State ex rel. Cartwright v. Ogden

1982 OK 82, 657 P.2d 142, 1982 Okla. LEXIS 314
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJuly 15, 1982
DocketNo. 58686
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 1982 OK 82 (State ex rel. Cartwright v. Ogden) 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
State ex rel. Cartwright v. Ogden, 1982 OK 82, 657 P.2d 142, 1982 Okla. LEXIS 314 (Okla. 1982).

Opinions

LAVENDER, Justice:

Original jurisdiction is properly urged pursuant to Art. 7, § 4 of the Oklahoma Constitution which provides: “The original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court shall extend to a general superintending control over all inferior courts and all [143]*143Agencies, Commissions and Boards created by law.”

The issues which are hereinafter discussed are matters of publici juris.

We therefore assume original jurisdiction.

Following the rendition of our opinion in Oklahoma Ed. Ass’n, Inc. v. Nigh, Okl., 642 P.2d 230, rehearing denied March 30, 1982, the State of Oklahoma, trustee of the State and School Lands Trust, a constitutional trust by and through its duly designated and acting administrator, the Commissioners of the Land Office of the State of Oklahoma, filed three suits in the District Court of Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, identically captioned IN THE MATTER OF THE STATE AND SCHOOL LANDS TRUST, A CONSTITUTIONAL TRUST and alleging in identical language allegations epitomized as follows:

1. The place of residence and business of the Administrator is the City of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

2. The Administrator is charged by Art. VI, § 32 of the Oklahoma Constitution with the duty of the sale, rental, disposal, and managing of the school lands and other public lands of the State and of the funds and proceeds derived therefrom, under rules and regulations prescribed by the Legislature, for the use and benefit of the trust beneficiaries.

3. The necessary parties to the suit are those persons or entities, governmental or otherwise, actually designated by name in the Constitution and statutes of the State of Oklahoma and those persons and/or entities, governmental or otherwise, actually receiving distributions from the trust at the time of the filing of the suit, and additional persons who may be affected by the suit.

4. At a meeting of the administrator of the trust held on March 2,1982, the Administrator ordered its attorneys to seek approval of certain procedures activated or contemplated by the Administrator as being in compliance with our judgment in Oklahoma Ed. Ass’n, Inc. v. Nigh, supra, and the Trust instruments, the Enabling Act of the State of Oklahoma, and Art. XI of the Oklahoma Constitution.

The first of the Oklahoma County District Court suits involved the present system of leasing state-owned mineral rights under Administrator’s control for oil and gas purposes; the second farm loan proceeds in situations where loan applications were approved but loan proceeds were not disbursed prior to the Supreme Court opinion; and the third suit involved pending farm loans which the Administrator approved and funds were partially disbursed prior to the Supreme Court opinion, wherein Administrator sought approval of its proposal to reinstate pay-out of the balance of the farm loan proceeds.

A consolidated hearing was had by the Hon. Joe Cannon, District Judge of Oklahoma, to whom the cases were assigned, and on April 26, 1982, the Hon. Joe Cannon made certain findings and rulings, the substance of which included the following:

1. Administrator’s meeting of March 2, 1982, was illegal for want of the necessary 20 days’ notice.

2. Administrator’s meeting of April 6, 1982, was illegal for want of proper notice, there being no emergency, rendering actions therein taken void, and directing that a legal meeting be had.

3. There are no valid rules or regulations for holdover tenants, and Administrator must adopt immediate policy to collect holdover rents immediately, or oust the holdover tenants. Administrator is ordered to charge holdover tenants the “fair market value on a monthly basis.”

4. Administrator should give serious thought about the old lessees being able to harvest crops and to resolve the conflict between the Constitution, the lease terms and the general state statutes on the subject.

5. The “commodity price of the market variable that’s been talked about ... is absolutely a foreign parity, ... that is illegal and unconstitutional and in violation of the Supreme Court order ... and it’s struck down by this court.”

6. Administrator is ordered to devise a policy which will give adequate notice sufficient to result in a true lease sale.

[144]*1447. Administrator “must establish a policy on interest rates that has some connection with the real business world and something that most of the big lending institutions do.”

8. Administrator must establish a proper policy regarding' ownership of improvements on leased land.

9. Administrator is required to lease property out on the fair cash market value of the property.

10. Administrator is ordered to make a study and implement a policy relating to outstanding low-interest loans yielding three to four per cent per annum.

11. Administrator is restrained from permitting lessees to remove improvements from leased premises pending further order of the court.

We do not here pass upon the propriety or correctness of any of said findings and orders of the Oklahoma County District Court, such issues not being before us, and we point them out herein only to show the broad sweep of the issues pending before the Hon. Joe Cannon, to demonstrate that they fall within the orbit of Oklahoma’s version of the Uniform Trusts Act which was adopted by the Oklahoma Legislature on May 31,1941, and to show that all of the issues therein involve the same issues involved in the cases pending in the First Judicial District.

The pertinent part of the Uniform Trusts Act (60 O.S.1981, § 175.23) provides:

“A. The district court shall have original jurisdiction to construe the provisions of any trust instrument; to determine the law applicable thereto: the powers, duties, and liability of trustee; the existence or nonexistence of facts affecting the administration of the trust estate; to require accounting by trustees; to surcharge trustee; and in its discretion to supervise the administration of trusts; and all actions hereunder are declared to be proceedings in rem.
“B. The venue of such actions shall be in the county where the trustees or any cotrustee resides. Upon obtaining jurisdiction the same shall not be divested by the removal of the trustee from the county where such action is commenced.
“D. The provisions of the statutes governing civil procedure, commencement of action, process, process by publication, appointment of guardians ad litem, su-persedeas and appeal, shall govern all actions and proceedings brought under the provisions of this Act.
“E. A court of competent jurisdiction may, for cause shown and upon notice to the beneficiaries, relieve a trustee from any or all of the duties and restrictions which would otherwise be placed upon him by this Act, or wholly or partly excuse a trustee who has acted honestly and reasonably from liability for violations of the provisions of this Act.”

The above-quoted provisions were taken verbatim from the Uniform Trusts Act by the Oklahoma legislature.

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Bluebook (online)
1982 OK 82, 657 P.2d 142, 1982 Okla. LEXIS 314, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-cartwright-v-ogden-okla-1982.