Roskoten v. Odom

1939 OK 99, 87 P.2d 338, 184 Okla. 368, 1939 Okla. LEXIS 58
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedFebruary 14, 1939
DocketNo. 28258.
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 1939 OK 99 (Roskoten v. Odom) 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
Roskoten v. Odom, 1939 OK 99, 87 P.2d 338, 184 Okla. 368, 1939 Okla. LEXIS 58 (Okla. 1939).

Opinion

*369 CORN, J.

This appeal is the outgrowth of a foreclosure action in the district court of Pontotoc county, brought by the plaintiff in error, herein called plaintiff, against Henry Odom and other defendants, including Leo Breco, whose widow and minor children are the appellees, herein referred to as defendants.

The title to the land involved was in Henry Odom at the time the mortgage was executed to the plaintiff, but subsequently the legal title to the land passed successively by mesne conveyances through other defendants named in the action to Leo Breco, who was the owner thereof at the time of the filing of the action. The various grantees appearing in the title assumed and agreed to pay the mortgage indebtedness as a part of the purchase price for the land, all of whom were made parties to the action, and judgment was rendered against them jointly and severally upon the note and for foreclosure of the mortgage. The defendants J. G. Breco and his wife, Sudie Breco, filed a motion for a new trial, but the defendant Leo Breco, who was then living, did not file a separate motion for a new trial, nor did he join in the aforesaid motion for a new trial. Judgment in this case was rendered by default, and no effort was made by the said Leo Breco to vacate or set aside the same.

The motion for new trial filed by the said J. G. Breco and 'Sudie Breco was not insisted upon until after the order of sale had been issued and the land sold at sheriff’s sale, which was after the expiration of the statutory six-months redemption period. The defendants J. G. Breco and Sudie Breco objected to the confirmation of the sale on the ground that the order of sale was prematurely issued for the reason that the motion for a new trial was at the time pending and undisposed of. The title had passed through the said J. G. Breco and Sudie Breco, who assumed and agreed to pay the mortgage indebtedness, and these defendants were seeking to evade primary liability by reason thereof, and their only interest in the action was to avoid the personal judgment for the deficiency. The court held that the objection should be sustained, and then and there the plaintiff and these objecting defendants entered into an agreement in open court whereby the plaintiff agreed to release the personal deficiency judgment against the Bréeos in consideration that the court then confirm the sale, and that there be no further action In the matter as to new trial, and that the matter be closed by confirmation of the sale by the court, and that an order should be entered accordingly. The court thereupon made an order finding and reciting said agreement, and approving the same in language as follows:

“It is therefore, ordered, adjudged and decreed by the court, that the motion for new trial, filed herein, by the defendants Bréeos be, and the same is hereby sustained.
“And it is further ordered by the court that upon the agreement, between plaintiff and defendants, as aforesaid, that an order of this court be entered confirming the sale had herein by the sheriff, upon the plaintiff releasing the personal deficiency judgment against the Bréeos, and that no further proceedings be had in said action, and that the same be closed upon a confirmation of said sale, which has been entered by the court on this date.”

Said order was made and entered on February 7, 1933, and on the same day the order confirming the sheriff’s sale was made and entered, and pursuant thereto sheriff’s deed was issued to the plaintiff, the purchaser of the land at said sale, and said purchaser was placed in possession of the premises.

On August 27, 1936, a different judge of said court made and entered an order permitting the defendants J. G. Breco and Sudie Breco to file an answer and cross-petition in said cause, and permitting Amy Breco, widow of Leo Breco. to join in the same in her own behalf and in behalf of Amigene and Sudie Marie Breco, minor children of Leo Breco, the said heirs of Leo Breco being brought in as additional parties to the action.

The theory upon which said answer and cross-petition was permitted to be filed was that the above-quoted order sustained the motion for a new trial, the court holding that this voided the sale proceedings, and further holding that the heirs of Leo Breco were not bound by said agreement for the reason that they were not parties to the action at that time. The court vacated the sale proceedings and permitted the defendants to plead as though judgment had not been rendered in the action. From this judgment of the court the plaintiff appealed.

The motion for new trial of the defendants, J." G. Breco and 'Sudie Breco, was acted on at the same time as the motion for confirmation of sale' filed by the plaintiff, and the order of the court made upon said hearing must be considered as a whole, and when so considered it is tantamount to an order setting aside the order sustain *370 ing the motion for a new trial and overruling the same. That it was so construed by said defendants is evident from the fact that they agreed to the confirmation of the sale, and when the order was made, toot no exceptions thereto nor appeal therefrom. Said defendants were not entitled to fur.ther plead in the case for at least two reasons: they were bound by their agreement and by the order of the court made pursuant thereto, and were estopped from pleading in the case for want of interest in the case after the release of the personal judgment against them.

The heirs of Leo Breco predicate their pretended right to void the sale of the land upon grounds that do not exist in this case. They rest upon the assumption that the sale was invalid because of the fact that the sale was had while the motion for a new trial by other defendants, to which Leo Breco was not a party, was pending and undisposed of, regardless of the disposition of said motion and confirmation of the sale upon the agreement of the parties as aforesaid, and that said motion for a new trial inured to the benefit of Leo Breco and those claiming through him; and also upon the assumption that the confirmation of the sale was invalid by reason of the fact that Leo Breco died before the sale was confirmed, and the judgment was not revived against his heirs, and they were not parties to the action at the time the order of confirmation was made and entered. although the death of Leo Breco occurred after the sale. The trial court tooir this view of the case and rendered judgment accordingly, thus permitting the heirs of Leo Breco to plead to the petition of the plaintiff originally filed in the case. It should be noted here, however, that they made no defense whatever to the plaintiff’s petition, but only aslced for an accounting of the rents and profits from the land during the four and a half year period during which the plaintiff had possession of the land under her sheriff’s deed, and that said income from the land he applied on the mortgage indebtedness against the land. The court denied these defendants the accounting prayed for in their cross-petition. The effect of the final judgment of the court appealed from was the vacation of the sale and of the original judgment rendered in the case, which was a judgment by default.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1939 OK 99, 87 P.2d 338, 184 Okla. 368, 1939 Okla. LEXIS 58, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/roskoten-v-odom-okla-1939.