Swanson v. Swanson

1951 OK 374, 250 P.2d 40, 207 Okla. 423, 1951 Okla. LEXIS 769
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedDecember 18, 1951
Docket34494
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 1951 OK 374 (Swanson v. Swanson) 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
Swanson v. Swanson, 1951 OK 374, 250 P.2d 40, 207 Okla. 423, 1951 Okla. LEXIS 769 (Okla. 1951).

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

This action for divorce, alimony, for cancellation of a deed and for quieting title of lands in Osage county, Oklahoma, was filed by Maudie Fronkier Swanson against her husband, Joseph Newton Swanson. O. E. Swanson was also made a defendant in the action. He subsequently died and his executrix was substituted as a party defendant. The executrix appeared in the case claiming ownership in a portion of the land distributed to the plaintiff under the decree of divorce and for alimony. Hereafter Maudie Fronkier Swanson will be referred to as plaintiff and Joseph Newton Swanson as defendant.

Plaintiff and defendant were married in April, 1925, and lived together as husband and wife until 1939. Two children were born of this union. A daughter, now 23, and a son, 17 years of age. Plaintiff’s petition is based on allegations of gross neglect of duty, extreme cruelty and on specific allegations of adultery. After 1939, and prior to the filing of the present action for divorce and alimony, the defendant had filed two actions for divorce in Oklahoma and two actions for divorce in Arkansas against this plaintiff. The district judge of Osage county denied both of defendant’s applications for divorce, and the Supreme Court of the State of *424 Arkansas reversed a decree of divorce which the defendant had obtained on the ground that he was not a bona fide resident of Arkansas when the suit was instituted.

Defendant, in addition to a general denial, charged plaintiff with gross neglect of duty; extreme cruelty, and with a specific act of misconduct in the year 1948. He further states that he has not cohabited with plaintiff since their separation in 1939. Upon the issue ■of divorce the record is replete with evidence of defendant’s improper conduct consisting of mental and physical cruelty, and unfaithfulness to his marriage vows. His ' extramarital activities were not of a sporadic nature, but more of a settled and consistent pattern. Moreover defendant, since 1939, as indicated, wanted to divorce plaintiff. In 1943 he wrote her saying: “I am going to divorce you if it is the last thing I ever do.” Defendant in his brief states:

“There is no appeal to this court from that portion of the decree granting a divorce, but the appeal to this court is with reference to that portion of the judgment involving defendants’ property and the amount of alimony.”

• We, therefore, dispose of this portion of the case by approving the findings of the trial court in which he held:

“The court finds that the allegations contained in plaintiff’s petition are true, that plaintiff is entitled to the relief prayed for, and that the allegations in defendant’s cross-petition are not sustained by the evidence.”

The sole question to be resolved is that portion of the decree granting plaintiff alimony, support money for the minor child of plaintiff and defendant, and the decree quieting title of certain land in question. The trial court made a finding that the plaintiff was the owner of an undivided one-half interest in lands situated in Osage county, Oklahoma, to wit:

The East Half of the Southeast Quarter of Section 5.; the Southeast Quarter of Section 6; the Northeast Quarter and the Southeast Quarter of the Northwest Quarter of Section 7; the Northeast Quarter of the Northeast Quarter and the East Half of the Southwest Quarter of the Northeast Quarter of Section 8, all in Township 25 North, Range 6 East,

and the decree vests in plaintiff, as her sole and separate property, an undivided one-half interest in the land therein described, and quieted plaintiff’s title thereto against the defendant Joseph Newton Swanson and the defendant, the executrix of the estate of O. E. Swanson. This finding is based on evidence showing that on the 7th day of July, 1933, Oscar E. Swanson and Celestine Swanson, husband and wife, conveyed the land to Joseph N. Swanson and Maudie F. Swanson, plaintiff and defendant herein, by general warranty deed. On April 25, 1941, the defendant Joseph Swanson executed a warranty deed to the land to O. E. Swanson, his father. Maudie Fronkier Swanson did not join in this deed and was not a party to the transaction. It is the contention of the defendant that the one-half interest in this land claimed by plaintiff was held by her in trust for the defendant, and he, being the sole owner thereof, had the right to deed the land back to his father without joining his wife in the deed. In support of this proposition defendant cites Yates v. Yates, 93 Okla. 94, 219 P. 705, in which this court held:

“The rule is, where a husband purchases land with his own money and takes title thereto in the name of his wife, or in the joint name of himself and wife, no trust arises in favor of the husband, by reason thereof, in the lands standing in the name of the wife, but the presumption of the law is, in the absence of clear and convincing evidence to the contrary, that an advancement or gift was intended. This is so because in law the legal obligation rests upon the husband to support the wife,”

Defendant’s application of the rule announced in the Yates case, supra, is stated by him:

*425 “That in this state where there is clear* cogent, and satisfactory evidence to the contrary, the presumption of a gift or an advancement to the wife is overcome, and the wife will be decreed to hold the title as trustee for her husband.”

The land in question was not conveyed by the defendant to plaintiff as in the Yates case, but was conveyed by the defendant’s father to this plaintiff and defendant, and the title remained in them from 1933 until 1941. The defendant then attempted to re-convey the land to his father without joining plaintiff in the deed. Moreover, it appears that at the time the land was conveyed by O. E. Swanson and Celestine Swanson to this plaintiff and defendant, a deed executed by both plaintiff and defendant conveying certain land to O. E. Swanson was a part of the same transaction, both deeds being executed on the 7th day of July, 1933.

We concur in the court’s finding that under the deed from O. E. Swanson and Celestine Swanson to plaintiff and defendant, each became the owner of an undivided one-half interest, in fee simple, to said land, holding the same as tenants in common; that defendant could not convey his wife’s interest in the land back to his father. In Clinton v. Clinton, 187 Okla. 144, 101 P. 2d 609, we held:

“Where a deed conveys to two or more grantees, title to property therein conveyed is vested in such grantees as tenants in common, unless it is clearly shown upon the face of the instrument that a joint tenancy with the right of survivorship was intended.”

Complaint is made that an allowance for the support of plaintiff and defendant’s minor son, in the sum of $75 monthly, is excessive. In view of the minor’s physical condition, and the necessary expenses of maintenance and education, we agree with the trial court’s finding that the allowance is reasonable. Tobin v. Tobin, 89 Okla. 12, 213 P. 884.

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Bluebook (online)
1951 OK 374, 250 P.2d 40, 207 Okla. 423, 1951 Okla. LEXIS 769, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/swanson-v-swanson-okla-1951.