Tulsa Interstate Petroleum Co. v. Allison

1925 OK 617, 239 P. 633, 112 Okla. 47, 1925 Okla. LEXIS 531
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJuly 14, 1925
Docket15484
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 1925 OK 617 (Tulsa Interstate Petroleum Co. v. Allison) 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
Tulsa Interstate Petroleum Co. v. Allison, 1925 OK 617, 239 P. 633, 112 Okla. 47, 1925 Okla. LEXIS 531 (Okla. 1925).

Opinion

Opinion by

THOMPSON, C.

This appeal is from a judgment of the district court of Tulsa county by the Tulsa Interstate Petroleum Company, a corporation, plaintiff In error, plaintiff below, against Mary Edna Allison and W. O. Allison, defendants in error, defendants below, dismissing the petition of plaintiff in error and rendering judgment in favor of defendants in error for certain real estate in an addition to the city of Tulsa. The parties will be referred to as plaintiff and defendants, as they appeared in the lower court.

The part of the record necessary to a decision in this case is that the plaintiff, a corporation, claims that it, as successor to the Tulsa Interstate Petroleum Company, organized as an express trust, is entitled to the west three acres of Harter’s second subdivision to the city of Tulsa; that the same was purchased toy W. O. Allison while trustee, manager and president of the said express trust, with money belonging to the said express trust, taking title thereto in the name of Ma,ty Edna Killion, an employe of said express trust, who afterwards became his wife, and asked that the same be declared to be held m trust for the plaintiff by the said Mary Edna Allison, nee Killion, and for judgment for $2,366.66, 'the reasonable rental value of the property during the time the same was held in the manner above set out.

Mary Edna Allison, nee Killion, answered by way of general denial and admitted the purchase of the property from one J. P. Harter and wife on the 17th day of May, 1920, and denied that the purchase price was paid out of the money belonging to the express trust, but alleged the same was paid for with the money of her codefendant, W. O. Ailison, and claimed that she was holding the same in trust for her codefend-ant, W. ©. Allison. The defendant W. O. Allison, in his separate answer, admitted the purchase of the property and the taking oE title in the name of his codefendant, then Mary Edna Killion, afterwards Allison, and denied that the consideration paid therefor was out of the funds of the express trust, but that the same was purchased with his own funds and that said property was held by Mary Edna Allison in trust for him. For his other and further answer, he alleged that he was deposed as manager, trusiee and president of the company, prior to the lO.th day of June, 1920, and that one R. J. Dickson became president, and that the acting trustees and R. J. Dickson claimed that the defendant held certain property belonging to the corporation purchased with *48 its monies and claimed title to the identical propferty described in this action; that on the 16th day of June, 1920, the said express trust settled the difficulties between him and the trustees of said express trust, and executed to him a complete written release and discharge of all obligations and claims of any and every character against him upon his turning over to said express trust certain properties as a consideration for said settlement, which constituted a complete settlement, complete accord and satisfaction by and between him and said express trust, and that by virtue of which the plaintiff was estopped from claiming any right, title or interest in the premises described. A copy of the allegeq release, satisfaction and claim was attached to and made a part of his answer.

The plaintiff replied by way of general denial to the separate answer of Mary Edna Allison, and by its reply to the separate answer of W. O. Allison admitted that by virtue of a resolution passed by the board of trustees of said express trust on the 14th day of June, 1920, it entered into the agreement set up in the answer of defendant W. O. Allison, and that on the 15th day of June, 1920, said W. O. Allison made an assignment to it of certain stocks and properties held in his name, not including the title to the property involved in this action, and that at the time of the delivery of the ¡release, claimed by defendant, plaintiff was not advised and did not know that the property involved in this action was purchased with the funds of this company, or ■that W. O. Allison claimed any interest therein, and believing, as represented by W. O. Allison, that he had complied fully with all the conditions and terms of the written agreement, as set forth in the resolution, the officers of the company, on the 16th day of June, 1920, executed the release and satisfaction pleaded by the defendant. Upon these issues the cause was tried to the court without the intervention of a jury.

The plaintiff at the beginning of the trial asked that separate .findings of fact and conclusions of law be made by the court, and on the 6th day of October, 1923, after evidence was completed and argument hoard, the cause was taken under advisement by the court, both parties filing requests for separate findings of fact and conclusions of law, and on the 12th day of October, 1923, the court refused to follow the findings submitted by both sides, stating that he would have to make findings of his owtn, but that the general finding would be for the defendants, to which the plaintiff reserved its exception, and on the 5th day of November, 1923, the court filed its own separate findings of fact and conclusions of law, copies of which were mailed to the attorneys for both parties to this action.

Theretofore, on the 15th day of October, 1923, the plaintiff had filed its motion for new trial, one of the grounds of which was that the court had failed to make separate findings of fact and conclusions of law as requested. On the 9th day of November, 1923, attorneys for plaintiff filed exceptions to the findings of fact and conclusions of law, and on the 19th day of November, 1923. attorneys for plaintiff filed supplemental and additional causes in support of its motion for new trial, and on the 4th day of January, 1924, the court overruled the motion and supplemental motion for new trial and exceptions to the findings of fact and conclusions of law, and <>n’ the same day and date the journal entry of the judgment of the court was filed, dismissing the petition of the plaintiff and finding that the property was held by Mary Edna Allison, nee Killion, in trust for W. O. Allison, and that he was the equitable owner of the property; that the affidavit of R. J. Dickson made on the 10th day of June, 1920, filed in the office of the county clerk of Tulsa county, Okla., be canceled, and that the plaintiff be enjoined from claiming any right, title or interest in the property, from which judgment the plaintiff appeals to this court for review.

Attorneys for plaintiff in thei¡r brief assign 23 grounds of error, but, in our view of the case, there are only two questions raised necessary to a decision of this case. The first is, Did the trial court err as claimed by plaintiff’s counsel in not properly making special findings of fact and conclusions of law, as itequesíed by the plaintiff; second, did the court err in finding and holding, that by reason of the settlement between the plaintiff and W. O. Allison and the execution of the release by the plaintiff to W. O. Allison, it concluded the rights of the plaintiff to the property involved in this action? Both of these propositions can be disposed of upon the record and the written and record evidence.

Upon the first proposition, the recorq discloses that .'aftleii" the evidence was concluded a-nd arguments heard, on the 6th day of October, 1923, the court took the case under advisement, both parties having filed requests for separate findings of fact and conclusions of law, anq on the 12th day of October, 1923, the record shows the following :

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Bluebook (online)
1925 OK 617, 239 P. 633, 112 Okla. 47, 1925 Okla. LEXIS 531, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tulsa-interstate-petroleum-co-v-allison-okla-1925.