Yahola Sand & Gravel Company v. Marx

1960 OK 206, 358 P.2d 366, 1960 Okla. LEXIS 519
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedOctober 4, 1960
Docket38746
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 1960 OK 206 (Yahola Sand & Gravel Company v. Marx) 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
Yahola Sand & Gravel Company v. Marx, 1960 OK 206, 358 P.2d 366, 1960 Okla. LEXIS 519 (Okla. 1960).

Opinion

WILLIAMS, Vice Chief Justice.

Many years ago Mr. Frank Marx, the defendant in error, hereinafter referred to merely as plaintiff, was in the employ of a railway corporation. He knew how to figure rates and taxes on interstate shipments.

Mr. Walter Dills was then the manager of a concern which was the predecessor of plaintiff in error, hereinafter referred to merely as defendant. Mr. Dills induced Mr. Marx to leave the railway and come with his concern, promising that when he came to retire he would be paid the same as railroad retirement would provide.

It has developed that if he had remained with the railroad until retirement, Marx could then have retired and drawn Social Security payments of approximately $155 per month and some $84 per month retirement pay and also would have been able to earn not to exceed some $1,200 per year from another employer without reduction of his benefits.

*367 William Dills, a son of Walter, a manager for defendant and one of its vice-presidents and later president, in 1956 was going to move Mr. Marx to a different location, and Marx, a man then past 65 years of age, quit defendant’s employ. Marx waited some nine days and not having heard from defendant, wrote about retirement benefits.

Dills referred Marx’s letter to defendant’s attorney, Mr. Fite, for answer. On August 24, 1956, Marx was advised by letter from Fite to thereafter negotiate with himself, Fite. In the letter an offer was made to pay Marx $100 per month during the pleasure of defendant as a “gift” which offer Marx rejected by letter from his attorneys dated October 4, 1956.

On February 27, 1957, another offer (to pay $80.55 per month from retirement to that time and $83.12 per month thereafter) was made. This, Marx also rejected by letter he wrote his attorneys the next day and of which they advised defendant.

Discussions between the plaintiff and his lawyers and defendant’s attorney were later resumed and several written drafts of a proposed contract made.

Finally, in August 1957, Fite advised Marx and his attorneys to come to his office on a certain date to sign up a settlement contract disposing of all controversial matters pending between the parties including, but not limited to, a suit by Marx against defendant in U. S. District Court for wage and hour accruals allegedly due him, claims of Marx for unemployment compensation and his claimed right to retirement pay, as well as defendant receiving assurances from Marx of his continued loyalty to defendant in his conversation and manner.

Marx that day (Aug. 28, 1957), in Fite’s office, signed three instruments: (1), a release of all his claims of any character against defendant, (2), a stipulation for dismissal with prejudice of his Federal suit against defendant above referred to and, (3), the proposed contract.

Fite, in his office on the same day, wrote, signed and delivered to Marx a letter explaining in detail the benefits Marx would receive from the proposed contract.

Thereafter Fite gave original or signed copy of the proposed contract executed by Marx to Dills. Marx had his attorneys call Fite repeatedly and himself saw Fite on the street. Fite, apparently thinking Dills would sign, kept saying he would get the money due thereunder, etc. Finally on Dec. 10, 1957, he wrote that Dills had changed his mind and decided to not go into the contract. A different offer made in the same letter and accompanied by defendant’s check for $1,434.80 was also rejected by Marx.

Marx’s attorney picked up from Fite’s office the release, the dismissal of Federal suit (which had never been filed) and the proposed contract.

In February, 1958, the Clerk of the Federal Court sent Marx’s lawyers notice of setting of their case for trial in March, 1958. They asked Fite if he would stipulate that it be dismissed. This he refused to do. Marx’s lawyers themselves later had the Federal Court dismiss that case.

Marx sued defendant on the proposed contract of August 28, 1957. The trial court found the contract to have been executed, permitted an amendment• during the trial and pursuant thereto rendered judgment for Marx (for the amount of $1,628.40 stated in the proposed August 28, 1957, contract to be then due Marx and $238 per month since then through December, 1958, or $4,051.10, or a total of $5,679.50).

Defendant in this appeal from that judgment first contends that there was no contract entered into between the parties; A, that Fite’s acts were mere negotiations looking toward a settlement; that he had no specific or presumed authority to bind defendant; B, that Fite did not assume to effect a compromise; that he only drew *368 up a proposed contract not intended to become effective until signed and acknowledged by both the parties; and, C, Marx did not change his position relying upon any apparent authority in Fite and therefore no estoppel arises in favor of Marx.

Defendant also argues that there was no evidence upon which the amount awarded by the court in its judgment could be based.

In the trial court, Marx testified he asked Fite in his office on August 28, 1957, if Dills had read and approved the (proposed August 28, 1957) contract and that Fite gave him an affirmative answer; that he, Marx, would not have signed without such assurance. However, Marx admitted, “Well, it should be in writing. I hope to have it in writing.”

Such proposed contract recited that it was between Yahola Sand & Gravel Co., party of the first part, and Frank Marx, party of the second part, and provided a place for defendant to sign by its president and for attest by its secretary and for both defendant and Marx to acknowledge it. Both of Marx’s attorneys testified the intentions of the parties were that it be signed by both.

Both Fite and Dills testified that Dills specifically gave Fite authority to make the offer of August 24, 1956, that of February 27, 1957, and that of December 10, 1957, and only these three. Dills testified he at no time authorized a renewal of the February 27, 1957, offer which Marx had rejected. Fite testified he did not say Dills had read and approved the contract; that he had just finished the final proposed draft a day or two preceding; that Dills had been and was then out of town and would not return until after Labor Day; that Fite said Dills would sign the agreement; that he had worked along with plaintiff’s lawyers and they were getting so close to an agreement and the August 28, 1957 proposed contract was so little different from the February, 1957 proposed contract (rejected by Marx) that he, Fite, sincerely believed it would be signed by Dills.

Our statutes provide that a contract is an agreement to do or not to do a certain thing (15 O.S.1951 § 1), and that it is essential to the existence of a contract that there should be: 1. Parties capable of contracting; 2. their consent; 3. a lawful object; and, 4. sufficient cause or consideration (15 O.S.1951 § 2). There was no consent on behalf of defendant by Dills, either signed or vocal.

However, by amended answer, the defendant admitted that “under date of February 27, 1957, pursuant to authority granted to him by the defendant, Julian B.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Hays v. Monticello Retirement Estates, L.L.C.
2008 OK CIV APP 74 (Court of Civil Appeals of Oklahoma, 2008)
Badillo v. Mid Century Insurance Co.
2005 OK 48 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 2005)
Petersen v. Petersen
245 N.W.2d 285 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 1976)
Kover v. Hufsmith
496 P.2d 908 (Wyoming Supreme Court, 1972)
Mungin v. Florida East Coast Railway Company
318 F. Supp. 720 (M.D. Florida, 1970)
Gran v. City of St. Paul, Board of Education
143 N.W.2d 246 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1966)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1960 OK 206, 358 P.2d 366, 1960 Okla. LEXIS 519, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/yahola-sand-gravel-company-v-marx-okla-1960.