Turner v. First National Bank & Trust Co. of Muskogee

1955 OK 369, 292 P.2d 1012, 1955 Okla. LEXIS 621
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedDecember 20, 1955
Docket36003
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 1955 OK 369 (Turner v. First National Bank & Trust Co. of Muskogee) 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
Turner v. First National Bank & Trust Co. of Muskogee, 1955 OK 369, 292 P.2d 1012, 1955 Okla. LEXIS 621 (Okla. 1955).

Opinion

HALLEY, Justice.

This appeal is from a judgment of the District Court of Muskogee County determining the rights of Fred E. Turner and Gunter P. Turner in property acquired by them while the Oklahoma Community Property Law of 1945 1 was in effect, being from August 1, 1945 to May 31, 1949, ,by agreement of the parties. This action is authorized under Section 83, 32 O.S. 1951.

Fred E. Turner and Gunter P. Turner were husband and wife for more than 50 years. Fred E. Turner died January 1, 1950. Gunter P. Turner had been incompetent for some years but had not been so adjudged and on Sfeptember 24, 1946, she had executed a power of attorney to Fred E. Turner and he transacted all,business for her after that date until his death in 1950. Mrs. Turner was declared incompetent on November 2, 1950, when Kay Wilson, Jr., was appointed her guardian and he is still acting in that capacity.

When the 1945 law became effective both Mr. and Mrs. Turner had accumulated considerable separately owned real and personal properties, all standing in their individual names, and while that law was in effect *1014 Fred E. Turner received from property-standing in his name from rents, interest and dividends, the sum of $310,604.54 and incurred expenses chargeable to his operations amounting to $148,530.87, leaving a net income of $162,073.66.

During the same period Fred E. Turner collected from properties standing in the name of -Gunter P. Turner, rents, interest and dividends in the sum of $156,967.68, and in doing so incurred expenses chargeable thereto of $117,937.38, leaving a balance from Mrs. Turner’s income of $39,030.30.

The First National Bank and Trust Company of Muskogee is the executor of the estate of Fred E. Turner, and filed this action for an accounting under the above named statute, and for a determination of the amount each party is entitled to receive from the income accruing during the period the Community Property Law of 1945 was in effect.

^During the period mentioned, Fred E. Turner spent $25,560.67 for living expenses from his personal account and for the same period paid out of Mrs. Turner’s account $27,658.51. He made donations during that period amounting to the sum of $40,254.61 from community funds, as will be discussed later. During the same period he erected a dwelling upon land separately owned by Mrs. Turner costing $33,859.99, and paid such sum out of money deposited in his name but also constituting community funds. All payments above mentioned were made from funds accruing from rents, dividends and interest during the period our 1945 law was in effect. If all of the expenditures mentioned above belong to the community, then Gunter P. Turner was entitled to one-half of the remaining cash, and against such sum Fred E. Turner should be credited with one-half of the donations from community funds, leaving a balance of community assets in favor of Gunter P. Turner.

While the parties litigant agreed that income from all rents, interest and dividends accruing to the separate property of each spouse during the time the Community Property Law of 1945 was in effect, constituted community property, the court found that such income did not constitute community property because not earned by the joint efforts of the husband and wife and that it in fact constituted separate property of the party from whose separate property it accrued.

The court did find that Mrs. Turner should be given judgment for the sum of $5,970, representing the sum given away by Fred E. Turner from income accruing to-ller separate property after she became incompetent. Judgment was so entered in-favor of Mrs. Turner in the above amount. From that judgment the guardian of Gunter P. Turner has appealed.

It is clear that the principal issue is a correct interpretation of our 1945 Community Property Law. The facts are definite and many are covered by stipulations and an admittedly correct accounting.

Mrs. Turner was adjudged incompetent after the death of her husband and her present guardian appointed. Mr. Turner-had formerly acted for her under a power of attorney executed in 1946.

The guardian for Mrs. Turner complains of the ruling of the court that the income accruing to Mrs. Turner from “rents,, interest and dividends” during the effective-, period of our 1945 Community Property-Law, did not constitute community property-because the record did not disclose that either spouse expended any appreciable-labor or effort in earning such income. It had been agreed by the parties that such income did constitute community property. The parties are not in full agreement as to the source of our Community Property Law of 1945 as stated by this court in Swanda v. Swanda, 207 Okl. 186, 248 P.2d 575. From our study we are of the opinion that this law was adopted largely from Texas, even though some features appear to have been taken from the law of other community property states.

Separate property in Texas is that owned by either spouse before marriage, plus that acquired afterwards by gift, devise or descent. All other property acquired during coverture constitutes community property, including the income from the separate property of each spouse.

*1015 We think that the trial court perhaps placed too much stress upon the fact that the income being considered was not acquired strictly by joint industry and effort. It has often been denied that a housewife lends any appreciable aid when she does not engage in some form of manual labor or in the actual conduct of the business from which income is earned.

Contrary to the above view, the courts of Texas and other states have often recognized the endless tasks and tiring and monotonous burdens of the wife in maintaining a home, bearing children, and caring for their endless needs and demands. If income accruing from separate property is community property, it is not for the courts to declare such income separate property 'because it appears to have accrued without the joint efforts or shoulder-to-shoulder labor or industry of both husband and wife.

In 41 C.J.S., Husband and Wife, § 479a, it is said:

“* * * In certain of the community property states, under express constitutional provisions or by judicial interpretation of the general provisions defining community and separate property, the general rule prevails, subject to exceptions, in some instances, that the fruits and issues or the increase, income, and profits of separate property fall into the community. This was the rule under the community property system as established by the French and Spanish law. * * *”

In section 71 of De Funiak on the Principles of Community Property, it is said:

“* ⅜ * Under the Spanish law of community property, no matter whether the separate property of one spouse was the spouse’s separate property at the time of the marriage or was acquired as separate property by that spouse after the marriage, the fruits and profits of that separate property were community property, belonging to both of the spouses by halves.

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Bluebook (online)
1955 OK 369, 292 P.2d 1012, 1955 Okla. LEXIS 621, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/turner-v-first-national-bank-trust-co-of-muskogee-okla-1955.