Park v. Continental Oil Co.

1939 OK 46, 87 P.2d 324, 184 Okla. 314, 1939 Okla. LEXIS 38
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJanuary 24, 1939
DocketNo. 28223.
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 1939 OK 46 (Park v. Continental Oil Co.) 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
Park v. Continental Oil Co., 1939 OK 46, 87 P.2d 324, 184 Okla. 314, 1939 Okla. LEXIS 38 (Okla. 1939).

Opinion

DANNER, J.

Plaintiff in error filed her action in the district court of Comanche county in cause No. 12046 against Continental Oil Company, a Delaware corporation, and D. J. Moran, W. W. Bruce, and Walter Miller, trustees of the Mar land Refining Company, a dissolved domestic corporation, for damages for the alleged wrongful, unlawful, and malicious prosecution of a civil action. To the petition, as amended, the defendants, trustees, filed their plea in abatement, which was sustained by the court on the 16th day of November, 1936. On the same date, and on the same hearing, the court sustained the motion of the defendant Continental Oil Company for judgment on the pleadings on the ground that plaintiff’s petition, as amended, affirmatively showed upon its face that her alleged cause of action against the movant was barred by limitation. On a further hearing had on December 22, 1936, the court dismissed plaintiff’s action, at her cost, as to all the defendants. Proper exceptions to the ruling was allowed the plaintiff, who, thereupon, in open court, gave notice of her intention to appeal to this court.

The appeal, however, was not perfected, and on the 29th day of December, 1936, the plaintiff filed in the same cause her petition to vacate and annul the judgment entered on the 22d day of December, 1936, alleging that fraud was .practiced by the defendants in obtaining the judgment; also irregularity in obtaining the judgment; and unavoidable casualty and misfortune occurring on the trial which prevented the plaintiff from prosecuting her action. The plaintiff appeals from a judgment of the trial court sustaining defendants’ demurrers to the petition to set aside the judgment entered in cause No. 12046.

Among the allegations in the petition to vacate the judgment, it is alleged:

“Petitioner states that the fraud of which she complains was at all times herein mentioned extrinsic to the issues before the court and was practiced directly upon the court as well as upon this plaintiff, and that this plaintiff was in a position to make absolute proof of such fraud upon trial of her cause of action before a jury had she not been deprived of her statutory right to have questions of fact tried to a jury by the judgment and order óf the court dismissing her petition herein on the application of the defendants while practicing deceit upon the court. She says that the nature of the fraud so practiced upon the court and this plaintiff and upon the law of this state is evidenced by a certain written instrument, unlawfully entered into by and between the parties thereto, a copy of which is hereto attached, marked ‘Exhibit B’ and made a part hereof. She further says that the procedural law of this state requires an action to be brought in the name of the party in interest and that the basic corporation law of this state requires the adoption and use of a distinctive name at all times and that the defendants should not be allowed to take advantage of their own wrong and deceit by the unlawful agreement evidenced by Exhibit B aforesaid.
“Petitioner states that the question of fraud was sufficiently raised by her petition in this cause, which said petition is hereby referred to and by reference made a part hereof, and says that the question of fraud is always a question of fact for the jury and should have been submitted, to a jury.
“As further ground for setting aside the judgment and order of the court made herein xoetitioner states that the issues in the cause had been made up upon the overruling on July 26, 1935, of the defendants’ demurrer to plaintiff’s i>etition as amended; that the cause had been set for trial before a jury by order of the court; that under the issues presented by the pleadings there were issues of fact which entitled the plaintiff to a trial by jury; that the plea in abatement of the defendants D. J. Moran, W. W. Bruce and Walter Miller as the last board of directors of the Marland Refining Company, dissolved, was, in legal effect, no more than a general demurrer formerly overruled by the court, and that the sustaining of the same was a material irregularity which deprived her of' a substantial right granted by statute.
“She further says that in sustaining the affirmative defense of the statute of limitations plead by the defendant, Continental Oil Company, without having the facts tried to a jury, the court deprived plaintiff of a substantial right granted by statute. She says that she was in a position to prove in rebuttal of such affirmative defense that the defendant Continental Oil Company continued to wrongfully claim an interest in her real estate and to cloud her titles and interfere with her business up to the time subsequent to the filing of her petition in this cause as definitely appears by its answer *316 filed in cause No. 12179 then pending in this court a coj>y of which said answer and claim is hereto attached marked ‘Exhibit O’ and made a part hereof, and that after making such proof she was entitled under the law to have the court instruct the jury to the effect that such defendant should and could not have the benefit of the statute of limita tions as an affirmative defense while wrongfully claiming an, interest in her property.”

Exhibit “B,” referred to in the petition to vacate and the basis of the alleged fraud, is a written contract for the sale of the assets and property of the Marland Refining Company to the Continental Oil Company executed July 1, 1929, and placed on record in Kay county on November 28, 1931, following the dissolution of the Marland Refining Company in the district court of Kay county on June 23, 1931. That part of the contract of sale material herein is as follows:

“That Marland Refining Company, a corporation of Oklahoma, jrarsuant to resolutions of its stockholders and directors for a valuable consideration, the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged, and of the covenant of assumption by the grantee contained herein does hereby grant, bargain, sell, convey, assign and set over to Continental Oil Company, a corporation of Delaware, * * * a.ll of the property and assets of the grantor, of whatsoever nature or description and wheresoever situated, including established business and good will, and the right to the use of the name Marland Refining Company, together with any and all property which the grantor may hereafter acquire or which may accrue to the grantor, except only the money or other consideration received by the grantor for this conveyance. * * *
“By the acceptance hereof the grantee assumes and agrees to pay when due all of the debts and outstanding liabilities of the grantor, subject to any defenses which the grantor could make against claims asserted or to be asserted.”

First, it is important to determine whether the alleged fraud of which the plaintiff complains is extraneous to the issues tried and determined in the judgment in cause No. 12046. In that case, in the amendment to the petition, it is alleged:

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1939 OK 46, 87 P.2d 324, 184 Okla. 314, 1939 Okla. LEXIS 38, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/park-v-continental-oil-co-okla-1939.