Mentzer v. Miller

1936 OK 120, 54 P.2d 1038, 176 Okla. 1, 1936 Okla. LEXIS 78
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedFebruary 4, 1936
DocketNo. 25671.
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 1936 OK 120 (Mentzer 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
Mentzer v. Miller, 1936 OK 120, 54 P.2d 1038, 176 Okla. 1, 1936 Okla. LEXIS 78 (Okla. 1936).

Opinion

WELCH, J.

This is an appeal by Emma Mentzer, hereinafter referred to as movant, from an order of the district court of Garfield county vacating an order confirming a sale of real estate. May Wheeler Miller, defendant in error, will be hereinafter re? ferred to as defendant.

The issues involved herein arise out of extended litigation, including two prior appeals to this court. We will review only such portions of said litigation as are necessary to state the issues presented on this appeal.

The Gray Eagle Oil Company had recovered-a certain money judgment against May Wheeler Miller. Execution was levied on an undivided one-seventh interest in certain real estate. The property was sold at sheriff’s sa’e to Emma Mentzer, movant herein, and the sale was confirmed by order of the district court, which rendered the judgment. Thereafter May Wheeler Miller filed motion to set aside sale confirmation. That motion alleged various irregularities in the sale proceedings, and alleged that the property was sold for a grossly inadequate bid, in that the sale price was $735, while the actual value was $10,000. Included in that motion was a tender and offer to pay the amount of the judgment, interest, and costs, the original amount of the judgment being $524.6’0. Defendant’s motion to set aside confirmation of sale was denied, the court rejecting defendant's offer of proof as to the value of the land. Upon that motion it was defendant’s theory and contention that the irregularities prevented a fair sale, resulting in the sale upon the grossly inadequate bid. That she had sufficient excuse, as alleged in detail in her motion, for not having appeared and objected at or prior to the confirmation of the sale, and was therefore entitled to have her motion sustained, and she appealed to this court from the adverse order.

That order of the trial court was reversed *2 in Miller v. Gray Eagle Oil & Gas Co., 164 Okla. 259, 23 P. (2d) 657. Therein it was held that on account of the circumstances shown, the defendant’s motion to set aside confirmation was not too lat?, and defendant was entitled to have it heard and passed upon, and that the trial court erred in rejecting the proof offered by the defendant to support her «Legation as to value of the land. In that decision this court adhered to the rule •that gross inadequacy of the bid, together with slight irregularities, might constitute grounds for denying confirmation, or vacating confirmation on motion and tender where justifiable excuse and cause existed for presenting the attack after confirmation, it being expressly noticed that there existed errors in the sale proceedings as Ihen shown by the record there presented; and the order or judgment refusing to set aside confirmation was reversed and the cause was remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with the views of this court expressed in that opinion.

The mandate was spread of record, and upon further hearing on December 22, 1933, the trial court vacated the confirmation of sale, and from that order or judgment the movant prosecutes this appeal.

A determination of the questions now presented calls upon this court more to exercise its superintending control than to review errors of law. This is true because the trial court was led into error due to a misunderstanding as to the effect of the mandate and a misconstruction of the opinion on the former appeal above cited, and the last-mentioned order must now be reversed and the cause again remanded for a proper proceeding on defendant’s motion to vacate confirmation of the sale.

The former appeal mandate was spread of record in the trial court on July 1, 1933. It Was then the duty of the trial court to again hear defendant’s motion to vacate confirmation of the sale; to receive defendant’s evidence as to value which had been theretofore erroneously excluded; to consider that evidence together with all evidence offered as to alleged irregularities in the sale, and the tender, and then to pass upon the motion in keeping with the rules applicable to such a ¡proceeding. However, there had been changes in the attorneys for the parties and in the personnel of the trial court, and considerable confusion existed as to the proper proceedings to be had. Several pages of the ¡record present extended colloquy between court and counsel in an effort to proceed in a manner agreeable to all as the proper manner to proceed under the mandate. The trial court then passed' the matter to August 31, 1933, for further hearing.

At that hearing the court heard oral evidence and examined documentary evidence in support of and contrary to the defendant’s allegations of irregularities in the sheriff’s sale proceedings. While the evidence at the first hearing preceding the former appeal tended strongly to show serious irregularities in the sheriff’s sale as noticed in our opinion on the former appeal, the evidence presented at the August 31, 1933, hearing tended strongly to show that there were no such irregularities, when the true facts were fully analyzed. At any rate, the trial court then made its order denying the motion to vacate confirmation, and ordered the sale again confirmed. However, at that hearing there was no evidence offered as to the value of the land, the defendant then being absent from the state.

The record is not clear as to just why no such evidence was presented, that is, whether it was because the court was of the view that it was improper and unnecessary on the theory that this question was no longer in the case under the mandate, or because the defendant abandoned that portion of her motion to vacate. Hut from a consideration of all of the record in the light of the subsequent transactions, we are led to conclude the defendant never intended to abandon this contention, and did not in fact do so.

Immediately after that hearing the defendant filed motions for new trial and for judgment on the mandate, and those matters came on for hearing on December 22, 1933. There tl e defendant insisted that under the former appeal mandate she was entitled to have the sheriff's sale vacated upon paying in the money according to her former tender, without any evidence as to value of the land. There was a statement that defendant was ready 1o present such evidence, but strong insistence that the same should not be required by the court. No evidence whatsoever was offered at that hearing. The trial c-iurt evidently acceded to the theory that under the opinion and mandate of the former appeal, the defendant was entitled to have the sale vacated merely upon paying in her fender in money. That money was paid into court, whereupon the court vacated its order of August 31, 1933, and vacated the confirmation of sale, and this appeal by mo-vant followed.

No authority is shown to sustain the view that after sheriff’s sale of real estate on execution, the former owner and judgment debt- *3 or may have the sale vacated merely upon payment of the original judgment and costs. To so hold would be to create or extend a redemption period without any authority. The former opinion cited does not so hold.

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Bluebook (online)
1936 OK 120, 54 P.2d 1038, 176 Okla. 1, 1936 Okla. LEXIS 78, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mentzer-v-miller-okla-1936.