Thomas v. Morgan

1925 OK 494, 240 P. 735, 113 Okla. 212, 43 A.L.R. 934, 1925 Okla. LEXIS 958
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJune 9, 1925
Docket15857
StatusPublished
Cited by30 cases

This text of 1925 OK 494 (Thomas v. Morgan) 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
Thomas v. Morgan, 1925 OK 494, 240 P. 735, 113 Okla. 212, 43 A.L.R. 934, 1925 Okla. LEXIS 958 (Okla. 1925).

Opinion

RILEY, J.

This action was commented in the district court of Mayes county, Okla., by the defendants in error against the plaintiff's in error to enjoin the latter parties ii\ m interfering with the former in the use of a certain road which extended from the public highway on the south over lot 11 and the southwest quarter of the southeast quarter of section 4, township 21 north, range 20 east, Mayes county. Eor convenience, the parties will be hereafter mentioned as they appeared in the trial court.

A temporary restraining order was issued by the court on the 12th day of April, 1924. in which writ the defendants mere restrained and enjoined from interfering with the roadway during the pendency of the suit or until furl her order of the court.

The p’aintiffs are owners of lot 10 in the section of land heretofore described and their land is located adjacent and north of lot 11. The defendant Georgia Thomas is and has been since December, 1921, the owner of lot 11 and the southwest quarter of the southeast quarter of section 4, above menfi.,ned, and is now in possession -of said land.

Plaintiffs’ land borders on Grand river, but no part of it touches a section line. In 191T the owner of lot 11 converted his land into a place of recreation and the principal 'building thereon became known; as Morgan’s Inn. From Mi rgan’s Inn the section line is reached by going south along a road, the subject of this controversy, Ivvhidh is improved and fenced i n both sides, a distance of about one-fourth mile. This road has been open along approximately the same course for more than 25 years, and has been used continuously during that time. The Morgan Inn has been used as a residence for more than sixteen years, and during this time no objections were made to the use of said road until shortly before the filing of this action, when defendants served written notice upon plaintiffs that the road would be closed. The land crossed by the said road was origin'ally allotted by the government to Lewis Sitsler, a Oherokee mixed-blood Indian, a minor. Plaintiffs paid the Indian allottee, -in a private transaction, for a roadway across defendant's’ land and a promise of a conveyance of said right of way upon the minor’s reaching his majority. The allottee, before reaching his majority, died, leaving the land to his parents, who- *213 conveyed, the same to E. T. Stroud and Tom Walkinshaw.

Under oral agreement with Stroud, then the owner of the land, plaintiffs moved the road a little west and fenced the same. Gideon Morgan, plaintiff, (acted as agent for Messrs. Stroud and Walkinshaw and sold the land to defendants, advising defendants of his claim upon the road as it then existed, fenced and open to the general public. The defendants constructed their improvements in relation to this road.

The defendants filed an answer and cross-petition, setting out the title to the land owned by them, denying that said road was public; setting out the annoyance, damage, and disturbance caused defendants by the use of said roadway and prayed for relief enjoining plaintiffs from using said roadway.

The trial court, upon its own motion, so •far as the record discloses, made a finding of facts from the evidence as offered, which is as follows:

“1. That plaintiffs are the owners of lot 11 in the southwest quarter of the southeast quarter of section 4, township 21, range 20, Mayes county, Okla., and are in possession of said premises and operate thereon an inn known as Morgan’s Inn for the general public, and in said inn there is a United States post office known as Tip, Okla., that there is a road,v ay leading from the said inn to the section line which runs between section 4 and seotion 9 in said township and range; and that such roadway is the only means of access to said inn and the only means of ingress and egress from said inn to said section line and is the only road that could 'be built from said inn to communicate with the general public without very great expenditure of money; and it is the only practicable route on which such road could be built; that this road has been used by the general public over practically ihe same location at which it is now situated for the past twenty years, and such ' use has been made of said road with the consent and without objection on the part of the defendants and the persons who have owned said land for the past twenty years, and that no objection has been made to the use of same by any of the persons who have oKvned the land adjacent to and over which said road now exists and has existed, until a few months ago, and for the first time an objection to the use of same was made by defendants.
“2. The court finds that defendants are ■threatening to and will, unless they are restrained and enjoined from so doing close the said roadway and deny to plaintiffs and to the public the right to travel over and upon said roadway.
•‘The court concludes tha't, as a matter of law, the defendants are estopped by their conduct and acts and agreements with the plaintiffs from interfering with or obstructing or closing said roadway, and that they should be permanently enjoined from interfering (¡vilh the same.”

The court 'thereupon rendered judgment in favor of the plaintiffs and against the defendants, making permanent the injunction prohibiting defendants from interfering, in any way, with the use of the road heretofore described. Motion for new trial w<as filed and overruled, and from this final order this appeal comes.

Defendants contend that the trial court committed an error in refusing to sustain their demurrer to plaintiffs’ petition, in that plaintiffs in their petition allege that defendants were in possession and owners of the land upon which the roadlvay in dispute was located, and that an equitable action of this nature cannot be maintained whe>e defendants are in possession under color of title and plaintiffs’ right to possession is in dispute. The rule urged is stated in 32 O. J.:

"Complainant must have title to property or some interest therein before an injunction will be granted at his instance to protect it, and he must stand on the strength of his own right or title, rather than on the weakness of the right and title claimed by his opponent.”

We find no fault with this xnxle. The demurrer filed was a general one and was an attack upon, the sxxfficiency of the entire petition. We find contained in the petition the allegation cited by defendants, but, as well, other allegations to the effect that plaintiffs have been, ever since the making of said road, in possession by reason of fences cutting the same off fx-om the other land by defendants. The pleadings, as a whole, make it clear that plaintiffs claim an easement to the roadway 'by reason of continued use and control thereof and by agreements and an executed contract. In this ruling the trial court did not err. The rule is that when a petition contains allegations of facts sufficient to entitle plaintiff to relief, either at law or in equity, it is good as against a general demurrer. Security Nat. Bank v. Ceck, 96 Okla. 89, 220 Pac. 373; Ross v. Breene, 88 Okla. 37, 211 Pac. 417.

JTor the same reason the second assignment of error, based upon objection to the introduction of evidence, fails.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1925 OK 494, 240 P. 735, 113 Okla. 212, 43 A.L.R. 934, 1925 Okla. LEXIS 958, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/thomas-v-morgan-okla-1925.