Warren v. Martin

272 S.W. 367, 168 Ark. 682, 1925 Ark. LEXIS 361
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedApril 20, 1925
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 272 S.W. 367 (Warren v. Martin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Warren v. Martin, 272 S.W. 367, 168 Ark. 682, 1925 Ark. LEXIS 361 (Ark. 1925).

Opinions

HumphReys, J.

Two suits were instituted by appellant in the First Division of the Chancery Court of Ouachita County, one against C. M. Martin et al. to cancel a quitclaim deed executed by her to Mandy Johnson on July 26, 1922, for an undivided one-fourth interest in the S% SW% section 29, township 15 S., range 15 W., in said county, containing 80 acres, upon the ground that it was procured through fraud; and the other against the Standard Oil Company of Louisiana et al., to cancel the oil, gas, and mineral lease upon the same lands, and which S. L. Johnson, the husband of Mandy Johnson, executed to E. P. Edwards on May 19, 1919, for the term of six years, upon the ground that same automatically forfeited for failure to pay rents in accordance with the provisions in the lease.

Many pleadings were filed in the cases, but, when completed, the issues joined were whether the quitclaim deed had been obtained through fraud, whether the lease had been forfeited for nonpayment of rentals, and whether appellant was entitled to an accounting for her share of the oil which had been taken from the land. It was agreed that the cases might be tried together and that all the testimony introduced in either case and in the case of Jane Warren v. Sun Oil Company et al. might be used in all of the cases, when pertinent and relevant.

Upon a hearing of the canse the court found that the quitclaim deed and lease were valid binding instruments upon all parties, but that C. M. Martin was indebted to appellant in the sum of $225 for her proportion of the purchase money he paid Mandy Johnson for sixty-three sixty-fourths interest in the oil, gas and mineral in said land. Pursuant to the finding, the court dismissed the bills and substituted bills for the want of equity, and rendered judgment against- C. M. Martin in favor of appellant for $225, and declared a lien on the interest of C. M. Martin in the lands to secure the payment of same, from which decree appellant has duly prosecuted an appeal to this court.

The record reflects, without dispute, that S. L. Johnson, a negro, was the owner by purchase of the land in question and an adjoining forty-acre tract; that he occupied the eighty-acre tract with his wife as their homestead until his death, on October 22, 1919; that his wife has resided thereon since his death; that he left surviving him his wife, L. A. (Mandy) Johnson, his sister, Jane Warren, and his half brother, Jesse Johnson, as his only heirs; that on May 9, 1919, S. L. Johnson and wife, Mandy, executed an oil, gas, and mineral lease on said lands, including the 40-acre tract, to E. P. Edwards, trustee, in which it was provided that the lease should become ipso facto null and void if a well were not drilled upon the land within one year, unless the time should be extended by payment of ten cents per acre in advance as rental, the rental money to be mailed to S. L. Johnson at Louann, Arkansas, or to be deposited to his credit in the Camden National Bank of Camden, Arkansas, and that the lease should extend to his heirs as to all conditions; that the lease was assigned by E. P. Edwards, trustee, to the Standard Oil Company, in July, 1922, and by the Standard Oil Company to the Gulf Refining- Company on August 8, 1922; that'Jane Warren executed a quitclaim deed for herinterest in said land to Mandy Johnson on July 26,1922; that ¡Mandy J ohnson conveyed a sixty-three sixty-fourths interest in all the oil, gas and mineral in or under said land to C. M. Martin for $2,000, subject to the gas, oil and mineral lease therein to E. P. Edwards, trustee; that S. L. J ohnson executed a deed of trust upon said land to W. P. Watts & Brothers to secure a loan of $1,099 due October 1, 1918, which was assigned to E. P. Edwards on January 13,1922; that on August 5, 1922, C. M. Martin conveyed an undivided one-half interest in sixty-three sixty-fourths of all the oil, gas, and mineral on said land to R. E. Davidson for $4,800; that on July 31,1922, E. P. Edwards released the Watts Brothers ’ deed of trust to R. E. Davidson as to the one-half interest bought by him in sixty-three sixty-fourths interest in all the oil, gas and mineral in said land from C. M. Martin, which release contained a recital that R. E. Davidson obtained the conveyance of said one-half interest in said oil, gas and mineral on said land from C. M. Martin on July '28, 1922; that on July 27, 1922, Jane Warren assigned a one-half interest in said land to J. F. Dries-back in consideration of his agreeing to assist her in clearing the title of said land by employing counsel to prosecute a suit to set aside the quitclaim deed she had executed to Mandy Johnson; that, after the institution of the suit, Jane Warren assigned for a valuable consideration all of her interest in said land to the said J. F. Driesback in case she should prevail in the litigation; that the rents were paid upon the Edwards lease in the following manner: the first rental payment, due May 19, 1920, was placed to the credit of S. L. Johnson in the Camden National Bank within the specified time; the second payment, due May 19, 1921, was paid directly to Mandy Johnson either in June or July, 1921; the third rental payment, due May 19, 1922, was deposited to the credit of Mandy Johnson in the Ouachita Valley National Bank at Camden on May 17 or 18, 1922, but was not delivered to Mandy Johnson until July, 1922; that on August 3, 1923, C. M. Martin sent $125 to Jane Warren, purporting to be in full payment of her interest in sixty-three sixty-fourths interest in all the oil, gas and mineral sold in the land after paying off the deed of trust for $1,099 and accrued interest thereon; that she returned the money by postal order to C. M. Martin in about a week or ten days after receiving same, upon the advice of J. S. Driesback; that, at the time lie sent the money, he also sent her a letter informing her of her interest in the land and oil, bht withheld from her that the Y. K. F. discovery well of the Smaekover oil field had come in and was producing a large amount of oil, and also withheld the fact that oil, gas, and mineral interest in lands near the well had greatly enhanced in value. The letter contained several paragraphs indicating that the oil, gas and mineral interests in the land were of little value and that the oil boom was insignificant. The two following paragraphs are indicative that the writer intended to make such an impression upon appellant:

“There is a little oil boom on here, and Mandy Johnson has sold a part of the royalty on this land for $1,600, which is sufficient to pay off the mortgage and have $500 left to divide as follows: one-half to herself and the other one-half to be divided equally between you and your brother, Jesse Johnson. Your part of the money would be $125.”

“If the oil boom amounts to nothing, then Mandy Johnson will deed back to you your interest in this land or buy it from you if you and she can agree upon a price.” The letter also indicated that it was necessary to have executed the quitclaim deed to prevent Mandy from losing her home, when, in fact, the real purpose of obtaining the deed was to clear up the title of oil interests in the land which Martin had bought or intended to buy from Mandy. The price of the interests sold, or intended to be sold, was also incorrectly stated in the letter.

The record reflects a conflict between appellant’s and appellee’s witnesses relative to representations made to procure the quitclaim deed from appellant and Mandy Johnson.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
272 S.W. 367, 168 Ark. 682, 1925 Ark. LEXIS 361, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/warren-v-martin-ark-1925.