Orton v. Citizens State Bank

1929 OK 332, 291 P. 15, 144 Okla. 192, 71 A.L.R. 1074, 1929 Okla. LEXIS 612
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedSeptember 17, 1929
Docket19075
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 1929 OK 332 (Orton v. Citizens State Bank) 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
Orton v. Citizens State Bank, 1929 OK 332, 291 P. 15, 144 Okla. 192, 71 A.L.R. 1074, 1929 Okla. LEXIS 612 (Okla. 1929).

Opinions

DIFFENDAFFER, C.

This is a second appeal of this cause. The action was commenced April 2, 1919, by plaintiff in error, and was for the cancellation of certain deeds and for an accounting. Judgment in the first trial was for defendants. Plaintiff appealed, and by an opinion of this court, 99 Okla. 80, 225 Pac. 899, the judgment was reversed, decreeing the deeds in controversy to be equitable mortgages, and remanding the cause for an accounting between the parties. The deeds involved 160 acres of land in Beaver county; 80 acres in Pottawatomie county, 160 acres in Wagoner county, several lots in the city of Wagoner, and a *193 flour and corn mill located on other lots in Wagoner. The facts as to the transfer of these lands are stated in Orton v. Citizens State Bank et al., 99 Okla. 80, 225 Pac. 899, and will not' he restated.

At the time of the former trial, the mill property and the 160 acres in Wagoner county have been disposed of to third parties. The title to the other lots in Wagoner, the 160 acres in Beaver county, and the 80 acres in Pottawatomie county was still held hy defendants. The deeds were made by Orton to the Citizens State Bank, not for the benefit of the bank, but to indemnify defendant Harrill upon his guaranty of an indebtedness of $2,625 of Orton’s to the bank. After the conveyances were made, the Citizens State Bank was consolidated with the First State Bank of Wagoner, and continued in that name until about December 21, 1922, when it was adjudicated insolvent and its assets were taken over by the State Bank Commissioner. This was prior to the decision in the former trial. The mandate . in the former appeal was filed in the district court and spread of record May 16, 1924. August 15, 1924, plaintiff filed his motion praying for an order directing defendants to recon-vey to the estate of J. A. Orton the Beaver county land and the Pottawatomie county land, and to direct defendants, within 20 days, to file a complete accounting. August 25, 1924, the court entered an order directing defendants to make and file a full report and accounting of their acts and proceedings, but made no order .directing the reconveyance of the land. This order was not complied with, and on December 10, 1924, plaintiff filed a motion for judgment against defendants for $21,000 in accordance with the prayer in his original petition, and for an order for reconveyance of the land.

No action was taken on this motion until April 16, 1927, when plaintiff filed what he termed an “amended motion for an order to comply with mandate.” By this amended motion, plaintiff set out all the proceedings had to that date, and alleged that defendant had never complied with the order for an accounting, and further alleged that pending the former appeal, the judge of the district court, who was the trial judge in the first trial of this cause, made and entered an order authorizing O. B. Mothersead, the then Bank Commissioner, to convey by deed • to defendant T. C. Harrill the 80 acres of land in Pottawatomie county: that, in keeping with said order, the Bank Commissioner,, about November 16, 1923, executed a deed conveying said land to defendant Harrill. He readopts all the allegations of his original motion, and prayed for an order setting aside the order authorizing the transfer of the Pottawatomie comity land to Harrill, and prays for the cancellation of the deed made thereunder, and further prays for an order directing the Bank Commissioner to comply with the mandate of the Supreme Court ■ by executing proper deeds of conveyance, conveying the 80 acres in Pottawatomie county, the 160 acres in Beaver county, and the lots in Wagoner, which had not been disposed of to the heirs of J. A. Orton, deceased. By this amended motion, he renews his prayer of judgment for $21,000, which he claimed as profits made by defendant Harrill from the mill property and the 160 acres of Wagoner county, after the payment of all indebtedness from J. A. Orton to the bank or Harrill.

Thereafter, defendant T. C. Harrill filed an amended answer, to which he atached an unverified statement purporting to show in detail divers trades and transactions connected with the Orton property, which he alleges were all made in good faith, and which he alleges culminated in a final loss to him in the sum of $23,456.60 in property and money furnished and advanced by him from time to time in making the several trades. He alleges, in substance, that he thought and believed at all times that the deeds made by Orton were absolute conveyances, and that not until the Judgment of the Supreme Court in the former appeal did he think or believe that same was an equitable mortgage; that after the trial in the district court, and while the case was pending on appeal in the Supreme Court, he sold and conveyed in good faith the Pottawatomie county land to one N. V. Leonard for the sum of $800, which he alleges was at that time the fair and reasonable value thereof; that prior thereto he had paid out $531.88 thereon in order to discharge the taxes and the $200 mortgage against said land; that likewise he had conveyed the Beaver county land to O. B. Mothersead, Bank Commissioner, against him; that the only property left in his hands was the lots in Wagoner, upon which he alleged he had paid $75 taxes, which sum he álleged was more than the fair market value of the lots. He prayed that plaintiff take nothing, and for judgment against the administrator in the sum of $23.-455.60, and for such other and further relief as equity and good conscience afforded.

Plaintiff replied by general denial, admitting only the correctness of certain items in the account relating to the Wagoner county farm land. He then alleged that defendant Harrill had traded and handled the mill property in such a way that he had received' property and money therefrom of the value or $27,150.24 over and above the amount neees- *194 sary to pay the indebtedness of J. A. Orton to the bank. He alleged that from the-Wagoner county farm, defendant Harrill had realized in cash the sum of $4,461.38 clear and above the indebtedness against said land and all expenses in making the trades in connection therewith; that by reason thereof, he alleges, defendant is indebted to plaintiff, as the administrator of the estate of J. A. Orton, in the sum of $31,611.92. He then alleges that after defendant Harrill had so disposed of the mill property and the Wagoner county farm, he made certain other trades so commingled with his own property that it was impossible for plaintiff to follow said property, so that he elects to declare and demand an accounting for the value of the Wagoner county land and the mill property as determined from the proceeds therefrom in the first sale and exchange thereof and to claim and demand the 160 acres in Beavevr county and the 80 acres in Pottawatomie county. He then assails the transfer of the 80 acres of land in Pottawatomie county by Harrill to N. V. Leonard, whom he alleged is a brother-in-law to defendant Harrill, for a purported consideration of $800 as fraudulent and made, for the purpose and in an attempt to circumvent and thwart, if possible, an adverse decision of the Supreme Court, should one ■ be rendered, and with a willful and malicious intent to cheat and defraud plaintiff and the heirs of J. A. Orton. He also assails the alleged transfer of the Beaver county land to the Bank Commissioner, and denies that any such transaction was ever had, or that Mothersead ever received a deed thereto from Harrill, or that defendant Harrill ever received any money therefor.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Belleville State Bank v. Steele
345 N.W.2d 405 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1984)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1929 OK 332, 291 P. 15, 144 Okla. 192, 71 A.L.R. 1074, 1929 Okla. LEXIS 612, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/orton-v-citizens-state-bank-okla-1929.