Southern Surety Co. v. Patterson Steel Co.

1925 OK 540, 237 P. 588, 111 Okla. 39, 1925 Okla. LEXIS 411
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJune 23, 1925
Docket15459
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 1925 OK 540 (Southern Surety Co. v. Patterson Steel Co.) 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
Southern Surety Co. v. Patterson Steel Co., 1925 OK 540, 237 P. 588, 111 Okla. 39, 1925 Okla. LEXIS 411 (Okla. 1925).

Opinion

Opinion by

FOSTER, C.

This was an action brought by the defendant in error, Patterson Steel Company, a corporation, as plaintiff, against the Southern Surety Company, a corporation, plaintiff in error, and A. C. Bancroft, as defendants, in the district court of Tulsa county, to recover under three causes' of action, incorporated in a second amended-petition and supplemental cause of action, filed by the defendant in error in said action. Parties will be hereinafter referred ’ to as they appeared in the trial court .

*40 A demurrer was interposed by tbe defendant, Southern Surety Company, to the second amended petition and supplemental cause of action of the plaintiff, heard and overruled, and the defendant, Southern Surety Company, appeals to review the judgment of the lower court overruling its demurrer and entering judgment against it for the sum of $2,119.85.

The defendant Bancroft did not appear nor contest in any manner the claims of the plaintiff as to him.

The facts necessary to be considered in order to dispose of the legal propositions involved are substantially as follows:

A. C. Bancroft, on the 12th day of January, 1923, made, executed, and delivered to the plaintiff his promissory note for the sum of $1,500, due and payable 90 days thereafter.

Beginning on January 1, 1923, until August 23, 1923, the plaintiff sold and delivered to Bancroft, goods, wares, and merchandise, consisting of steel supplies of the total value Of $7,349.67.

On August 23, 1923, after allowing Bancroft credit for various sums theretofore paid by him to apply on said account which were received and credited between February 22, 1923, and July 30, 1923, there remained a balance due and unpaid of $1;564.-74.

On the 19th day of April, 1923, the said Bancroft entered into a contract- with Tulsa county for the construction of a bridge over Willow Springs branch, near Willow Springs schoolhouse. This contract, by subsequent agreement of the parties entered into on July 9, 1923, was extended so as to provide for the construction of various other Willow Springs bridges not embraced in the original contract, but which were fully set out in an order of extension made and entered of record by the board of county commissioners of Tulsa county on the 9th day of July, 1923.

A statutory bond was executed by Bancroft to Tulsa county to guarantee the payment of all' indebtedness incurred in the performance of his original contract with Tulsa county for the construction of the certain bridge over Willow Springs branch near Willow Springs schoolhouse, and this bond,' by stipulation of the Southern Surety Company, dated and executed August 16, 1923, was extended • and its terms made to apply to indebtedness incurred by Bancroft in the construction of additional culverts and bridges provided for in the extension agreement of April 19, 1923.

Suit was originally filed by the plaintiff against Bancroft on August 24, 1923, to recover on said promissory note, a copy of the note being attached to its petition.

On August 27, 1923, an amended petition was filed in which there was joined with its cause of action for a recovery on the note, a cause of action against Bancroft for the balance alleged to be due it for goods, wares, and merchandise consisting of steel supplies sold and delivered to him from January 1, 1923, to August 23, 1923, in the sum of $1,564.74. On November 30, 1923, an order was made by the trial court making the Southern Surety Company a party defendant and giving the plaintiff leave to . file its second amended petition and supplemental cause of action, pursuant to which summons was issued and served upon the Southern Surety Company and it was brought into the case. There were three causes of action incorporated in the second amended petition and supplemental cause of action.

The first two causes of action were the same as they appeared in the first amended petition, and the third cause of action sought to recover the sum of $2,119.85, of the Southern Surety Company upon its statutory liability as surety in the bond executed by it to Tulsa county, a copy of which bond and an extension thereof, together with itemized statement of materials furnished Bancroft by the plaintiff from May 29, 192-3, to July 16, 1923. of the value of $2,119.85, and used by him in the construction of the Willow Springs bridges were attached to the petition.

• The demurrer interposed by the defendant Southern Surety Company and overruled by the trial court is as follows:

‘‘Comes now the Southern Surety Company, a corporation, and demurs specially and generally to the second amended petition and supplemental cause of action of the -plaintiff herein, and for grounds of objection states: First: That this court had no jurisdiction of the person of the Southern Surety Company or the subject of the third cause of action designated in plaintiff’s petition as supplemental cause of action for the reason that it contains no allegations of fact occurring after filing of the original petition herein. Second: That several causes of action are improperly joined as the said petition shows on its face that the Southern Surety Company has no interest in the first and second causes of action and that the third cause of action - is improperly joined with the remaining paragraph of said petition.”

We think it clear that if the nature of the case as disclosed here was such that the *41 defendant Southern Surety Company could properly have been joined as a defendant in (he first instance, by reason of its connection with the original transaction, the court acquired jurisdiction of the person of the defendant and of the subject-matter of the third cause of action by virtue of the order of the trial court making the Southern Surety Company a party defendant and giving the plaintiff leave to file its second amended petition and supplemental cause of action.

If, on the other hand, the plaintiff’s second amended petition brings into the case a new cause of action which did not arise out of the same transaction or transactions connected with the same subject-matter on which the original action was based, it is dear that the trial court could not acquire jurisdiction in the action to render any judgment or order affecting the defendant Southern Surety Company.

In Hirschman v. Foster, 59 Okla. 178, 158 Pac. 1177. our court said:

“Nor did the court have jurisdiction of the particular subject-matter of the action, for the reason that under the allegations, as we are now assuming them, as above stated, even if treated as an amendment, the allegations of the supplemental bill brought into the action a new claim which the court was not justified in allowing, and which it had no jurisdiction to consider in that action.”

A correct solution therefore, of the question here presented, turns on whether or not the nature of the case under consideration is such as to admit the joining of the cause of action against Bancroft and the Southern Surety Cbmpany in the first instance. In determining this question, we must be guided by the allegations as they apipear on the face of the petition.

Section 266, Comp. St. 1921, provides as follows:

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

White v. Taylor
1986 OK CIV APP 29 (Court of Civil Appeals of Oklahoma, 1986)
Stanolind Oil & Gas Co. v. McKinnis
1950 OK 258 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1950)
Atlantic Refining Co. v. Pack
1947 OK 127 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1947)
Fishencord v. Peterson
1935 OK 746 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1935)
Nolan v. Mathis
1928 OK 616 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1928)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1925 OK 540, 237 P. 588, 111 Okla. 39, 1925 Okla. LEXIS 411, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/southern-surety-co-v-patterson-steel-co-okla-1925.