Randerson v. McKay

1920 OK 84, 188 P. 323, 77 Okla. 238, 42 A.L.R. 464, 1920 Okla. LEXIS 241
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedMarch 2, 1920
Docket9614
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 1920 OK 84 (Randerson v. McKay) 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
Randerson v. McKay, 1920 OK 84, 188 P. 323, 77 Okla. 238, 42 A.L.R. 464, 1920 Okla. LEXIS 241 (Okla. 1920).

Opinion

BAILEY, J.

This is an appeal from a judgment of the district court of Oklahoma county, in favor of defendant in error and against plaintiffs in error; this action having been commenced on the first day of May, 1916, by defendant in error to recover upon three certain promissory notes in the aggregate sum of $1,070. It is admitted that said notes were made and executed by plaintiffs in error, and these further facts are presented by the record: That on the 26th day of September, 1914, plaintiffs in error made, executed, and delivered to the defendant in error the notes upon which suit is here brought; said notes being secured by a second mortgage on certain property located in Wyandotte county, Kansas; that thereafter suit was instituted in the district court of Wyandotte county, Kansas, by Henry Rit-ter, the owner and holder of the notes secured by the first mortgage on said property, for a foreclosure of the first mortgage, and these plaintiffs in error and defendant in error, together with other parties, were made defendants; that thereafter, defendant in error, R. H. McKay, answered in said cause in the district court of Wyandotte, county, and by way of cross-petition, alleged the execution, delivery, and ownership of the said second mortgage executed by these plaintiffs in error, and prayed that his mortgage be foreclosed subject to said first mortgage. No personal appearance was made by plaintiffs in error, but service was had by publication notice. After due hearing of said cause in the district court of Wyan-dotte county, judgment was rendered for plaintiff, Henry Ritter, and decree entered foreclosing the mortgage held bj' him; the judgment further reciting:

“That it is further ordered, adjudged, and decreed that the defendant, R. H. McKay is entitled to have the mortgage given to him foreclosed, and the same is hereby foreclosed.
“And it is further considered, ordered, adjudged, and decreed that the lien created h* said R. H. McKay is second and inferior to the mortgage and lien of the plaintiff, bin is superior to any estate in, claim to, or lion upon said property as to all of the other parties to this action.”

And after providing for the disposition of the proceeds of the property, said judgment further provides:

“That the remaining proceeds, if nnv. sha’i be applied to the payment of the judgment herein rendered' in favor of the said R. H. McKay.”

The property mortgaged was thereafter sold and the sale duly confirmed, defendant in error receiving nothing, the entire amount received for the property being necessary to liquidate the judgment of Henry A. Ritter and to pay the costs accrued in said cause and certain taxes due on said mortgaged lands. The various pleadings and the judgment and decree in the case of Ritter v. McKay et al. in the district court of Wyan-dotte county were duly pleaded and proven.

*239 It is first contended by the plaintiffs in error that defendant in error had no right, after appearing in the Kansas court in the manner hereinabove described, to sue on said notes in Oklahoma, for the reason that said notes and all rights, accruing thereunder were merged in the judgment rendered in the Kansas court. It is undoubtedly true as a general rule that where a debt is sued for, a final judgment merges the cause of action into the judgment from its date, and the old debt ceases to exist, and the new or judgment debt takes its place (15 R. C. L., page 786) ; but to this general rule there are certain well-recognized exceptions. To effectuate such a merger, the judgment rendered must be a valid and subsisting one, and such a judgment as can be enforced.

As noted above, plaintiffs in error were served only by constructive, process. No personal judgment . was rendered against them, nor indeed could any personal judgment have been rendered against them. The judgment rendered by the Kansas court affected only the property located in that state, and no suit could be maintained on such judgment against plaintiffs in error here in the courts of this state. In the case of Pennoyer v. Neff, 95 U. S. 714, Mr. Justice Fields, speaking for the court, says:

“In ail the cases brought in the state and federal courts, where attempts hive been made under the act of congress to give effect in one stale to personal judgment rendered in another' state agiinst nonresidents, without service upon them, or upon substituted . service by publication, or in some other form, it has been held without an exception, so far as we are aware, that such judgments were without any binding force except as to property, or interests in property. within the state, to reach and effect which was the object of the action in which the judgment was rendered, and which property was brought under the control of the court in connection with the process against the person. The proceeding in such cases, though in the form of a personal action, has been uniformly treated, where service was not obtained and the party did not voluntarily appear, as effectual and binding merely as a proceeding in rem, and as having no operation beyond the disposition of the property. or some interest therein. And the reason assigned for this conclusion has been that the tribunals of one state have no jurisdiction over persons beyond its limits, and can inquire only into their obligations to its citizens when exercising its conceded jurisdiction over their property within its limits.” Cooper v. Reynolds, 10 Wall. 308; Brooklyn v. Insurance Co., 99 U. S. 370; Empire v. Darlington, 101 U. S. 92; St. Clair v. Cox, 106 U. S. 350.

And in Bizzell v. Briggs, 9 Mass. 469, 6 Am. Dec. 88, Parsons, C. J., says:

“If, however, these goods, effects, and credits are insufficient to satisfy the judgment, and the creditor should sue an action on that judgment in this state to obtain satisfaction, he must fail; because the defendant was not personally amenable to the jurisdiction of the court rendering the judgment.”

Nor do we think there was any attempt to enter a personal judgment. In Cackley v. Smith, 47 Kan. 642, the Sui>reme Court of Kansas cites with approval the case of Conn v. Rhoades, 26 Ohio St. 645, which was an action to foreclose a judgment with a prayer for a personal judgment. When on default of an answer the court entered a decree for the sale of the mortgaged premises, but rendered no personal judgment, the court there held:

“Where the record in such case showed that the court, on hearing of the cause, ‘considered that the plaintiff ought to recover’ a specific amount, and ordered the sale of the mortgaged premises for its satisfaction, held, that the record shows no personal judgment against the defendant, but a mere finding of the amount due, with an order of sale.”

And the Supreme Court of Kansas, in Cackley v. Smith, supra, held.

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Bluebook (online)
1920 OK 84, 188 P. 323, 77 Okla. 238, 42 A.L.R. 464, 1920 Okla. LEXIS 241, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/randerson-v-mckay-okla-1920.