Riddle v. Grayson

1940 OK 3, 105 P.2d 248, 187 Okla. 647, 1940 Okla. LEXIS 329
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJanuary 9, 1940
DocketNo. 28925.
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 1940 OK 3 (Riddle v. Grayson) 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
Riddle v. Grayson, 1940 OK 3, 105 P.2d 248, 187 Okla. 647, 1940 Okla. LEXIS 329 (Okla. 1940).

Opinion

RILEY, J.

This is an appeal from a judgment against F. E. Riddle and in favor of defendants in error. F. E. Riddle intervened in an action or proceeding which originated in about 1917. The original action was one by defendants in error against James A., and William Harris, and others claiming under or with them.

It appears that some time prior to August, 1917, James A. Harris and William H. Harris had purchased and taken deeds from certain persons supposed to own an undivided one-half interest in certain lands in Creek county, being the lands originally allotted to Garfield Colbert and Nancy Colbert. James Brann owned the other undivided one-half interest in said land.

James A. Harris and William H. Harris, claiming as owners of an undivided one-half interest in said lands, some years before 1917, had gone upon and developed said lands or a part thereof for oil and gas.

• On August 4, 1917, Isom Grayson and others commenced an action in the district court of Creek county to recover an interest in the undivided one-half interest in the land claimed by the Harrises, for partition as between them and the Harrises; an accounting for the oil and gas taken from said land and for the appointment of a receiver to take charge of said lands so as to conserve the oil and gas.

On February 21, 1920, the court rendered judgment decreeing plaintiffs in said action to be the owners of a 9/22 interest in said land, and the Harrises the owners of 2/22 and James Brann to be the owner of the remaining 11/22 or % interest. The interest of Brann was not disputed. The judgment also decreed plaintiffs were entitled to an accounting for the oil and gas taken. Whether a receiver was appointed before the decree is not disclosed by the record before us. But after judgment was entered a receiver was appointed to take charge of the 9/22 interest in the land decreed to plaintiffs and the 9/22 of the oil and gas produced therefrom or its proceeds and hold the same pending final disposition of the case. No receiver was appointed to take charge of or collect for the oil and gas produced from the 2/22 interest decreed to the Harrises. The plaintiffs did not appeal from said judgment. James A. and Wm. H. Harris did appeal.

The judgment was reversed and plaintiffs appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States. A number of decisions were rendered. In 1930, the cause was remanded to the district court of Creek county for new trial. January 23, 1932, judgment was again entered in the district court of Creek county, the same as the original judgment except as to 40 acres of land. As to that 40 acres it was decreed that the Harrises were the owners of 2/22 interest acquired by their original deed, and, in addition thereto, the other 9/22 interest except as to certain plaintiffs, *649 who were minors at the institution of the action. Again it was decreed that plaintiffs were entitled to an accounting, but accounting was reserved until final determination of the case in the event of an appeal. The Harrises again appealed to this court, where the judgment was affirmed in 1932, and the cause was remanded for an accounting. Harris v. Grayson, 173 Okla. 163, 47 P. 2d 879.

The Texas Company was the purchaser of the oil, and after the appointment of the receiver the proceeds from 9/22 of the oil was paid to the receiver. The proceeds from 2/22 of the oil, that part represented by the 2/22 interest in the land decreed to the Harrises, were paid to a bank to which the Harrises had assigned the proceeds, until about 1927, at which time one of the attorneys wrote the Texas Company that plaintiffs were claiming or would claim a lien on the additional 2/22 represented by the Harrises’ interest. Thereupon the Texas Company ceased paying the bank. As a result $3,400, representing the 2/22 interest of the Harrises in the land, accumulated in the hands of the Texas Company.

Some time in 1933, the attorney who had represented the Harrises in the litigation died, and thereafter the Harrises employed F. E. Riddle, plaintiff in error herein, to represent them in said litigation. At the same time they orally assigned all their interest in the fund thus accumulated and to accumulate to Riddle in payment of and as security for his services. January 28, 1935, this assignment was reduced to writing reciting and confirming the former oral assignment. This assignment was made subject to the prior assignment in favor of the Producers Bank, as to any amount remaining unpaid on the indebtedness of the Harrises to said bank, then estimated to be about $1,000. It was later decreed that there was no balance due on said indebtedness, so that Riddle thereby became the owner of whatever interest the Harrises may have had in said accumulated fund.

June 10, 1937, in the accounting proceeding, judgment was rendered in favor of the plaintiffs in that action, defendants in error here, and against James A. Harris and William H. Harris. This judgment provided that it was without prejudice to the rights of Riddle. Thereafter Riddle filed a plea in intervention setting up his claim to the fund in question. So far as this record discloses, the Texas Company was not made a party to the litigation. The Harrises had become insolvent. James A. Harris, Jr., filed a like plea claiming to be the owner of a balance due on the alleged mortgage indebtedness of the Harrises to the Producers Bank. Issues were joined in these pleas. Defendants in error asserted, in substance, that in the original petition filed in 1917, they claimed to be the owners of an undivided one-half interest in the lands involved; that the Harrises claimed all the interest to the exclusion of plaintiffs therein, and that the Harrises were taking and converting to their own use the oil and gas from said land, and that they should be held to account for the same, and that any judgment in their favor in such accounting be made a lien against the respective interests of said defendants.

The trial court denied the claim of Riddle and entered a judgment in effect reaffirming the right of plaintiffs to partition and declaring an equitable lien on all the interests of the Harrises in the land itself, and also on the funds in the hands of the Texas Company.

Plaintiff in error cites a number of cases holding in effect that a claim against a cotenant for unequal use and occupation of the common property is a simple debt and creates no lien on the land.

Defendants in error cite a number of cases holding to the contrary. But the right to a lien on that interest of the land itself owned by the Harrises is not questioned in this case. Riddle is claiming no interest in the land itself, and the Harrises are not appealing from the decree in this case.

*650 Cases are also cited holding that on partition where shares unequal in value are assigned to tenants in common owning equal interests in the common property, the one to whom is assigned the share of less value may have a money judgment termed “owelty” against the one to whom the share of the greater value is assigned to equalize the difference in value, and this judgment may be declared a lien on the part of the land allotted to the party against whom such judgment is rendered. But that is not this case. That question is not involved.

The question is whether a lien may be declared against the fund in question assigned to plaintiff in error.

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Related

Riddle v. Brann
1942 OK 24 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1942)

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Bluebook (online)
1940 OK 3, 105 P.2d 248, 187 Okla. 647, 1940 Okla. LEXIS 329, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/riddle-v-grayson-okla-1940.