Sharp v. Dougherty

1951 OK 33, 235 P.2d 663, 205 Okla. 108, 1951 Okla. LEXIS 579
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedFebruary 13, 1951
DocketNo. 33690
StatusPublished

This text of 1951 OK 33 (Sharp v. Dougherty) 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
Sharp v. Dougherty, 1951 OK 33, 235 P.2d 663, 205 Okla. 108, 1951 Okla. LEXIS 579 (Okla. 1951).

Opinions

WELCH, J.

Robert C. Sharp, L. C. Ritts, E. E. Simpson, Jr., executor, and Lillian Hartszogg, executrix of the estate of E. E. Simpson, deceased, and C. E. McCarty commenced this action against J. W. Dougherty, Sadie Dough-erty, Kenneth A. Ellison, Bessie M. Ellison, R. T. Scott, and Wm. H. Harding and others to quiet title to an undivided one-half interest in the oil, gas and other minerals under a certain described 100-acre tract of land.

Note: Hereinafter in mention of events preceding the judgment herein, our references to the plaintiffs herein will include E. E. Simpson instead of those named in representative capacity.

At trial, there was practically no conflict in the evidence.

On October 12, 1925, S. D. Weldon and wife, then owners of all right and interest in the land involved, executed a note, with mortgage covering the land, in favor of the Clement Mortgage Company. In 1927 the Weldons, by general warranty deed, conveyed an undivided one-half interest in the minerals in and under the land whereby the plaintiffs herein in respective shares became owners of said one-half mineral interest. Thereafter the note and mortgage by mesne assignments became the property of C. Rollins Brown. On August 11, 1938, Brown received from the Weldons a warranty deed describing the tract of land here involved, but with the space for the naming of a grantee left in blank. On the sanie day Brown made an assignment of the mortgage to J. W. Dougherty and at the same time delivered to the said Dougherty the Weldon note and the Weldon deed with grantee unnamed. On August 31, 1938, Dougherty commenced a proceeding for foreclosure of the [109]*109mortgage. The Weldons and the plaintiffs herein, and one Bruce Whitaker and others were named defendants. The prayer of Dougherty’s petition was for personal judgment against the Weldons on their note, and for foreclosure against all the defendants. The Wel-dons were served with summons but made no appearance. The plaintiffs herein, as defendants in the Dougherty action, and for answer to the petition of Dougherty, disclaimed any right, title or interest in the property involved and asked discharge with their costs. Thereafter, on November 18, 1938, the following pleading was filed'.

“Comes now Bruce Whitaker, one of the defendants in the above entitled cause who has not been served with summons and enters his general appearance in this cause for all purposes and says that he disclaims any right, title or interest in and to the property involved in this suit and the defendant further says that a deed was made to him by the defendants S. D. Weldon and Rachel Weldon but that he has this day executed warranty deed to the plaintiff herein, J. W. Dougherty, in which deed he conveys all right, title and interest which he has in and to this said property involved in this cause.
“Wherefore, this defendant prays to be discharged with his costs.”

On the same day (November 18, 1938) the plaintiff Dougherty filed a pleading designated “Supplemental Petition” wherein he recited that since the filing of his original petition, the defendant McCarty, Ritts, Simpson and Sharp (plaintiffs herein), and Whitaker had disclaimed any interest in the property; that Weldon and wife had conveyed all their interest to Whitaker and Whitaker had conveyed to plaintiff Dougherty; that the plaintiff desires no deficiency judgment against the defendants Weldon. The prayer of the pleading was that plaintiff Dougherty have judgment against the defendants quieting title to the property involved in the plaintiff.

On November 18, 1938, judgment was entered quieting title in plaintiff Dougherty. The trial court made findings that the defendants, the plaintiffs herein, had disclaimed interest in the property, the subject of the action, that the defendants Weldon had conveyed the property to the defendant Whitaker, and that Whitaker had conveyed to the plaintiff Dougherty.

The proceeding and judgment was in the district court of Garvin county, in case No. 12702, J. W. Dougherty v. S. D. Weldon et al.

After entry of the judgment the Weldon deed of August 11, 1938, with Whitaker’s name appearing therein as the grantee, was filed for record. Also deed from Whitaker to Dougherty was filed for record.

Whitaker was a business partner of Dougherty and lent his name as grantee in the Weldon deed and executed deed to Dougherty as accommodation to Dougherty.

In 1945 the Doughertys, defendants herein, executed and delivered deeds of certain mineral interest in the land to the other defendants named herein. During that year the Doughertys had executed conveyance of a one-half mineral interest to another whose rights thereto have been adjudicated and are not involved in this appeal. Thereafter the plaintiffs commenced this action wherein the above state of facts was presented.

Judgment in the instant case was for the defendants denying the plaintiffs’ claims of title to mineral interests in the land and that the defendants’ title to the respective mineral interests as set forth and claimed in their respective pleadings be quieted.

In appeal the plaintiffs contend:

“The procurement of the disclaimer and the judgment in the case of J. W. Dougherty, plaintiffs, v. S. D. Weldon, et al., No. 12702, was by fraud practiced upon the plaintiff herein, and the plaintiffs are entitled to have said judgment vacated and held for naught, and to have their title quieted against the defendants, and each of them.”

[110]*110Plaintiffs assert that at the time J. W. Dougherty brought the foreclosure action he had no cause of action against these plaintiffs, defendants therein, in that Dougherty had received a deed from the mortgagors, the Weldons, which operated to discharge the mortgage indebtedness and further that if the mortgage indebtedness was not so extinguished that in acceptance of the deed Dougherty became a cotenant with the plaintiffs and had the duty of giving the plaintiffs the opportunity of contributing their proportionate part of the purchase price he paid for the mortgage and thereby affording opportunity to have the mortgage released as to their interests; that Dougherty was under a duty to disclose to the plaintiffs that he had acquired the mortgage for $500, but concealed such fact and falsely alleged in his petition that the Weldons held legal title to the property involved and that the property and the plaintiffs’ mineral interests were subject to the mortgage indebtedness of $1,500, and that such false allegations were made in the petition to mislead plaintiffs into not defending themselves and to get them to file disclaimers or let the matter go by default; that the representations in Dougherty’s petition that the Weldons were liable on the mortgage indebtedness and that legal title to the property involved was in the Weldons and concealment of the fact that the legal title was in Bruce Whitaker, holding it for Dougherty, was fraudulent and induced the plaintiffs to file disclaimer and that concealment of the true facts was a fraud upon the court resulting in the procurement of the judgment quieting title in Dougherty.

As we have noted, there was little conflict in the evidence.

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Bluebook (online)
1951 OK 33, 235 P.2d 663, 205 Okla. 108, 1951 Okla. LEXIS 579, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sharp-v-dougherty-okla-1951.