Stephenson v. Clement

1935 OK 374, 43 P.2d 430, 171 Okla. 333, 1935 Okla. LEXIS 202
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedApril 2, 1935
DocketNo. 25296.
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 1935 OK 374 (Stephenson v. Clement) 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
Stephenson v. Clement, 1935 OK 374, 43 P.2d 430, 171 Okla. 333, 1935 Okla. LEXIS 202 (Okla. 1935).

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

This action was originally instituted in the district court of Marshall county to foreclose a real estate mortgage.

Plaintiff in error was plaintiff in the trial court and the defendants in error were defendants, so we shall refer to them as plaintiff and defendants.

Plaintiff’s petition contained four causes of action as follows:

First Cause: Contains regular and usual allegations for the foreclosure of a real estate mortgage and establishment of mortgage indebtedness of $3,470, interest and costs, on notes and mortgage executed by T. J. Martin and Maggie Martin and delivered to the Clement Mortgage Company, which notes and mortgage were, assigned and transferred, for a valuable consideration, by the Clement Mortgage Company to the Home Savings & State Bank. That said notes and mortgage were thereafter, for a valuable consideration, assigned and transferred by the Home Savings & State Bank to the plaintiff. Plaintiff’s petition alleges that her mortgage lien is a first and prior lien, and that all of the defendants named in the caption of her petition “are claiming, setting up or asserting some right, title and interest in and to said land and premises, the exact nature and extent of which is to plaintiff unknown and said claim is wholly unfounded and without legal justification and constitutes a cloud upon the title of this plaintiff herein.”

Second Cause: An action against one defendant, the Clement Mortgage Company, for judgment in the sum of $3,470 the same to be credited with the proceeds of the sale of the mortgaged land. This judgment was sought by virtue of a guarantee the Clement Mortgage Company gave agreeing to pay said mortgage indebtedness in case of default. No other defendant was a party to this cause of action.

Third Cause: An action against J. E. Luttrell. No other defendant is named in this cause of action and no other defendant is affected by it. Plaintiff alleges that said defendant Luttrell is an attorney at law, who was employed to examine the title to the mortgaged premises, and who did so examine the title and gave a certificate of title to the Clement Mortgage Company. That at the time of the examination of the title and the time of the delivery of the certificate of title, the mortgagors did not own the fee-simple title to the mortgaged premises as said certificate asserted. That the royalty interests had been transferred, the value of which royalty interests was the sum of $300. That because of the acts and negligence of this defendant, the plaintiff had been damaged in the sum of $300.

Fourth Cause: An action against the defendant R. E. Clement, Jr., for damages in the sum of $3,470. No other defendant is named in this cause of action. No other defendant is affected by this cause of action. Plaintiff alleges that this defendant was the examiner who examined these mortgaged premises for the Clement Mortgage Company; that all parties dealing with said mortgage would rely upon said examiner’s report; that the report was “erroneous, incorrect, false, and unfounded”; that this defendant knew that said report was false and fraudulent, and plaintiff relied upon *335 the report and was damaged in the sum of $3,470, less the amount of the sale of the mortgaged premises.

The first cause of action names five defendants ; the second only one; the third only one, and the fourth only one. No defendant is affected by any cause of action except the specific one in which he is named. The mortgagors were not named as defendants.

The defendants J. E. Luttrell, R. E. Clement, .Tr., and the Clement Mortgage Company were served in Cleveland county, Oída. No resident defendant of Marshall county was a party to the action.

The defendants J. E. Luttrell and R. E. Clement. Jr., each filed a special appearance and motion to quash summons on the ground that the court in Marshall county had no jurisdiction, and that the summons was not issued, served, and returned as required by law, as these defendants were residents of Cleveland county and the purported summons was made on them in Cleveland county, and that they had no interest or claim in the real estate involved in the mortgage foreclosure in Marshall county. To each motion was attached an affidavit concerning the facts set up in the motion.

The trial court sustained the motions and dismissed the third and fourth causes of actions.

Section 109, O. S. 1931, provides as follows :

“Actions for the following causes must be brought in the county in which the subject of the action is situated, except as provided in the next section:

“First. For the recovery of real property, .or of any estate, or interest therein, or the determination in any form of any such right or interest.

“Second. For the partition of real property.

“Third. For the sale of real property under a mortgage, lien or other incumbrance or charge.

“Fourth. To quiet title, to establish a trust in, remove a cloud on, set aside a conveyance of, or to enforce or set aside an agreement to convey real property.”

The real estate being located in Marshall county, the venue of the foreclosure action was in Marshall- county.

Section 117, O. S. 1931, provides as follows :

“Every other action must be brought in the county in which the defendant or some one of the defendants resides or may be summoned; except actions against makers of notes, claims, or other indebtedness which has been assigned, sold or transferred by or from the original payee or obligee, which actions against such original makers of such notes, claims or indebtedness can only be brought in the county in which the said maker of such note, claim or indebtedness or some one of the original makers of such note, claim or indebtedness resides. Provided, however, this section shall not in any way change or limit section 4(571 of the Revised Laws of Oklahoma 1910 (109 herein).”

Section 167, O. S. 1931, provides as follows :

“Where the action is rightly brought in any county a summons shall be issued to any other county against any one or more of the defendants, at the plaintiff’s request.”

If this action was properly brought in Marshall county, and the defendants Luttrell and Clement were proper parties to the action, then summons could issue to Cleveland county, the county of their residence, and the district court of Marshall county would have jurisdiction to hear and determine the causes of action against them. It is therefore necessary to determine whether this action was rightly brought in Marshall county, and if so whether these defendants were proper parties to the action. We are thus confronted with the proposi-tion, Were these causes of action properly joined in the petition so as to give the district court of Marshall county jurisdiction over these nonresident defendants?

Section 199, O. S. 1931, provides as follows :

“The plaintiff may unite several causes of action in the same petition, whether they be such as have heretofore been denominated legal or equitable, or both, wftere they all arise out of any one of the following classes:

“First. The same transaction, or transactions, connected with the same subject of action.

“Second.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1935 OK 374, 43 P.2d 430, 171 Okla. 333, 1935 Okla. LEXIS 202, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stephenson-v-clement-okla-1935.