Stout v. Derr

1935 OK 253, 42 P.2d 136, 171 Okla. 132, 1935 Okla. LEXIS 112
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedMarch 12, 1935
DocketNo. 25546.
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 1935 OK 253 (Stout v. Derr) 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
Stout v. Derr, 1935 OK 253, 42 P.2d 136, 171 Okla. 132, 1935 Okla. LEXIS 112 (Okla. 1935).

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

On September 6, 1932, a judgment was rendered in the district ■ court of Logan county, Okla., in cause No. 7057, wherein Frank A. Derr was plaintiff, and numerous persons, among them one C. E. Stout and the Bank of Crescent, a corporation, were defendants, foreclosing certain mortgages, ordering a sale of the real estate involved and application of the proceeds, and decreeing the interests of the -various parties to the action. On March 27, 1933, order of sale issued in accordance with the judgment, after which a sale was duly had and order confirming the same made and entered on the 22nd day of May, 1933.

Thereafter, on September 6, 1933, C. E. Stout, the plaintiff in error herein, filed in the cause his petition to vacate the judgment so rendered on September 6, 1932, and caused summons to be issued and served upon Frank A. Derr, the Bank of Crescent, and another party to the original action, not concerned in this appeal. Demurrers to the petition having been filed by the said Frank A. Derr and the Bank of Crescent, the same were heard and sustained by the trial court; and C. E. Stout thereupon, within the time allowed by the court, filed his amended petition to vacate judgment. The same parties again demurred to such amended petition, and, on November 6, 1933, said demurrers came on for hearing and an order was made and entered sustaining the same. The petitioner electing to stand on his amended pleading, judgment was accordingly rendered against said petitioner. From such judgment and order, the plaintiff in error, C. E. Stout, has prosecuted this appeal, assigning, as grounds for reversal, error of the trial court in sustaining the separate demurrers and in rendering judgment on the pleadings. The parties will be referred to hereinafter as petitioner and respondents.

The plaintiff in error, in his brief, sets up two propositions for argument, as follows :

“Proposition 1. The judgment sought to be vacated under the allegations of the petition of plaintiff in error, was- ffot the judgment of the court and could not have been the judgment of the court and therefore should be set aside, in so far as it affects the interest of the plantiff in error.

“Proposition 2. Plaintiff in error, C. E. Stout, was not a proper party defendant in the foreclosure action and the judgment finding his interest to be¡ junior and inferior to the liens of the mortgages sued upon was beyond the jurisdiction of. the court in that it failed t'o adjudge his interest to be one acquired subsequent to the execution of the mortgages. ”

Argument, however, to the effect that the judgment of the trial court should have been vacated and set aside as to petitioner, is based mainly upon the following theories: First, that fraud was practiced upon petitioner and the trial court by the attorneys for respondents in the suppression of evidence of petitioner’s title and in preparation of journal entry; second, that petitioner’s title was paramount, superior, and adverse to that of the mortgagors, and he was therefore not a proper party defendant, and could not be precluded by the judgment.

The petition to vacate was filed pursuant to sections 556, 557 and 558, O. S. 1931, which provide (sec. 556) that the district court shall have power to vacate or modify its own judgments or orders, at or after the term at which the same were made, among other causes, for irregularity in obtaining a judgment or order, or for fraud. *134 practiced by the successful party in obtaining the judgment or order, as provided by subdivisions 3 and 4. Section 558 sets out that the proceedings to vacate or modify the judgment or order, on the grounds mentioned in subdivisions 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9, of section '556, shall be by petition, verified by affidavit, setting forth the judgment or order, the grounds to vacate or modify it, and the defense to the action, if the party applying w'as defendant.

The amended petition to vacate contained the following allegations: That in the trial of the original foreclosure action it was disclosed by the evidence and adjudged by the court that on November 3, 1923, Berthes H. Anderson and Florence O. Anderson executed a deed to Arthur Davis and B. F. Ryland, conveying an undivided one-half interest in the oil, gas and other minerals in the property involved in the action; that said deed was recorded on November 20, 1923; that the mortgage of the plaintiff was executed on November 1, 1923, acknowledged on November 21st and recorded on November 22, 1923; that the mortgage of the defendant and cross-petitioner, the Bank of Orescent, was executed and acknowledged on December 23, 1924, and duly recorded; that the defendant, O. E. Stout, acquired an undivided 1/32 interest in the oil, gas, and other minerals from one .,T. Z. Werby on May 31, 1929, the said Werby having acquired the same by mesne conveyance from Arthur Davis; and that the said C. E. Stout also had conveyed to him from one W. O. Munkres and Arthur Davis, on April 10, 1929, an undivided 23/320ths interest in said mineral rights. That at the trial the evidence showed and the court found that all defendants acquired their interest in and to said property subsequent to the execution and recording of said mortgages ; that the evidence further showed, and the court found, that Arthur Davis and B. F. Ryland were innocent purchasers, without actual or constructive notice of the mortgage sued upon by plaintiff, and were purchasers for value, for the reason that" those defendants who had acquired their interests through said Davis and Ryland would necessarily have been purchasers with constructive notice of the mortgages sued upon by plaintiff and cross-petitioner, and their interests were found to be superior to the lien of the mortgage.

The amended petition then alleges that the plaintiff and cross-petitioner, and their attorneys of record, connived and conspired to defraud petitioner, and did, in the trial of said cause, suppress and withhold from the court the evidence of petitioner’s title and did prepare and present and have signed and recorded a journal entry, purporting to adjudge superior to the lien of the mortgages all of the interest holders who had acquired their title by virtue of the conveyance to Davis and Ryland, but, in fact, only naming in such manner those who had entered their appearance in said cause, well knowing the evidence in the cause to have been and the court to have found that the grántees and vendees in said mineral deed of November 3, 1923, were innocent purchasers for value, without actual or constructive notice, and that their assignees and vendees held their respective interests prior and superior to the mortgages. That the journal entry was for such reasons irregularly and fraudulently obtained to be signed against the said O. E. Stout by reason of the fraud and misrepresentations of the parties and their attorneys.

Petitioner then alleges that upon being served with summons in the original cause, he observed that there were numerous parties defendant who had acquired their interest in the mineral rights as assignees of Davis and Ryland, and, upon inquiry, was advised by several of such defendants that they would appear and prove the superiority and priority of the mineral deed to the lien of the mortgages. That certain defendants did so appear and make proof of such facts, and were adjudged to hold their interests' prior to the mortgages, particularly one W. O. Munkres, who was one of the grantors of a part of the interest held by the said O. E. Stout.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1935 OK 253, 42 P.2d 136, 171 Okla. 132, 1935 Okla. LEXIS 112, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stout-v-derr-okla-1935.