Reeves v. Reeves

51 S.W. 1079, 2 Indian Terr. 444, 1899 Indian Terr. LEXIS 34
CourtCourt Of Appeals Of Indian Territory
DecidedJune 8, 1899
StatusPublished

This text of 51 S.W. 1079 (Reeves v. Reeves) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court Of Appeals Of Indian Territory primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Reeves v. Reeves, 51 S.W. 1079, 2 Indian Terr. 444, 1899 Indian Terr. LEXIS 34 (Conn. 1899).

Opinion

Thomas, J.

After a long and careful examination of the voluminous record, the preceding statement of the case has been winnowed out of the great mass of irrelevant matter, and is believed to cover all the points essential to a proper determination of the questions of law and fact involved.

Appellant assigns 15 errors, as follows: “First. It was error to require plaintiff to pay to defendant’s attorney $500 as an alleged exemption right, for the reason that the plaintiff, by order of the court, had given a bond of indemnify to defendant, in the sum of $1,000, to abide the final result of this litigation. Second. It was error to permit he interpleader to interplead in’ this cause at all, and plaintiff’s demurrer to the first interplea and to the amended interplea should have been sustained. The interpleader’s claim is based upon the theory that the receivership was at all times, and still is, existing and unsettled, while the plaintiff contends that the receivership was settled and discharged by mutual agreement of all parties in interest more than two years before the interpleader claims to have obtained any rights in the premises. Third. It was error to decree that the premises in' controversy were of the cash rental value of $500 per year, when the interpleader’s own testimony was positive that the premises had no actual or market rental value in cash. Fourth. It was error to charge the receiver with the rental value of the premises, in the sum of $500 per year, when the testimony, positively and beyond contradiction, shows that he had never received any such sum, and that the rents and profits from the prem[449]*449ises bad not amounted to that sum for any year after be was appointed receiver. Fifth. It was error to render any judgment against tbe receiver, under tbe testimony and admitted facts in tbis cause. Sixth. It was error to render any judgment in favor of the interpleader, because be assumes to have purchased some rights to property in litigation, and pending a receivership of tbe same property be claims to have purchased without any order from tbe court for tbe sale to him or to any other person, and, furthermore, because all the testimony shows that he purchased a right; to the improvements, to become operative only after plaintiff’s time under his contract for making the improvements . had expired. Seventh. It was error to decree to the inter-pleader possession of. the premises, at least until after the plaintiff’s time thereon had expired, or until plaintiff had received back, in rents and profits, the amount of money he had expended in making improvements; and the testimony conclusively proved that the plaintiff, up to the time of the final decree in the court below, had only received, in rents and profits, the sum of $3,714, whereas he had expended in making said improvements the sum of $7,200. Eighth. It was error to institute any contempt proceedings against the receiver, when he had fully and at all times reported his doings to the court, and had reported that the subject-matter of the receivership had been settled' agreeably to every person in interest on July 14, 1892. Ninth. It was error to decree that the plaintiff’s time under his contract with defendant's wife, had expired on the premises in the year 1893, when the plain provisions of that contract were that the plaintiff was to have possession of the premises for eight years after the contract was made, as compensation for his money invested. Tenth. It was error to decree that the, making of the contract of Juiy 14, 1892, between plaintiff and defendant’s wife was a merger of all previous contracts, and particularly the contract • between plaintiff § ^ssigp.or “ v’~ ' [450]*450and defendant, and that said contract of July 14, 1892, was a full settlement of all claims against defendant and his wife up to that date. Eleventh. It was error to find and decree that the contract between Bessie Terrell and the inter-pleader made in November, 1894, was a valid contract, and that said Bessie Terrell is entitled to the sum of $200, or any other sum, because, according to the testimony of H. D. Lannom, who wrote the contract for the interpleader and Mrs. Terrell, it was not intended to convey or grant to such interpleader any rights against the plaintiff or the receiver, but only to get some demand, if any existed, against one A. J. Reeves. Twelfth. It was error to find that interpleader was entitled to any rents on the premises, or that he would become entitled to any rents until the expiration of the plaintiff’s time thereon had expired, because, from the uncontradicted testimony, it appears that the interpleader purchased only a future right to the whole premises, for a consideration of $175, with the express .understanding that he was not to have any rents or profits or possession until the plaintiff’s time under his contract with defendant and defendant’s wife had expired, which would be in the year 1900. Thirteenth. It was error to find that the receiver, having not been formally discharged by the court, was liable on his bond for rents and moneys which he had never received, and never could have received, under the circumstances, because no such money could have come into his hands, even if he had received the one-third part of the crops as rents and profits for the various years specified. Fourteenth. It was error to require the receiver to pay into court money which he had never received, and which never in any way had come into his possession or control. Fifteenth. It was error to require the receiver to file an answer or supersedeas bond in this case.”

As to the first error complained of by the appellant, there was no proof on the part of the defendant as to his [451]*451right to the exemptions claimed, except his own affidavit attached to the schedule filed. There were several affidavits on file at the time this order was made, showing that the defendant had absconded and left the Indian Territory. From the proof afterward taken in this cause before its final determination, it appears conclusively, and seems to have been conceded by all the parties concerned, that the defendant had in fact left the Indian Territory during the summer of 1890, and there was some proof tending to establish the fact that he had committed suicide at Hot Springs, Ark., shortly after he left the Indian Territory. By the last-amended complaint, filed previous to this order, the cause became one to recover specific personal property, or its value, and also for the value of certain other property, alleged to have been sold and converted by the defendant, of the value of about $600. In ordert.o have entitled the defendant to the exemptions claimed by him, the law required that he be a bona fide resident of the Indian Territory, and also that the action in which the exemptions were claimed be to recover a debt due by contract. We are of opinion that the trial court erred in allowing the defendant the exemptions claimed by him, in the sum of $500, and in requiring the receiver to pay this sum to George E. Nelson, Esq., defendant’s attorney. See first and third findings of fact of master (pages 96 and 97 of record); section 2992, Mansf. Dig.; Massie vs Enyart, 33 Ark. 688; Smith vs Ragsdale, 36 Ark. 297.

The other errors complained of in this cause arise upon the issue made between the interpleader, C. W. Moore, and the plaintiff, Charles C. Reeves, and W. S. Edwards as receiver.

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Related

Massie v. Enyart
33 Ark. 688 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1878)
Smith v. Ragsdale
36 Ark. 297 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1880)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
51 S.W. 1079, 2 Indian Terr. 444, 1899 Indian Terr. LEXIS 34, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/reeves-v-reeves-ctappindterr-1899.