Texas Co. v. Forson

1946 OK 104, 167 P.2d 877, 196 Okla. 599, 1946 Okla. LEXIS 443
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedMarch 26, 1946
DocketNo. 32093.
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 1946 OK 104 (Texas Co. v. Forson) 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
Texas Co. v. Forson, 1946 OK 104, 167 P.2d 877, 196 Okla. 599, 1946 Okla. LEXIS 443 (Okla. 1946).

Opinion

ARNOLD, J.

A. T. Forson commenced this action on July 12, 1942, ágainst the Texas Company, a corporation, for an alleged indebtedness of $1,020 claimed to be due him as commissions for the sale of products of the defendant.

By cross-petition the defendant claimed damages against the plaintiff for the unlawful, .detention by him of certain premises which it owned and an indebtedness owed to it by plaintiff, for certain credit accounts for goods sold by plaintiff to various parties without authorization in the sum of $336 and a pérsonaí indebtedness of plaintiff to it in the sum of $71.49. A jury was waived by the parties and the issues raised by the pleadings tried to the court resulting in a judgment in favor of plaintiff for'the sum of $598.69. Both parties asked for written findings of fact, and conclusions of law.

The parties entered into a stipulation of facts at the .outset of the trial which, so far as is material here, shows that for some time prior to April 1, 1941, plaintiff was in possession of defendant’s wholesale wárehouse and engaged in the selling of- its products by a written consignment agreement; that pur-' suant to the terms and provisions • of said consignment; agreement such- arrangement .was, terminated April 1, 1941; that' "on or about April 2, 1941, the defendant demanded possession of its building and all of its products then stored therein and possessed by the plaintiff; the demand was refused and the plaintiff remained in possession of defendant’s building and said personal property, and continued, as theretofore to sell said products remitting the proceeds thereof to the defendant; that between April 1, 1941, and July 11,' 1941, the' date on which possession of thé building in question *600 was delivered to defendant on writ of execution out of the justice of the peace court wherein it was adjudged it was entitled to possession thereof, the commissions earned, according to the rate provided in the consignment contract, were $856.07; that 'the judgment for restitution of the building was entered in the justice of the peace court on the 30th day of June, 1941. In addition to this stipulation of the parties oral evidence was introduced on both sides. The material portions of this oral testimony will be referred to as it becomes pertinent in the discussion of the questions raised in the briefs. The parties will be herein referred to as plaintiff and defendant as they appeared in the trial court.

Defendant has assigned 23 specifications of error, but in its brief these are presented under four propositions as follows:

“(1). Plaintiff was a converter of the defendant’s goods.
“(2). There was no implied contract •by defendant to pay commissions.
“(3). The exclusion of the defendant from its warehouse was wrongful.
“(4). The defendant was entitled to judgment against plaintiff under its cross-petition.”

These propositions will be discussed under the findings made by the trial court to which they relate. The first finding made by the trial court reads:

“The court finds from the evidence introduced herein, together with the stipulation, that the plaintiff was in lawful possession of the premises in question herein on April 1, 1941, and same was continuous until June 30, 1941.”

Defendant’s third proposition quoted above is directed to this first finding by the trial court. There was oral testimony to the effect that after the termination of the consignment contract by written notice, as above provided and stipulated by the parties, and on the 2nd day of April, 1941, representatives of the Texas Company went to Seminole and demanded possession of the warehouse and of the defendant’s products therein and that possession thereof was refused by the plaintiff upon the ground that he had some “equitable claim” against the Texas Company by reason of former contracts and transactions between the parties. Similar demands were made subsequently on two or three occasions with the same result. This testimony is not denied by the plaintiff but is, in effect, admitted to be correct. Thereupon the defendant instituted a forcible and unlawful detainer action in a justice court of Seminole county, and on June 30, 1941, judgment was rendered therein in favor of this defendant for restitution of the premises. This was a judicial determination that the refusal of plaintiff herein to deliver possession of the premises to the defendant was wrongful and nothing in the record discloses any reason why that wrongful refusal of possession on April 2, 1941, thereafter became changed into a rightful refusal of possession. The judgment determining the right to possession related to the date and time when defendant herein had a right to demand possession and when plaintiff herein had no right to refuse. This question was res adjudicata and not within the jurisdiction of the trial court to determine. Brown v. Higby, 191 Okla. 173, 127 P. 2d 195. We think this first finding of the trial court is not reasonably sustained by the evidence and is contrary to law.

The second finding of the trial court reads:

“During this time the plaintiff sold and exchanged certain merchandise of the defendant, .turning the proceeds over to the defendant and defendant accepting same.”

To this finding by the trial court defendant directs its first proposition quoted above, that by the acts of plaintiff he' became a converter of defendant’s goods. When plaintiff, upon demand, not only refused defendant possession of its warehouse but also refused it possession of its products stored therein, he was exercising a do *601 minion over defendant’s personal property inconsistent with its admitted ownership thereof. Plaintiff’s right to the control and disposition of these products terminated on April 1, 1941, pursuant to the written notice given in conformity with the terms of the consignment contract; that plaintiff thereafter sold these goods, or a substantial portion thereof, and accounted to defendant for the proceeds of such sales does not change the character of his possession as being wrongful. During this period of three months from April 1 to June 30, 1941, plaintiff was not only denying defendant its right to the possession of its own property but he was also repudiating and violating a specific provision of the consignment contract between the parties. By section 3 of the consignment contract it is provided that in the event of the termination of this agreement the consign- or shall have the right, for a period of not to exceed three (3) months following the date of such termination, to use the storage facilities at the Seminole Bulk Sales Station to store its products, replenish its stock of merchandise therein, to sell and deliver its products from the said premises and to remove all of its products and other properties therefrom during the said period. These were valuable rights possessed by the defendant after the termination of the contract and their denial by plaintiff is not justified by any evidence disclosed in this record.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1946 OK 104, 167 P.2d 877, 196 Okla. 599, 1946 Okla. LEXIS 443, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/texas-co-v-forson-okla-1946.