familiar with the tract of land, and knew the market value of the land in the vicinity of the land involved in this suit at the time of the sale, and that the reasonable market value of land in the same section was from $7 to $12 per acre. The witness further testified that the guardian requested him to bid on the land in, question at the sale. The most that the plaintiff can contend for is that the attorney for the guardian,, the appraisers, and the county court misconceived the duty of the appraisers in respect to going out to view the land after their appointment. If the law required the appraisers to go out and view the land, under the circumstances in this cas.o the failure was an error committed by the appraisers in the course of the performance of their duty; the acceptance of the appraisement, and its use by the county court, was an error, if any, committed in the course of the exercise of acquired jurisdiction over the subject-matter. If it was wrong, it was an error of law committed by the court in reaching its judgment confirming the sale for $400 after it had acquired jurisdiction over the subject-matter.

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McNaughton v. Lewis
1927 OK 196 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1927)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1926 OK 993, 254 P. 972, 124 Okla. 181, 1926 Okla. LEXIS 608, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcnaughton-v-lewis-okla-1926.