Wolfe v. Smith

1944 OK 141, 148 P.2d 161, 194 Okla. 201, 1944 Okla. LEXIS 413
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedMarch 14, 1944
DocketNo. 30983.
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 1944 OK 141 (Wolfe v. Smith) 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
Wolfe v. Smith, 1944 OK 141, 148 P.2d 161, 194 Okla. 201, 1944 Okla. LEXIS 413 (Okla. 1944).

Opinion

GIBSON, V. C. J.

This is an action in ejectment and to recover damages. The trial court directed verdict for plaintiff, and entered judgment against defendant for possession and damages, and he ap- • peals.

On March 31, 1931, the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company obtained a money judgment against plaintiff Smith in the court of common pleas of Tulsa county, and on April 4, 1931, filed an abstract or transcript thereof in the office of the clerk of the district court of said county, in the manner provided by law, in order to establish a judgment lien on the real estate belonging to Smith. Sections 3933-3950, O. S. 1931 (amended, 20 O. S. 1941 § 651-668).

Thereafter, May 9, 1931, the judgment creditor caused execution to issue against Smith out of the court of common pleas, and said execution was thereupon levied on the land in question which then belonged to Smith, and the same was appraised, advertised, and sold according to law, to said judgment creditor. Return of sale was duly made to the court, but for some unexplained reason no order of confirmation was entered until October 4, 1941. And shortly thereafter sheriff’s deed was executed and delivered to the purchaser aforesaid.

In the meantime the purchaser had conveyed the land to defendant Wolfe by quitclaim deed bearing date October 7, 1931. The deed failed to describe the premises correctly, but Wolfe took possession thereof and enclosed the same inside a fence with other lands belonging to him. On October 6, 1941, after the issuance of the sheriffs deed, and subsequent to the commencement of this action, the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company executed another quitclaim deed to Smith containing a correct description of the land.

The trial court held the sheriff’s sale void, and awarded plaintiff judgment for possession and for damages.

The judgment was based upon the theory that the court of common pleas, immediately upon the filing of the transcript of judgment in the district court, lost jurisdiction of the cause and that the execution issued out of that court and all proceedings thereunder were void.

The action of the trial court in so holding constitutes the principal assignment of error.

Plaintiff takes the position that the *202 district court subsequent to the filing of the transcript therein was vested with exclusive power to issue execution on the judgment and to conduct the levy and sale thereunder.

Defendant says that the court of common pleas had not been divested of its power in the matter, but, by reason of the statutes, the district court had only concurrent jurisdiction with the former court.

The statutes as they existed at the time these matters arose conferred jurisdiction upon the court of common pleas as a court of record to render money judgments such as the one upon which the execution in question was issued (sec. 3933, supra; as amended, 20 O. S. 1941 § 651). It had full power and authority to issue all process, civil and criminal, necessary and proper to carry into effect the jurisdiction given it by law and its judgments and other determinations, and all powers usually possessed by courts of record at common law, except certain powers not here material (sec. 3937, supra; now 20 O. S. 1941 § 655).

Section 3941, supra (later repealed), provided that no judgment of said court should attach as a lien on real estate until a transcript thereof or certified copy be filed in the district court of the county wherein the judgment was rendered. And said section provided further, as follows:

“Every person in whose favor a judgment is rendered in said Court of Common Pleas, may, upon paying the fee therefor, and all unpaid fees payable to the clerk in such action, demand and shall receive from such clerk a transcript of such judgment, duly certified, or a Certified copy of the journal entry of judgment in said cause, and may file the same in the office of the court clerk of the District Court in said county, who shall file and docket the same as in cases of transcripts of judgments in the courts of justices of Dhe peace. And every such judgment shall become a lien upon the real estate of the debtor, from the filing of such transcript or certified copy of journal entry of judgment, to the same extent as a judgment of the said District Court. The clerk of said Court of Common Pleas shall not issue such transcript while a writ of execution is outstanding in the hands of an officer or otherwise; and shall note on the record of such judgment the fact that such transcript has been given.” (See 20 O. S. 1941 § 659-a, substituted section.)

The statutes creating the courts of common pleas and fixing their jurisdiction do not specifically authorize the issuance and levy of execution out of the district court after transcripts of the judgments are lodged there. However, in Price v. Banes, 173 Okla. 302, 43 P. 2d 476, this court held that after the transcript was filed in district court as authorized by section 3941, supra, the court clerk was empowered to issue execution on the judgment in the same manner and to the same extent as if the judgment had been originally rendered in the district court.

That decision was reached after' a construction of the act creating the courts of common pleas in connection with the sections relating to the transcript of judgments of justices of the peace to the district court (secs. 506, 507, 508, O. S. 1931, 12 O. S. 1941 §§ 904, 905, 906). Those sections were made to include judgments of the county courts by the revision of the 1910 code. Said section 508, referring to the trans-cripted judgments of county courts and those of justices of the peace, provided that “execution may be issued thereon, to the sheriff, by the clerk of the district court, in the same manner as if the judgment had been taken in that court.” In Price v. Banes, above, we said that the Legislature intended by the provisions of sections 3937 and 3941, supra, to make the above quoted provision applicable to judgments of the court of common pleas.

But this court has not held that the filing of a transcript of a justice court judgment in the district court deprives the justice of further power to issue execution thereon. However, the Supreme Court of Kansas has held that the filing *203 of the transcript in district court does deprive the justice of the peace of power to issue execution. Rahm v. Soper, 28 Kan. 529. That decision was based upon an interpretation of the sections relating to the filing of transcripts of judgments of justices of the peace in district court. Our statutes, sections 506, 507, 508, O. S. 1931, above, were adopted from Kansas, except the Kansas statute did not include judgments of county courts or other courts of record. The decision, however, was based principally upon another section of the Kansas statutes, section 4990, Gen. Stat. 1889, dealing exclusively with the duties of justices of the peace in the matter of enforcing their judgments. That section was adopted by this state and now appears as 39 O. S. 1941 § 282. It reads as follows:

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Bluebook (online)
1944 OK 141, 148 P.2d 161, 194 Okla. 201, 1944 Okla. LEXIS 413, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wolfe-v-smith-okla-1944.