Smith v. Owens

397 P.2d 673
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedNovember 4, 1964
Docket39663
StatusPublished
Cited by49 cases

This text of 397 P.2d 673 (Smith v. Owens) 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
Smith v. Owens, 397 P.2d 673 (Okla. 1964).

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

The case of Owens v. El Gato Investment Company, Okl., 332 P.2d 22, involved an action wherein El Gato Investment Company, hereinafter referred to as El Gato, brought an action against O. O. Owens to recover damages for breach of a land purchase contract. Owens counter claimed for specific performance and for cancellation of deeds to pendente lite purchasers. The trial court rendered judgment against Owens. On appeal we reversed the trial court’s judgment and remanded the same.

In reversing the judgment of the trial court, we held that Owens was entitled to specific performance of the contract and to have record title to the property involved quieted in his name. Upon the mandate being spread of record, Owens filed a motion with the trial court to set the cause for further hearing. The order setting the cause for hearing contained, inter alia, the following language:

“All parties appearing stipulate and agree that the trial court should, in conformity with the opinion rendered by the Supreme Court of Oklahoma, enter its order granting to defendant O. O. Owens a new trial in this cause, and it was in open court stipulated by all persons appearing that said new trial should be limited to the determination of the issues to be presented upon an accounting between the parties hereto.”

This appeal involves the judgment of the trial court rendered in the accounting feature of the controversy after the case of Owens v. El Gato Investment Company (332 P.2d 22) was remanded to the trial court. To understand the issues in the present appeal, pertinent facts in the original action should be reviewed.

On June 16, 1938, Owens entered into a written contract with El Gato to purchase a tract of land in the City of Tulsa for $49,-350.00. The tract was then under lease to Barall Food Stores at a monthly rental of $500.00 and said amount was to be paid to El Gato and to be applied to the payment of taxes, interest and the balance to the purchase price. After the lease to Barall Food Stores expired at the end of December, 1939, Owens and El Gato orally agreed that the original contract be amended and that Owens would pay $200.00 per month. Owens made monthly payments of $200.00, the last one being made in August, 1941. On October 27, 1941, El Gato served “Notice of Termination of Contract” on Owens and on October 29, 1941, filed its action *677 against Owens to recover $10,000.00 against Owens in liquidated damages. By an amended petition, El Gato sought $19,-405.29 in damages against Owens for breach of the contract to purchase.

In September, 1942, El Gato was dissolved and by order of the District Court of Tulsa County, Pauline Parrish and Mr. and Mrs. Watson, who were members of El Gato’s Board of Directors, were appointed trustees of the dissolved El Gato. In January, 1946, Mrs. Parrish and the Watsons conveyed the property to Smiths for $36,625.00. On March 24, 1948, by order of the trial court, Pauline Parrish, Mr. and Mrs. Watson and Mr. and Mrs. Smith were made defendants in the action.

Due to delays occasioned by disposing of preliminary pleadings, Owens first pleaded to the merits of the case on March 24, 1948, in which he answered that he was willing to perform the contract and tendered the sum of $2,666.60 “or any other sum, larger or smaller, found by the court to be the accurate amount due.” On the same day, Owens moved the court to make Mrs. Parrish and Mr. and Mrs. Watson, who are successor trustees of El Gato, a dissolved corporation, and Mr. and Mrs. Smith, who purchased the property in 1946, additional parties. Owens moved to make the Wat-sons and Mrs. Parrish parties not only as trustees but in their individual capacity.

Several other pleadings were filed and in 1956 the trial court rendered judgment against Owens and said judgment was reversed by this Court in 1958 in Owens v. El Gato Investment Co., supra, as heretofore set out. After the cause was remanded and on further hearing the trial court filed its findings of fact and conclusions of law and rendered judgment accordingly. The trial court, inter alia, found that (1) the total amount due on the contract on October 27, 1941, from Owens to El Gato was $48,724.17; (2) El Gato, Mrs. Parrish and Mr. and Mrs. Watson, successor trustees of El Gato, a dissolved corporation, were in possession of the property involved from October 27, 1941 to January 17, 1946, and the reasonable rental value of the property and interest thereon for that period was $48,262.73; (3) Mrs. Parrish and Mr. and Mrs. Watson, as successor trustees, and not individually, were liable to Owens for the rental of the property as of August 25, 1960, with interest thereon, in the sum of $176,792.82; (4) the $48,724.17 balance due from Owens on the purchase price should be applied against the $176,792.82, leaving a balance of $128,068.65; (5) Mr. and Mrs. Smith were liable to Owens for the rental value of the property from January 17, 1946 to August 25, 1960, with interest thereon, in the sum of $126,051.66; (6) El Gato and its successors had paid $4,194.12 in ad valorem taxes and Mr. and Mrs. Smith had paid $18,298.23.

The trial court further found that after October 27, 1941, neither El Gato nor its successors would have accepted a payment from Owens upon the principal or interest owed upon the purchase price and would not be entitled to recover any interest upon the purchase price since that date; and that since El Gato and its successors and Mr. and Mrs. Smith did not act in good faith and in the honest belief that they were the owners of the property, the doctrine of unjust enrichment would not apply to Owens and they would not be entitled to credit for the ad valorem taxes, totaling some $23,-492.35, paid upon the property.

On August 25, 1960, the trial court rendered judgment in favor of Owens against El Gato, Mrs. Parrish and the Watsons as successor trustees, and not as individuals, and Mr. and Mrs. Smith in the sum of $126,051.65, and against El Gato and its successor trustees, and not as individuals, in the sum of $2,106.99, and decreed that Owens was the owner of the property and entitled to immediate possession.

Briefly stated, the judgment appealed from, decreed that Owens was entitled to the reasonable rental of the property with interest thereon, from October 27, 1941 to August 25, 1960, which amounted to approximately $176,792.82; that Owens should not pay interest on the balance of *678 the purchase price, (being $48,724.17) from October 27, 1941, but said balance should be applied against the $176,792.82; that El Gato and the Smiths would not be entitled to credit for approximately $23,492.35 paid for ad valorem taxes upon the property from October 27, 1941 to August, 1960; that Owens should have immediate possession of the property and title quieted in his name.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith filed their petition in error against Owens and Mrs. Parrish and the Watsons individually. El Gato and the Watsons and Mrs. Parrish, as successor trustees and not individually, filed their petition in error naming the same defendants in error set forth in Mr. and Mrs. Smith’s petition in error but complain only as to the judgment rendered in favor of Owens. However, for the purpose of clarity, we will consider all specifications of error together as they relate to the same subject manner. El Gato, and its successor trustees, Mrs. Parrish and Mr. and Mrs. Watson, will be referred to as El Gato; and Mr. and Mrs.

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Bluebook (online)
397 P.2d 673, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/smith-v-owens-okla-1964.