Waken v. Bimstrom

1935 OK 547, 45 P.2d 97, 172 Okla. 232, 1935 Okla. LEXIS 423
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedMay 14, 1935
DocketNo. 25289.
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 1935 OK 547 (Waken v. Bimstrom) 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
Waken v. Bimstrom, 1935 OK 547, 45 P.2d 97, 172 Okla. 232, 1935 Okla. LEXIS 423 (Okla. 1935).

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

This action was commenced in the district' court of Okmulgee county by F. E. Walker against Samuel Waken and others to quiet title to a 120-acre tract of land in said county. Judgment was entered for plaintiff, and the defendant Waken has appealed.

Waken will be referred to herein as defendant, and Walker having died, by revivor his heirs have become defendants in error. They will be referred to herein as plaintiffs.

In 1917, one Thomas R. Burrow was the owner of the land in question. At that time he executed a mortgage on the premises to certain parties. Thereafter, Burrow and the defendant entered into an agreement whereby Burrow exchanged an equity in certain Enid property for 200 acres of land owned by defendant in Blaine county. Deeds, together with the contract, were placed in escrow. Said contract also provided that Burrow should pay to defendant the sum of $6,519.72 in addition for said Blaine county land, and further assigned to defendant 91/6000 royalty interest in the land involved in this action as security for the payment of the aforementioned sum; And defendant was to, and did, receive the portion of the oil royalties mentioned in the contract.

Thereafter, in 1925, the defendant purchased the mortgage executed by Burrow in 1917. Later he conveyed to his sons the land in Blaine county, disregarding his escrow agreement with Burrow. In 1928, he commenced suit in the district court of Ok--mulgee county to foreclose the above-mentioned mortgage on the land involved in this action, against Burrow and others, including the original plaintiff in this action, who was alleged to he claiming some interest in the land.

While that action was pending, Walker, the original plaintiff herein, purchased the mortgage from defendant and was substituted as plaintiff in said suit and proceeded to foreclosure and sale.

By stipulation of the parties, the judgment of foreclosure in the above mentioned action, aiid the sale thereon, excluded and excepted the above-mentioned 91/6000 royalty interest held by the defendant as security from Burrow in connection with the exchange of the Enid and Blaine county properties. Walker, the original plaintiff herein, purchased the land at the foreclosure sale subject to the 91/6000 royalty interest and certain other interests.

In the meantime the sons of the defendant commenced suit against Burrow and others claiming a vendor’s lien on the land in Blaine county by virtue of the contract between Burrow and the defendant, and seeking- foreclosure of same’ and cancellation of the contract, being the same contract under which the defendant claims the 91/ 6000 royalty interest in the lands here involved. Judgment foreclosing vendor’s lien and decreeing sale of the Blaine county land was entered. This decree established and enforced the escrow contract, instead of canceling it as alleged by the plaintiff in the present action.

The plaintiff in this action contends that Samuel Waken was the real owner of the *233 Blaine county land, and was entitled to tliei purchase price thereof under the escrow contract; that the land was afterwards deeded to the three sons as a matter of convenience and the suit in the district court of Blaine county was prosecuted in their names by Samuel Waken; and that all of this constituted an abandonment of Samuel Waken’s rights under the contract of December S, 1931, to further receive the pror ceeds from the royalty interest in the Ok-mulgee county land, and further, that the decree of the district court of Blaine county decreed the cancellation of the escrow contract, and by reason thereof it became adjudicated that the defendant had no royalty interest in the Okmulgee county land.

On the other hand, the defendant contends that the plaintiff, Walker, under his purchase of the note secured by a mortgage on the Okmulgee county land, as well as by the decree in foreclosure and foreclosure sale, took the title to the land in controversy subject to Waken’s assignment of the royalty interest as security for the payment of the debt named in the escrow contract; that the debt has not been paid and the defendant never, in any way, abandoned or waived such debt or the security therefor; and that the burden in this action was upon the plaintiff to prove either that the debt had been paid or that the defendant had abandoned or waived the same or the security therefor, before the plaintiff should he entitled to have his title quieted as' against the defendant’s claim, which the plaintiff wholly failed to do.

Counsel for plaintiff has directed the court’s attention to some judicial expressions in support of his contention that, where two valid judgments conflict, the last controls, and therefore the decree of the district court of Blaine county should prevail over the earlier decree of the district court of Okmulgee county. In view of the fact that there is apparently no conflict between the decree of the district court of Blaine county establishing a vendor’s lien held by the Wakens on the Blaine county land and foreclosing the same, and the earlier decree of the district court of Okmulgee county recognizing the existence of a lien on the royalty interest in the Okmulgee county land to secure the same debt, there is, in this case, ’ no basis for the application of the rule for which the plaintiff contends, and the court expresses no opinion on that question of law. Neither does the court express any' opinion as to whether the plaintiff, not being a party to the action in Blaine county, and • not being himself bound by the Blaine county decree, could rely upon it as an adjudication of defendant’s rights.

The principal question for determination, therefore, is whether or not, under the facts stated, the defendant, Waken, abandoned his royalty interest in the Okmulgee county land as security for the debt owed him by Burrow and wife. From an examination of the record, there is some doubt as to whether or not the defendant so directed, and participated in, the Blaine county suit as to be bound by such proceeding, as plaintiff contends. However, assuming that defendant was the actual plaintiff in that suit, his prayer for the quieting of his title to the Blaine county land and the canceling of the escrow contract of December 8, 1931, and other relief, did not, under the facts; and circumstances, amount to the concurrence of an intention to abandon the Okmulgee county royalty interest as security for the payment of the debt he was asserting as unpaid, with an actual relinquishment thereof. Such concurrence is essential to an abandonment. On this question, counsel for the parties have not assisted the court with either the statement of any proposition of law applicable to the facts or the citation of any authority. The general rule seems to be well stated in 1 C. J. 6, as follows:

“Abandonment is made up of two elements, act and intention. It. includes both the intention to abandon and the external act by which the intention is carried into effect.
“To constitute abandonment in respect of property, there must be a concurrence of the intention to abandon and an actual relinquishment of the property so that it may be appropriated by the next comer. Both the intention to abandon and actual relinquishment must be. shown.”

This rule has been recognized by this court in passing upon the alleged abandonment of homestead rights: Long v. Talley, 84 Okla. 38, 201 P. 990; Shannon v. Potter, 83 Okla.

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Bluebook (online)
1935 OK 547, 45 P.2d 97, 172 Okla. 232, 1935 Okla. LEXIS 423, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/waken-v-bimstrom-okla-1935.