Reynolds v. Brooks

1915 OK 775, 152 P. 411, 49 Okla. 188, 1915 Okla. LEXIS 31
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedOctober 12, 1915
Docket4171
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 1915 OK 775 (Reynolds v. Brooks) 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
Reynolds v. Brooks, 1915 OK 775, 152 P. 411, 49 Okla. 188, 1915 Okla. LEXIS 31 (Okla. 1915).

Opinion

HARDY, J.

Plaintiff in error, who was plaintiff below, brought suit against defendant in error, J. D. Brooks, in the superior court of Grady county for rent upon certain lands alleged to have been demised by plaintiff to defendant for the year 1911, and caused an attachment to issue and be served in said action. The petition alleged that plaintiff was the legal and equitable owner of said lands, and under an oral agreement had rented the land to defendant for one-fourth of the cotton and one-third of the corn and other crops raised upon said premises, alleged to be of the reasonable value of $150; that without the consent of plaintiff, and without paying the rent, defendant had removed a portion of the crop from said land, sold’ the same, appropriated the money to his own use, and failed and refused to pay the rent. The defendant answered, denying specifically that he entered into a contract with the plaintiff, or that he was indebted to plaintiff for rents on said land, and alleged that he made a verbal contract with one C. A. Reynolds, father of plaintiff, renting said lands for the year 1911; that on the 13th day of April, 1911, the sheriff of Grady county, under an execution issued in the case of Dave Hill v. C. A. Reynolds, dispossessed the said C. A. Reynolds of said land, and delivered possession thereof to said Hill; and that he has paid the rents thereon to said Hill, who was, at the date of the filing of said answer, in possession of ' said lands. To this answer plaintiff filed reply, in which *190 he denied each and singular all of the allegations of affirmative matter set up in said answer, and further alleged that said execution was invalid, because the clerk had no authority to issue same, and that at the date of said answer, and at the date it was alleged defendant entered into a contract with said Hill, said execution had been restrained and enjoined by the district court of Grady county, and that defendant, Brooks, as well as said Hill, had knowledge thereof; that, if injunction had not actually been issued by the court on said date, defendant knew petition had been filed praying therefor, and knew that his landlord was making every effort to protect his possession, and that his attornment and contract with the said Hill was unauthorized and not necessary for the purpose of being protected in the possession of said premises; and, further, that plaintiff was the owner of said land at said date, and held the legal and equitable title thereto — all of which facts said defendant knew at all tim'es, and that if said rents were paid to the said Hill, they were paid with knowledge of said facts, and after suit was filed, and said payment was no defense to plaintiff's action for said rents. Upon a trial of the case a jury was impaneled, statements of respective counsel made, and - evidence of plaintiff offered, at the close of which defendant demurred to the evidence of plaintiff, which demurrer was sustained by the court, and judgment rendered for defendant, and plaintiff brings error.

At the trial plaintiff offered in evidence judgment in case No. -, United States v. Hill et al. (no written opinion, filed) rendered by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, to the introduction of which objection was sustained. The pleadings *191 disclose that it was contended by defendant that he had been evicted by the execution set out in his answer,- and was thereby justified in paying rents to the said Hill. It also appears from the pleadings that this execution was issued in the case of Hill v. Reynolds, which had been appealed to this court, and the judgment of the trial court affirmed. Reynolds v. Hill, 28 Okla. 533, 114 Pac. 1108. The opinion in that case discloses that judgment was rendered April 24, 1908, awarding possession of the-premises involved, including the premises in the case at bar, to the plaintiff, Hill, who is the same Hill mentioned in the instant case. A statement of the pleadings in that case shows that at the date of the judgment patents for said land had been issued to said Hill as the father of James B. and Harry F. Hill, arid Louis James, minors. It was alleged- by defendant therein that contest had been' instituted in the Land Department, which, on appeal to the Secretary of the Interior, had resulted in favor of defendant, awarding him the lands therein involved; but this court declined to go behind the patent, on the authority of Moore v. Robbins, 96 U. S. 530, 24 L. Ed. 848, and affirmed the judgment of the trial court awarding the lands to plaintiff. ■ In the case at bar the judgment of the United States court offered in evidence, and which was excluded, shows that on the 3d day of December, 1910, said United States, court, in an action brought by the United States of America against James B. Hill, Harry F. Hill, and Louis James, had canceled and set aside the patents theretofore issued to said defendants, and which formed the basis of the judgment in Hill v. Reynolds, rendered by the superior court of *192 Grady county, and upon which the execution involved was issued.

While it might have been the better procedure, had the case proceeded to verdict, for the plaintiff to reserve the introduction of this evidence to be offered in rebuttal of the defense set up in the answer, yet it was a question of procedure, and in view of the fact that the court sustained a demurrer to the plaintiff’s evidence, and did not require the defendant to offer any proof of the allegations in his answer, we think the action of the court in excluding the judgment was error.

Upon cross-examination of the witness C. A. Reynolds, the defendant introduced in evidence the execution referred to, issued in the case of Hill v. Reynolds, under which it was claimed that plaintiff, Willie Reynolds, had been dispossessed, and said Hill put in possession of the premises, and at the close .of plaintiff’s evidence demurrer was sustained thereto, and judgment rendered for defendant, and the action of the court thereon is assigned as error. Upon demurrer to the evidence, the correct rule for consideration thereof is that such demurrer admits all of the facts which the evidence reasonably tends to prove, and every reasonable inference and deduction that may logically be drawn therefrom, considering the evidence in its most favorable light in favor of the plaintiff and against the defendant. Edmisson v. Drumm-Flato Comm. Co., 13 Okla. 440, 73 Pac. 958; Ziska v. Ziska, 20 Okla. 634, 95 Pac. 254, 23 L. R. A. (N. S.) 1; Shawnee Light & Power Co. v. Sears, 21 Okla. 13, 95 Pac. 449; Cooper v. Flesner, 24 Okla. 47, 103 Pac. 1016, 23 L. R. A. (N. S.) 1180, 20 Ann. Cas. 29; C., R. I. & P. Ry. Co. v. McCulley, 30 Okla. 178, 120 Pac. 279; McCall Bros. v. Far *193 ley, 39 Okla. 389, 135 Pac. 339; Crow v. Crow, 40 Okla. 455, 139 Pac. 122.

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

Related

Butler v. Civic Gas Co.
1947 OK 249 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1947)
Stone v. Merrell
1945 OK 11 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1945)
Eisenschmidt v. Conway
155 P.2d 241 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1944)
St. Marie v. United States
108 F.2d 876 (Ninth Circuit, 1940)
Millet v. Bilby
1925 OK 483 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1925)
Clark v. Keith
1922 OK 173 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1922)
Gulf, C. & S. F. Ry. Co. v. Beasley
1917 OK 497 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1917)
Harris v. Owenby
1916 OK 758 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1916)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1915 OK 775, 152 P. 411, 49 Okla. 188, 1915 Okla. LEXIS 31, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/reynolds-v-brooks-okla-1915.