Myers v. Garland

1926 OK 935, 251 P. 34, 122 Okla. 71, 1926 Okla. LEXIS 199
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedNovember 23, 1926
Docket17811
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 1926 OK 935 (Myers v. Garland) 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
Myers v. Garland, 1926 OK 935, 251 P. 34, 122 Okla. 71, 1926 Okla. LEXIS 199 (Okla. 1926).

Opinion

BRANSON, V. C. J.

Error is- prosecuted herein from the district court of Seminole county. The plaintiff in error is one F. F. Myers; the defendants in error are R. F. Garland, the Sinclair Crude Oil Purchasing Company, a corporation, Oklahoma Pipe Line Company, a corporation, Gulf Pipe Line Company, a corporation, Carter Oil Company. a corporation, and Prairie Oil & Gasi Company, a corporation. Judgment was rendered against the plaintiff. A plea to the jurisdiction was interposed by the defendant Garland by special appearance for that purpose only, on the ground that the action brought by the plaintiff was transitory, and that service was had upon the defendant uar-land in Tulsa county, Okla. This plea being sustained, plaintiff’s petition was dismissed. This action on the part of the trial court is alleged as error. The other defendants named were made parties for ancillary relief, to wit, receivership.

The defendant against whom substantial relief is prayed is R. F. Garland. The question here is venue. The trial court held that the venue was not in the district court of Seminole county, but that the same was governed by section 207, C. O. S. 1921, which is a part iof the chapter on Procedure Civil and particularly on venue. Section 199, C. O. S. 1921,-and subsequent sections determine the venue in the character of the causes cf actions therein referred to. The said section 207 provides:

“Every other action must be brought in the county in which the defendant * * * resides or may be summoned.”

It is the contention of the defendant that the action here in question does not fall within any of the other provisions of the statute governing venue, and is, therefore, within the general provisions of the said section 207 as quoted above, and particularly he asserts that the instant case is a personal action and - must be brought in the county in which the defendant Garland resides or may be summoned.

We deem it unnecessary to engage in an extended discussion of the venue statutes. There is before us in this case nothing except the plaintiffs petition, the fact that it was filed in the district court of Seminole county; that service was made on defendant in Tulsa county) and the plea to the jurisdiction of the defendant. We must determine from these alone whether plaintiff pleads a personal action, and therefore one the venue of which is governed by the said section relied upon by the defendant.

The plaintiff, as is within his right, makes his allegations as to the formation of the alleged partnership and his allegations as to the defendant’s relation thereto and his conduct as to the alleged partnership. They constitute his first pleading, his petition. Whether the forum chosen by him was the correct *72 forum must be determined by these allegations. They are binding upon him in determining the question of venue on the motion of the defendant presented to the trial court. There is no means known to our system of pleading except that plaintiff’s theory of his cause of action or bill must be determined by a construction of the allegations the plaintiff inserts or causes to be inserted therein, where there is nothing except the pleadings before the court. Such allegations are the. written information, both to the parties against whom they are directed and to the court, and by them .alone must be determined any issue as to jurisdiction..

Necessarily, therefore, both the trial court had to determine, and this court must determine, the character of action filled by plaintiff in the d'strict court of Seminole county, and that must be from his petition. We deem it unnec essary to quote it in -toto. There are certain paragraphs contained therein which, as we view them, show conclusively the nature of the action, its objects and its purpose. Omitting the formal parts, it charges in substance:

That in November, 1925, at Tulsa, Okla., the plaintiff and the defendant Garland entered into a verbal partnership contract and agreement, whereby they became partners for the purpose of acquiring and developing oil and gas mining leases, and to produce oil and gas in the state of Oklahoma and elsewhere; that the expenses .and profits were to be shared equally, and that the plaintiff put into said partnership a large amount of acreage of oil and gas mining leases in Harper county. Kan.; that the partnership as such acquired oil and gas mining leases upon the south half of the northeast quarter of section 26; the southwest quarter of the southwest quarter of section 26; the southwest quarter of the southwest quarter of section 23; the southeast quarter of the southwest quarter of section 27, all in township 9 north, r.ange 6 east of the Indian Base and Meridian, Seminole county. Okla. (the land thus described will be referred to as the Seminole lease [ours!; that the partnership as such was required to drill a well on the said Seminole lease and the partnership made a drilling contract with the Independent Oil & Gas Company to drill the well for one-half interest in the leaseholds, which well was drilled, resulting in a large producer of crude petroleum; that the defendant Garland looked after the said Seminole leases and the plaintiff looked after the Kansas leases; that prior to the drilling in of the well on the Seminole leases above mentioned and in April, 1926, the defendant Garland made certain representations to the plaintiff with the fraudulent intent of acquiring the Seminole leases for himself personally and made certain statements coercive in their nature all of which induced the piaintiff to make an instrument in the form of an assignment to all the interest he had in the said Seminole leases to. the said Garland; that by such statements the defendant violated the confidential and fiduciary relation existing between these partners and that for the purpose of procuring the interest of the plaintiff in the partnership in the said Seminole leases; that said partnership has never been mutually or legally dissolved, but that the plaintiff is now-desirous of having the same dissolved and has legal cause for such dissolution because of the facts set out; that the defendant Garland is not the owner *of any property put-side of his partnership property involved herein, and that the other defendants are receiving the oil from the wells drilled on said Seminole leases .and that a receiver should be appointed to take charge of the same.

That inasmuch as' said partnership has never been dissolved legally and the plaintiff . has never had an accounting thereof, that the partnership and plaintiff have no adequate remedy at law; it is necessary in order to preserve the property of the partnership that a receiver be appointed for the properties.

Further pleading, plaintiff says that by reason of these facts plaintiff is entitled to have said partnership dissolved, to have an accounting with and against the defendant Garland in respect to moneys received by him or through the partnership, and to have a judgment and decree vacating and setting aside and holding for naught the pretended and fraudulent assignment made by the said plaintiff to the said Garland and to restore to the said partnership the said property.

We think that the said petition pleads a cause in equity for the declaration of, and dissolution of an alleged partnership, for an accounting between the partners and a determination of what properties belong to the partnership.

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Bluebook (online)
1926 OK 935, 251 P. 34, 122 Okla. 71, 1926 Okla. LEXIS 199, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/myers-v-garland-okla-1926.