Ward v. Ward

172 P.2d 978, 197 Okla. 551
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedApril 16, 1946
DocketNo. 31395
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 172 P.2d 978 (Ward v. Ward) 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
Ward v. Ward, 172 P.2d 978, 197 Okla. 551 (Okla. 1946).

Opinions

WELCH, J.

B. E. Ward, a resident of Love county, Okla., died owning real estate and personal property in that county. His wife, Blanche Ward, was appointed administratrix. In the course of the administration a younger brother, J. G. Ward, of Texarkana, Ark., commenced this action to establish a trust in the real estate to the extent of one-half thereof and to recover one-half of some personal property from the administratrix.

At death B. E. Ward owned in his own name a ranch containing about 800 acres six or eight miles northwest of Marietta, and he or he and his wife [553]*553owned the home ranch so-called, a mile or two north of Marietta, the title standing in the name of “B. E. Ward and Blanche Ward.” The personal property or estate consisted of several head of livestock, but not a large herd, and farm implements and machinery located on the home ranch, and about $3,000 on deposit in the Marietta bank in a checking account to the credit of B. E. Ward.

Plaintiff’s claim was based on the contention of a general partnership alleged to cover all business activities and all bank accounts in several banks in various names, and all property acquired, and including the properties here involved which plaintiff contended were assets of the partnership.

The action of the trial court in sustaining plaintiff’s contentions in full is here for review. Defendant contends the findings are not supported by the evidence and are contrary to the weight of the evidence and contrary to applicable rules of law. We must review the record.

Plaintiff asserted a full partnership from 1919 to B. E. Ward’s death in 1939. There is no direct proof of a partnership. That is, there is no proof of a partnership agreement, nor a written document or even a letter referring to them as partners. There is no satisfactory proof as to any bf the details of this partnership, as to its origin, as to what each put into it, or the intended sharing in profits or losses, or as to how the brothers did in fact share in the moneys during the several years involved. The proof relied upon by plaintiff consists of circumstances and statements and records of bank accounts and transactions. B. E. Ward was the oldest of four brothers and two sisters, J. G. Ward was the youngest of the six. In the year 1917 or 1918 J. G. Ward, then 16 or 18 years of age, came to live with B. E. Ward, who already owned real estate and a going business in the handling of livestock and the slaughter thereof, and a butcher shop or meat market. There is evidence that B. E. Ward had already made use of “Ward Bros.” as a trade name, having been assisted in work by one or both of his other brothers. It was not long after 1918 until J. G. Ward, working for or with his brother, B. E. Ward, also had permission to write and did write checks on the “Ward Bros.” bank accounts for business expenses or for his own use. And after J. G. Ward attained maturity, for a number of years, he and B. E. Ward, both living at Texarkana, Ark., dealt extensively in buying and selling cattle, using the name “Ward Bros.” with various bank accounts in that name, checked on by either of them. Seemingly there was no limitation orc restriction on either as to how much or for what purpose he drew checks on the several “Ward Bros.” bank accounts.

At the same time each of these brothers had separate or personal bank accounts, and while each drew freely on any and all of the “Ward Bros.” accounts, neither drew on the personal bank account of the other.

In the later years of his life, B. E. Ward removed to Love county, Okla., and gradually withdrew from active participation in the business at Tex-arkana, leaving that more and more to J. G. Ward.

Since the late 1920’s the bank account of “Ward Bros.” “B. E. Ward” and “J. G. Ward” had been very active. Though no large balances at any time, there were many hundreds of checks and deposits. In about the year 1933 J. G. Ward closed out his personal account and abandoned use of any “J. G. Ward” account, and thereafter operated exclusively in and through the “Ward Bros.” account. B. E. Ward in the same year opened a new account in the Texarkana bank to the credit of himself and wife “or the survivor,” and out of that account in the following year 1934 he opened the B. E. Ward account in the Marietta, Okla., bank which continued as his active account until his death.

Thus for a number of years these two brothers operated through joint bank [554]*554accounts. There was nothing whatever to show the character of their joint dealings or the details of their partnership or percentage of ownership, nothing to show that any partnership books were ever kept, or that any settlements or adjustments were ever made between them, unless they kept their books or accounts to their own satisfaction and made adjustments to their own satisfaction by and through their several bank accounts.

During those years J. G. Ward maintained several personal or individual bank accounts and so did B. E. Ward. But during all that time there was also a “Ward Bros.” bank account on which each could and did check freely. In most instances there was nothing to show whether the specific check was drawn for personal expenses of one of them or for personal expenditure by one of them, or for expenditure or expense by or for the benefit of some cattle deal or business transaction. Of course, this was not true of all of the checks, as some did bear notation of the expenditure purpose, as for instance, for the purchase of cattle or the expense of handling of cattle. There were checks payable to J. G. Ward signed “Ward Bros.” by B. E. Ward, also checks payable to B. E. Ward signed “Ward Bros.” by J. G. Ward, which might have indicated some sort of distribution of joint or partnership funds. But the record is wholly silent as to any plan or system of any division of funds, or any distribution thereof, or of any accounting one to the other or of any balancing of accounts, unless the brothers handled that to their own satisfaction from time to time by and through their checks and their several bank accounts.

During the latter years of B. E. Ward’s life he spent most of his time at his final home in Love county, Okla., looking after his properties there and engaging in cattle deals there with others as partners or joint adventurers. During that time his personal bank account in Marietta, Okla., showed many transactions of deposits and checks by himself and his wife. He also had joint account at Marietta with others with whom he made cattle purchases. During that time B. E. Ward did continue some transactions with his brother, J. G. Ward, through the “Ward Bros.” account in Texarkana. But during that period J. G. Ward was more and more in charge of the Texarkana business of buying and handling cattle, and there conducting a wholesale meat business and cold storage business. It was during that period J. G. Ward ceased use of any personal bank account and conducted his operations exclusively through the “Ward Bros.” account in Texarkana. Whether this was the result of diminishing personal funds or merely a desire to so operate is not shown.

It is definitely shown that during those years J. G. Ward checked on the “Ward Bros.” account for himself and his family as well as for his business operations. It is also shown that during those years J. G. Ward bought several items of real estate in Texarkana and owned them until B. E. Ward died, that during that time B. E. Ward never claimed any interest in them, nor during that time was any interest therein conceded to him by J. G. Ward.

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Bluebook (online)
172 P.2d 978, 197 Okla. 551, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ward-v-ward-okla-1946.