Myers v. Hubbard

1920 OK 376, 194 P. 433, 80 Okla. 97, 1920 Okla. LEXIS 166
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedDecember 14, 1920
Docket9750
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 1920 OK 376 (Myers v. Hubbard) 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. Hubbard, 1920 OK 376, 194 P. 433, 80 Okla. 97, 1920 Okla. LEXIS 166 (Okla. 1920).

Opinion

KANE, J.

This was an action in replevin filed in the district court of Alfalfa county, Oklahoma, on the 30th day of July, 1917, by plaintiff in error, as plaintiff, against the defendants in error, as defendants below, to recover a crop of wheat then in stack on lands occupied by defendant Bonham. Plaintiff obtained the wheat under the writ. There was no redelivery bond. Trial was had to a jury and verdict was rendered for the defendants and a judgment was entered thereon for return of wheat or its value and damages for depreciation. Defendant Bonham also recovered exemplary damages. Erom this judgment, plaintiff appeals to this court by petition in' error with case-made attached, and defendants have also filed their cross-petition in error in this action. The parties will be designated herein as they appeared in the trial court.

On April 20, 1917, plaintiff purchased from the defendant Hubbard the Eof theN.W.14 of sec. 2, T. 25, R. 10, Alfalfa county, for the consideration of $1,000 and a ■ certain debt due the plaintiff from the defendant Hubbard of something like $55. On the land at the time was a twenty-acre patch of growing wheat. Plaintiff was given immediate possession of the land, and it is his contention that the wheat was included in the purchase price; and that title passed to him at the time , the deed was given and he entered into possession of the land. Defendant Hubbard testified that the wheat crop was reserved by parol contract and that defendant Bonham had a half, interest in this crop and the right to possession. Defendant Bonham testified that he had a half interest in the wheat crop and the right to possession thereof by reason of a parol contract between defendant Hubbard and himself. Defendant Bonham had sown the crop. During the absence of the plaintiff from home he entered onto the land then occupied by plaintiff, harvested the crop, and hauled it onto his own land across the road and stacked it and had contracted for its threshing. After the service of the replevin writ and failure of the defendant to give a redelivery bond, plaintiff had the wheat threshed by the same party who had agreed to thresh it for the defendant Bonham, and then had the grain hauled onto his own land and placed in granaries thereon.

Plaintiff contends that the verdicts in favor of the defendants are not sustained by sufficient evidence and that the judgments thereon are therefore erroneous. But failure of the plaintiff to demur to the evidence introduced by the defendants or to present a motion for directed verdict at the conclusion of all the evidence, precludes him from a consideration of this error by this court.

Where plaintiff submits his case to the *99 jury without demurring to the evidence or asking an instructed verdict, or otherwise legally attacking its sufficiency, the question whether there is any evidence reasonably tending to support the defense is not presented for review by plaintiff’s motion for a new trial. Norman v. Lambert. 64 Oklahoma, 167 Pac. 213.

Plaintiff further alleges error in that the verdict-for the defendants and the judgments rendered thereon are contrary to law. This assignment will be considered under the various questions of law presented and determined herein.

Growing crops are personal property, but pass by conveyance as appurtenant to the land unless severed by reservation or exception. A party may show by parol that the growing crops were reserved on a sale of land although there may be no exception in the deed. Grabow v. McCracken, 23 Okla. 612, 102 Pac. 84; Dannifer v. Aurand (Kan.) 189 Pac. 371.

While the jury did not make a specific finding that the defendant Hubbard reserved the wheat crop for himself and defendant Bonham, a general finding in favor of the defendants is tantamount to a finding that the reservation of the wheat crop was made. Wrought Iron Range Co. v. Leach, 32 Okla. 706, 123 Pac. 419; Oland v. Malson, 30 Okla. 456, 135 Pac. 1035.

The question of exemplary damages was not presented to the jury by instruction of the trial judge, and a verdict thereon was in disregard of the trial court’s instructions. No instructions having been given as £o exemplary damages, no verdict could be returned therefor. Ordinarily a verdict is contrary to law when it is returned in disobedience or disregard of the court’s instructions. Norman v. Lambert, supra.

Where the question of exemplary damages is not submitted to the jury in the instructions, they are not authorized to consider it. Redmund v McCool, 50 Okla. 69, 150 Pac. 1055; Pelt v. Westlake, 68 Oklahoma, 174 Pac. 1041, 1046.

Not only was the question of exemplary damages not submitted to the jury, but no evidence seems to have been introduced thereon. Exemplary damages may not be recovered in a replevin action except where the taking of the property has been through unusual or aggravated circumstances, and to entitle to such recovery there should be a ■showing of oppression, fraud, or malice.

Under section 2851, Rev. Laws 1910, exemplary damages may -be recovered where the person taking has been guilty of oppression, fraud, or malice, actual or presumed. Ray v. Navarre, 47 Okla. 438, 147 Pac. 1019; Sutherland on Damages (4th Ed) sec. 1145; Cobbey on Replevin (2nd Ed.) sec. 928; Wells on Replevin (2nd Ed.) pp. 462, 516.

Nor can special damages be awarded to the defendant Bonham on his plea that the wheat seized by the plaintiff was needed by him to sow a crop in the fall of 1917, and that he lost money .'by reason of failure to obtain possession of the wheat for this purpose.

In the case of Barse Livestock Com. Co. v. MeKinster, 10 Okla. 708, 64 Pae. 14, it was held that in estimating damages the value of the property to the owner thereof deprived of its possession is the price at which he might have bought -an equivalent thing in the market nearest to the place where the property ought to have been put into his possession, and at such time after the breach of duty upon which his right to damages is founded as would suffice with reasonable diligence for him to make such a purchase.

This holding has been cited with approval in the cases of Robb v. Dobrinski, 14 Okla. 563, 569, 78 Pac. 101, 103; Leeper, Graves & Co. v. First National Bank of Hobart, 26 Okla. 707, 721, 110 Pac. 655, 660. See, also, Thomas v. First National Bank of Tecumsen, 32 Okla. 115, 121 Pac. 272; Sutherland on Damages (4th Ed.) sec. 1157; Cobbey on Replevin, secs. 888, 890.

In Barse Livestock Com. Co. v. MeKinster, supra, the court said:

“It may be suggested that the defendants were not financially able to purchase other stock. But this cannot alter the rule. On this question we are content to quote the language of Mr. Justice Hunt, in City of Memphis v. Brown, 20 Wall. 304, wherein he said:
“* * * ‘xpis consideration can have no legitimate influence. A rule of law is based upon principle, upon sound considerations of justice and public policy, and as manifested ■by the proceedings and authorities. It is the same for all cases and conditions. None are so high as to 'be above its claims, none so low as to be beneath its protection. It will •be a sad era in the history of any country when the application of a rule of law shall depend upon the wealth or the poverty of a party to a suit; upon his wealth, which would thus enable him to increase that wéalth, or his poverty which would be thereby aggravated. * * *’

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1920 OK 376, 194 P. 433, 80 Okla. 97, 1920 Okla. LEXIS 166, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/myers-v-hubbard-okla-1920.