Oklahoma Union Ry. Co. v. Mathews

1923 OK 271, 217 P. 458, 91 Okla. 266, 1923 Okla. LEXIS 739
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedMay 15, 1923
Docket11509
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 1923 OK 271 (Oklahoma Union Ry. Co. v. Mathews) 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
Oklahoma Union Ry. Co. v. Mathews, 1923 OK 271, 217 P. 458, 91 Okla. 266, 1923 Okla. LEXIS 739 (Okla. 1923).

Opinion

Opinion by

FOSTER, C.

This was an action commenced in the district court of Creek county, Oklahoma, by defendants in error, Della Mathews and Sam Mathews, plaintiffs below, against the plaintiff in error, Oklahoma Union Railway Company, a corporation, defendant below, to recover the sum of 82,500, alleged to be due under the terms of a written- contract for the sale of part of lots 4, 5, and 6, in block 34, of the original townsite of Sapulpa, Creek county, Oklahoma. As 'a matter of convenience, the parties will be hereinafter referred to as they were designated in the trial court.

On the 13th daj' of October, 1917, the contract was executed, and it, provided that a warranty deed, conveying said property, duly signed and acknowledged by' the plaintiffs, should be deposited with the contract in the American National Bank of Sapulpa, Okla., and that the defendant should pay the sum of $6,500 for said property, provided the plaintiffs could show a good title thereto. It was further provided that if the plaintiffs were not able to show complete title to all of said property by November 1, 1917, the defendant railway company should, nevertheless, have a right to take up said deed by paying the sum of $2,300 (which amount added to the sum of $1,700 paid when the contract was executed, amounted in all to " $4,000, the balance of the purchase price in the sum of $2,500 to be paid whenever the plaintiffs could show good title to the property.

On the. first day of November, 1917, the deed was duly delivered to the defendant railway company, possession taken of the property, and on the 15th day of April, 1913, the further sum of $2,300 was paid, leaving a balance of $2,500 unpaid.

On the 25th day of January. 1919, a petition was filed by the plaintiffs in the district court of Creek' county, Okla., seeking to recover on said contract a balance of $2,500 allegedNto be due them as purchase money, together with_interest thereon, at the rate of six per cent, per annum, from the first day of November, 1917. The petition alleged the execution of the contract, set out the contract in full, alleged the delivery of the deed, acknowledged payment of the sum of $4,000, and demanded judgment for $2,500, representing the balance claimed as purchase money. It further alleged that plaintiffs had furnished an abstract showing clear title to said property, and that defendant, though in the quiet and peaceable possession of said property, failed, refused and neglected to pay the balance due as purchase price.

To the petition of plaintiffs the defendant filed its answer on the 24th day of September, 1919, admitting the execution of the contract and deed set out in the petition of the plaintiffs, but denying any liability whatever in any sum, and set up as a defense that there was omitted from the description of the real estate intended to be conveyed. by said deed a substantial part thereof, and that by reason of sireh omission, there was no consideration to support any promise to pay the sum of $2,500 or any other sum of money.

The answer further alleged that prior to and contemporaneous with the execution-of the contract it was represented to it by plaintiffs that they were the owners of a strip of land lying west of the boundary line, described in t.he deed and contract, extending to the right of way of the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway Company-, and that the eastern boundary line of said right of way formed the western boundary line of the land which plaintiffs were conveying, and that upon discovering that this strip of land had not been included in the deed, it demanded that plaintiffs convey title to said strip of land to it, which they refused and still refuse to do, and that it stands ready and willing to pay the full amount as soon as the full title has been convoyed.

The cause was tried to a jury in the district court of Creek county on the 25th -day of September, 1919. The deed introduced in evidence on the part' of plaintiffs to the defendant contained, among other things, the following description of the . property conveyed :

- • “All that part, of lots 4, 5, and 6 of block 34, of. the original townsite of Sapulpa, *268 Creek county, Oklahoma, lying west of a line beginning at a point on the north line of lot 4, which is 5.3 feet west of the northeast corner of said lot 4, and extending in a straight line to a point on the south line of lot 6, which is 61.4'feet west of the southeast corner of lot 6 of block 34 aforesaid.'’

The evidence of the p'aintiffi further showed that said deed was filed for record on April 25, 1918, and duly recorded in Book 183, at page 64, in the. office of the county clerk of Creek county, Okla. The evidence on behalf of plaintiff further showed that an abstract of title had been furnished by plaintiffs to the defendant’s attorneys, examined by them, and approved.

Mr. Crowe, one of the witnesses for defendant, testified that he had received information that a strip of land lying between the lots conveyed and (lie right of way of the Frisco Railway Company was a vacated public street of the city of Sapulpa, Okla., but there is no intimation anywhere in the evidence that he received this information from his attorneys who approved the title.

At the trial, the defendant railway company offered to prove by Mr. Crowe of the defendant railway company and Sam Mathews that prior to and contemporaneous with the execution of the contract in question, the plaintiff, Sam Mathews, represented that the strip of land between lots 4, 5, and 6, in block 34, and the S!. Louis-San Francisco Railway Company right of way was intended to bé included in the deed, and th"i Pam Mathews, at (he time, pointed out said strip as being owned by him. The court refused to permit the introduction of this evidence, to which action of the court the defendant excepted. At the conclusion of the trial, the plaintiffs moved the court to direct a verdict for the plaintiffs, which motion the court sustained, and the defendant excepted.

A verdict and judgment was entered in favor of the plaintiff for $2,500 and the defendant prosecutes its appeal to this court, and assigns errors, as follows:

“First. The court erred in overruling plaintiff in error's motion for a new trial.
“Second. The court erred in refusing to permit the plaintiff in error to prove by defendant in error, Sam Mathews, that he represented to ('he plaintiff in error at the time the contract was made, that he owned the land between the original lot lines and the Frisco right of way. and that said land had been a street which had been vacated by the city of Sapulpa.
“Third. The court erred in refusing to permit plaintiff in error to prove by Mr.. Crowe the contention of Mr. Crowe as to the representations by Mr. Mathews of the land included in lots 4, 5, and 6, and of his aft-erwards ascertaining that a portion of this land which he thought he bought was a vacated street and that Mathews’ title was not good-
“Fourth. The court erred in instructing the jury to return a verdict for the plaintiff instead of submitting the question of fact to the jury.”

The first three assignments of error may be considered and disposed of together.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1923 OK 271, 217 P. 458, 91 Okla. 266, 1923 Okla. LEXIS 739, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/oklahoma-union-ry-co-v-mathews-okla-1923.