Smith v. Smith

1919 OK 57, 194 P. 896, 184 P. 82, 80 Okla. 136, 1919 Okla. LEXIS 223
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedFebruary 24, 1919
Docket8871
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 1919 OK 57 (Smith v. Smith) 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. Smith, 1919 OK 57, 194 P. 896, 184 P. 82, 80 Okla. 136, 1919 Okla. LEXIS 223 (Okla. 1919).

Opinion

JOHNSON, J.

This suit was instituted in the district court of Okmulgee county, Okla., on July 25, 1913, by Herbert E. Smith, an attorney at law, plaintiff, against Crittenden Smith, E. M. Pratt, C. W. Holbrook, Fred M. Carter, G. E. Oassity, and Theodore Gray-son, defendants, to enforce an alleged attorney’s lien based upon attorney’s fees contract executed to him and O. B. McCrory, an attorney, by the guardian of a minor Creek freedman citizen, approved by the proper probate court, and signed by said minor, against 120 acres of land in Okmulgee county, Okla. M. E. Graham and Crittenden Smith and Bank of Commerce of Okmulgee, Okla., later filed their petitions of intervention. We will designate the parties as they appear in the court below.

The record discloses that Herbert E. Smith, the plaintiff in the court below, recovered judgment for $1,200 against the defendant ■below,. Theodore Grayson, which was declared to be a first and prior lien upon the land in controversy, the legal title to which was by said judgment decreed to the defendant below, Carleton Holbrook. The records further disclose that the land involved herein was the surplus allotment of Theodore Grayson, a Creek freedman citizen, enrolled as such opposite No. T69 upon the Ereedman rolls in the name of “Fred Bruner,” who arrived at his majority during the month of August, 1912, and was of full legal age on August 31, 1912, all of which is admitted by all parties herein.

The defendant in error Oarleton W. Hol-brook, an attorney with offices at Okmulgee, Okla:, wag desirous of acquiring title to said surplus lands of Theodore Grayson, alias Fred Bruner, together with his homestead allotment, and while said Grayson was a minor, less than 18 years of age, under the guardianship of his father, John Grayson, with the said Holbrook as his attorney, on or about the 10th day of September, 1908, in order to execute such desire, a marriage license was procured- from the county court of Tulsa county, Okla., for the marriage of said Grayson to one Ida Johnson, which marriage ceremony, under such license, was consummated at Muskogee, Muskogee county, *138 Okla., and thereafter, at said place and on said date, a warranty deed was taken from said Grayson and wife in favor of said Hol-brook, covering said surplus and homestead lands of Grayson, for an alleged cash consideration of $4,000. After the making of said deed, said I-Iolbrook executed a mortgage to one W. W. Puller on October 5, 1908, for $2,500, covering said premises, and again, on December 10, 1908, procured another and further warranty deed in his favor to be executed by said Grayson at Tulsa, Okla., for a recited cash consideration of $4,000, and on January 9, 1909, said Holbrook executed a deed in favor of one Walter W. Morton, for a recited cash consideration of $2,000, to the N. % of said N. W. section 12-13-12.

During the fall of 1909, the conditions above stated becoming known to the father and guardian of said minor, John Grayson, for the conservation and protection of the right of said minor to his said allotments then claimed by said minor’s former attorney, Holbrook, by virtue of said instruments, and in order to reduce said premises to his possession as such guardian, the said Holbrook then being in possession and claiming the right thereto, and wholly denying the right of said minor to said premises, filed in the county court of Okmulgee county, on or about September 30, 1909, his petition asking the court to make an order authorizing him, as such guardian for said minor, to employ counsel to file suit to cancel said instruments above stated and to reduce said premises to his possession, and on said date said court granted the prayer of said petition and made its order authorizing John Grayson, as guardian of Theodore, to employ counsel to said ends. Thereafter the defendant in error H. E. Smith was employed, and thereafter, about October 2, 1909, he filed in the district court of Okmulgee county a petition in favor of John Grayson, guardian of Theodore Gray-son, a minor, against Holbrook et al., No. 1446.

The above case being dismissed, and John Grayson being absent, and' his whereabouts being unknown, said Theodore Grayson, while a minor over 18 years of age, on July 14, 1910, entered into a contract employing .the defendant in error H. E. 'Smith sole attorney for the purpose of filing said suit to cancel said instruments held as aforesaid and to recover the possesison of said land for him, wherein he agreed to pay for said services, in ease of success, an undivided one-half interest in the recovery made, which contract was timely recorded in the office of the register of deeds of Okmulgee county.

Carrying out said agreement, and for the purpose aforesaid, and the said Theodore Grayson having selected one Charles P. Dunbar as his next friend to represent him in said action, the defendant in error H. E. Smith, on or about August 4, 1910, filed in said district court in behalf of said Theodore Grayson against Holbrook et al. a petition seeking the cancellation of said instruments and possession of said premises, which' was numbered in said' court No. 1711, and the defendant in error, at the time of the filing of said petition, had indorsed thereon over his name the words “Lien claimed.” After No. 1711 had been filed, on March 21, 1911, for the proper protection of Theodore Gray-son, said county court appointed ‘Charles P. Dunbar guardian of the person and estate of said minor, in whose favor said suit had been instituted by the defendant in error as aforesaid and was pending, who on said date filed in said county court his petition, asking leave to employ counsel for the continuance of said suit instituted by him as said next friend of Theodore Grayson.

By virtue of said petition said county court on said date made its order. approving the verbal agreement of said guardian, which was on August 3, 1911, reduced to writing as follows:

“That the instruments and representations made in said petition are true, and that the agreement made with the attorneys mentioned therein, to wit, Herbert E. Smith and Charles B'. MeCrory, was and is a reasonable and fair contract. Therefore it is hereby ordered, adjudged, and decreed that said agreement be and the same is hereby approved and confirmed.”

Thereafter, on August 3, 1911, said guardian and minor filed in said county court their petition, wherein they represented to it:

“Represents that all of the property of said minor involved in litigation, as heretofore, on March 25, 1911, represented by this guardian of this court, and as set forth by the recitals in a contract, a duplicate of which is hereby attached; that to recover and preserve the property and estate of said wal’d it lias been and is absolutely necessary for this guardian to employ counsel to represent the interests of said minor as heretofore represented, the petitioner prays that the contract, a copy of which is annexed and by virtue of which said guardian retained said attorneys, be considered, and in all respects approved.” (This petition was signed by Theodore Grayson.)

Attached to said potition was a duplicate of said contract, signed by Dunbar, as guardian, and Smith and MeCrory, and was duly acknowledged before the county judge, and signed and sworn to by Theodore Grayson, then near 20 years of age, and which was duly approved by said court on August- 3, 1911, and thereafter recorded in Book M 48, *139

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1919 OK 57, 194 P. 896, 184 P. 82, 80 Okla. 136, 1919 Okla. LEXIS 223, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/smith-v-smith-okla-1919.