State Nat. Bank v. Lokey

1925 OK 792, 240 P. 101, 112 Okla. 82, 1925 Okla. LEXIS 546
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedSeptember 29, 1925
Docket15827
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 1925 OK 792 (State Nat. Bank v. Lokey) 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 Nat. Bank v. Lokey, 1925 OK 792, 240 P. 101, 112 Okla. 82, 1925 Okla. LEXIS 546 (Okla. 1925).

Opinion

Opinion by

PINKHAM, C.

This action was instituted in the superior court of Pottawatomie county by the State National Bank of Shawnee, plaintiff in error, as plaintiff, against the defendant in error, W. H. Lokey, as defendant, and on the same date and in said cause, an order of garnishment was issued directed to the Shawnee National Bank as garnishee of defendant, W. H. Lokey.

The plaintiff, State National Bank, recovered a judgment against the defendant W. H. Lokey, upon its first cause of action in the sum of $866.20, together with interest and attorney’s fees, and upon its second cause of action in the sum of $3,620.63, together with interest and attorney’s fees, and it was in said judgment further decreed that the answer theretofore filed by the Shawnee National Bank, garnishee therein, be taken as true and that the amount of money, to wit, $1,310.36, held by the garnishee, belonging to said delendant W. H. Lokey, be paid over by said garnishee to the plaintiff, and said garnishee, the Shawnee National Bank, having answered that it was holding as a pledge a certain certificate of .purchase in the name of D. D. Goodrich, for the benefit of W. H. Lokey, covering 160 acres of land described therein, it was ordered that appropriate proceedings be had to subject said lands to sale and to apply the proceeds in satisfaction of said judgment. This judgment was never appealed from and became, and is, a final judgment. The defendant in error, Emma V. Lokey, was not a party to this judgment.

Thereafter, and in pursuance of the directions contained in said judgment, an execution was issued out of the superior court on the 4th day of December, 1923, which execution was later returned by the sheriff of Lincoln county, for the reason that the sale of said lands thereunder had been enjoined by the district court of Lincoln county.

Thereafter, a special execution was issued out of said court on January 29, 1924, under the' directions of which the said lands were again levied on by the sheriff of Lincoln county, and thereafter, and on February 15, 1924, the defendant W. H. Lokey and his wife, Emma V. Lokey, filed their motion to quash the levy of said execution on the grounds that said premises were the homestead of movants, which was verified by the defendant W. H. Lokey, to which motion the plaintiff, State National Bank, answered, pleading, first, a general denial; and second, estoppel.

The case came on for hearing on the issues thus joined by defendants’ motion to quash and plaintiff’s answer thereto on the 28th day of February, 1924. The court, after taking same under advisement, rendered its judgment finding said premises to be the homestead of said defendants and quashed the said execution and levy thereof. From this judgment the State National Bank appeals.

For reversal of the judgment plaintiff relies mainly upon the following propositions: First, that the defendant Lokey (meaning, we assume, W. H. Lokey) was estopped from claiming these lands as a homestead by reason of his failure to timely assert their alleged homestead character; second, that Emma Y. Lokey had no standing in this case, not being an original party, not having, under order of the court, been given leave to intervene, not being, under the law, the head of the family, and therefore having no right to assert a homestead character in this land, and none of her evidence was therefore competent; third, that said lands were not the homestead of defendants.

*84 In support of tbe first proposition, numerous cases are cited in plaintiff’s' brief to tbe effect that a judgment rendered by a court of competent jurisdiction on the merits is a bar to any future suit between the same parties or their privies on the same cause of action, so long as the judgment remains unreserved. (Cressler v. Brown, 79 Okla. 170, 192 Pac. 417.) The rule announced in the above case apd in other decisions of the same import referred to- in plaintiff’s brief is not, we think, applicable to the facts disclosed by the record in the instant case. This was an action originally brought by the plaintiff against the defendant W. H. Lokey, upon its petition, which sets out two causes of action, one for $800, evidenced by a promissory note, with interest and attorneys’ fees, and a second cause of action on a promissory note for $3,415.06, with interest and attorneys’ fees. The defendant W. H. Lokey answered by general denial and failure of consideration. It is not contended that the defense of homestead exemption could have been made to the plaintiff’s petition. The argument is that if the land involved was W. H. Lokey’s homestead, that question should have been raised at the time of filing of the garnishee’s answer on April 10, 1923, or at least not later than September 22, 1923, the date of entering judgment ordering the land sold in satisfaction of the said judfcnnent. It is true that upon the trial of the issues between the plaintiff and the garnishee, the defendant W. H. Lokey attended the hearing and testified therein, having been called by the plaintiff and interrogated by it. It is also true that in that action the defendant W. H. Lokey could, by virtue of the provisions of section 4831, Comp. St. 1921, have defended on the ground of the exemption of the property in question and that he did not do so. We caui mt, however, agree with plaintiff’s contention that because the defendant W. H. Lokey failed to claim the homestead exemption upon the trial of the issues between plaintiff and garnishee,- that therefore the defendant in error Emma V. Lokey had no standing in this case, not having, under order of the court, been given leave to intervene, as contended by plaintiff in its second proposition.

The record discloses that on February 15, 1924, the defendants in error W. II. Lokey and his wife, Emma V. Lokey, filed their motion to quash the levy of the special execution because the land in question was the homestead of the movants. The plaintiff answered this motion, which answer consists of a general denial' as to both defendants, and a plea of estoppel as against the defendant W. H. Lokey. Nowhere in the plaintiff’s answer does it raise the question under consideration “that Emma V. Lokey had no standing in this case, not being an original party, not having, under order of the court, been given leave to intervene.” Furthermore, upon the final hearing and trial of the defendant’s motion to quash, and after the movants had called and offered their first witness, counsel for plaintiff made the following objection: “The plaintiff objects to the introduction of any testimony in support of the motion for the reason that the motion on its face shows that the mo-vants have no title to this property and seek to impress a homestead on property which by their motion, they show they do not own.” The objection was overruled. Aon examination of the record fails to disclose -that the plaintiff ever assented or contended in the trial court that Emma V. Lokey has no standing in this case because she was not an original party and not having, under the order of the court, been given leave to intervene.

So far as we are able to discover, the question of Emma V. Lokey’s right to be heard was never raised, either directly or by inference, in tbe trial court, by motion, demurrer, objection, or otherwise. We think it is too late to raise that question here.

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

Related

Hedrick v. Commissioner of the Department of Public Safety
2013 OK 98 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 2013)
In Re Cochran
204 B.R. 577 (W.D. Oklahoma, 1997)
Burrows v. Burrows
1994 OK 129 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1994)
Carney v. Moore
1988 OK 39 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1988)
Matter of NL
754 P.2d 863 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1988)
Wood v. Biggs
1966 OK 246 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1966)
Kelough v. Neff
1963 OK 41 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1963)
Marathon Oil Co. v. Western Oil & Drilling Co.
1938 OK 572 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1938)
Cherry v. Godard
1936 OK 835 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1936)
Gaines v. Gaines Bros. Co.
1936 OK 113 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1936)
Wilson v. Levy
1929 OK 457 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1929)
Bledsoe v. Green
1929 OK 52 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1929)
Harris v. Spurrier Lbr. Co.
1928 OK 192 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1928)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1925 OK 792, 240 P. 101, 112 Okla. 82, 1925 Okla. LEXIS 546, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-nat-bank-v-lokey-okla-1925.