Sterrett v. Inter-State Trust Co.

1929 OK 340, 282 P. 290, 140 Okla. 125, 1929 Okla. LEXIS 331
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedSeptember 17, 1929
Docket19353
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 1929 OK 340 (Sterrett v. Inter-State Trust 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
Sterrett v. Inter-State Trust Co., 1929 OK 340, 282 P. 290, 140 Okla. 125, 1929 Okla. LEXIS 331 (Okla. 1929).

Opinions

CLARK, J.

This ease presents error from the district court of Bryan county, Okla., wherein plaintiffs in error were defendants and defendant in errer was plaintiff. For convenience, the parties will be referred to as they appeared in the trial court.

The Inter-State Trust Company "sued Lof-tess Olson, Dona Olson, Boyd M. Sterrett, E. A. Sterrett, and the Atkinson-Warren & Henley Company to foreclose a mortgage in the sum of $5,000, dated August 10, 1015, executed by Loftess Olson and Dona Olson, as husband and wife, to the Conservative Loan Company, afterwards the Conservative Loan & Trust Company.

Loftess Olson and Dona Olson, makers of the note and mortgage, sold and conveyed the land involved. in this case to Charle? E. McPherren, who did not assume or agree to pay the debt secured by the mortgagor; Subsequent thereto, McPherren'sold and conveyed said land to the Sterretts. At the time of filing this suit, Boyd M. Sterrett and P. A. Sterrett, defendants, as owners of the land, contested this cause of action. On or about the 15th day of November, 1915, the Conservative Loan Company transferred and assigned the jnotes and mortgage to the Inter-State Trust Company, which assignment was filed of record'July 27, 1916, in the office of the county clerk of Bryan county, Okla. In 1923, the Sterretts executed a mortgage on said land in favor of the Atkinson-Warren & Henley Company, one of the defendants, for the purpose of taking up the mortgage which had been .executed by Olson and wife.

The petition in the court below was an ordinary petition for the foreclosure of a mortgage. The Sterretts answered, admitting the execution of the note and mortgage by the Olsons, but further pleaded payment, that said note had been satisfied in full on or about the 10th day of May, 1923, payment of. said note being made to the Conservative Loan & Trust Company, of Shawnee, Okla.. v liich was at the time of said payment and prior thereto the agent of the plaintiff, ami which received said money as such.

The answer of the Atkinson-Warren & Henley Company pleaded payment, alleged, that the payment was made to the Conservative Loan & Trust Company, which was the-duly authorized agent of the plaintiff. Further answering, it stated that plaintiff had. held out to the public and to this defendant and other defendants in this action that said Conservative Loan & Trust Company was the' plaintiff’s agent with the apparent authority to receive said payment of said note and mortgage, and that it is now estopped from denying the authority of said company so to do. It also pleaded the mortgage executed by the Sterretts to this defendant.

The Inter-State Trust Company filed a reply in which it denied that the Conservative-Loan & Trust Company was acting as its agent in receiving said payment, alleging that plaintiff was at all times the owner and holder of said note and mortgage and that neither the Conservative Loan Company nor the Conservative Loan) & Trust Company was the agent of the plaintiff, but acted as agent in said transaction of Loftess Olson and Ilona Olson, his wife, and Boyd M. Ster-rett and F. A. Sterrett.

Plaintiff also pleaded and attached as exhibit to its reply an application in writing executed the 10th day of August, 1915, by Loftess Olson and Dona Olson, appointing the Conservative Loan Company, a corporation, their agent for the purpose of procuring said loan and also to look after said loan, collect the interest and principal of the same, and to remit to the ¡holder thereof when due; alleging that the Conservative Loan Company has been and is now agent of said Loftess Olson and Dona Olson, his wife, and that said contract of agency made the Conservative Loan Company, upon acquiring said land, the agent of the said Sterretts.

The cause came on to be heard and was tried to a jury. The plaintiff introduced its evidence and rested, and the defendants introduced their evidence and rested. At the close of defendants’ testimony the plaintiff demurred to the testimony of the defendants on the ground that the evidence was insufficient to sustain a verdict in favor of the defendants, which demurrer was by the court overruled. Thereupon the counsel for plaintiff moved the court to instruct a verdict for plaintiff. Counsel for defendants moved the court to instruct a verdict for defendants. The court thereupon discharged the jury from further consideration of *127 said cause and thereafter entered a judgment finding for plaintiff and against defendants Boyd M. Sterrett and F. A. Sterrett for the amount of the note sued upon and also judgment" for foreclosure of the mortgage. A motion for new trial was filed, overruled, and the defendants brought the cause here for review.

The petition in error presents seven assignments of error.

The fourth assignment of error is, the trial court committed error in admitting incompetent, irrelevant, and immaterial tes-imony over the objection of the plaintiffs in error. The contract executed by the Olsons, which was not of record, was admitted in evidence to prove that the Conservative Loan & Trust Company was the agent of the Sterretts. Several cases, are cited by defendant in error to support this ruling of the court, none of which are in point. The eases cited are cases in which the defendant who objected to the introduction of the contract was a party to said contract or had executed the same. In this case the Ster-retts had no knowledge of the contract or the agreement between the Conservative Loan Company and the Olsons appointing the Conservative Loan Company their agent to look after said loan, collect the interest and principal, and pay the same to the investor. The Sterretts, not being a party to this contract, are not bound thereby, and it was error for the trial court to admit said contract in evidence to prove the Conservative Loan Company was the agent of the Sterretts.

Defendants’, plaintiffs in error’s, third as^ signment of error is that the court- committed error in rendering judgment for the plaintiff below. It is the contention of plaintiffs in error that the Sterretts were not liable for the note sued on and that the personal judgment entered against them in this cause was error. This court had this question before it in Beardsley v. Stephens et al., 134 Okla. 243, 273 Pac. 240, the first paragraph of the syllabus of which reads as follows:

“Where the grantor, by deed, with a clause specifying that the grantee assumes the mortgage, conveys land upon which there is a mortgage debt for which said grantor was not personally liable, the grantee is not primarily liable for the deficiency arising on foreclosure sale, such clause and its acceptance being a mere agreement to indemnify the grantor, -and not for the benefit of the holder of the mortgage, to whom the grantor owed no obligation, unless it affirmatively appears from the evidence that the assumption clause in- the deed was inserted expressly for the benefit of a third party within the meaning of section 4988, C. O. S. 1921.”

Under the facts in the case at bar it was error for the trial court to enter a personal judgment against the Sterretts.

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

Related

Southern Railway Co. v. Surety Insurance
154 S.E.2d 561 (Supreme Court of South Carolina, 1967)
Page v. Hinchee
1935 OK 1113 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1935)
United States Casualty Co. v. Jackson
1935 OK 721 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1935)
Hawkins v. Mattes
1935 OK 3 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1935)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1929 OK 340, 282 P. 290, 140 Okla. 125, 1929 Okla. LEXIS 331, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sterrett-v-inter-state-trust-co-okla-1929.