Barker v. British Am. Oil Producing Co., 34711

• Decision Date: 03 February 1953
• Docket Number: No. 34711,34711
• Citation: 256 P.2d 807,208 Okla. 426
• Parties: BARKER et al. v. BRITISH AMERICAN OIL PRODUCING CO. et al.
• Court: Oklahoma Supreme Court

Page 807

256 P.2d 807

208 Okla. 426

BARKER et al. v. BRITISH AMERICAN OIL PRODUCING CO. et al.

No. 34711.

Supreme Court of Oklahoma.

Feb. 3, 1953.

Rehearing Denied May 5, 1953.

Syllabus by the Court

1. A lessee of real estate for oil and gas without notice, actual or constructive of an outstanding unrecorded conveyance thereof to another party, is entitled to rely on the records and if there is nothing on the records to put him on notice, and the existence of facts and circumstances which would cause an ordinarily prudent man to make additional inquiry is not shown, he is a bona fide purchaser, and is protected against such outstanding conveyance.

2. In cases of equitable cognizance the appellate court will examine and weigh the evidence, but the findings and judgment of the trial court will not be disturbed on appeal unless it appears that such findings and judgment are clearly against the weight of the evidence.

James R. Eagleton, Oklahoma City, for plaintiffs in error.

Robinson, Shipp, Robertson & Barnes, Oklahoma City, for defendants in error.

DAVISON, Justice.

The defendants in error herein, The British American Oil Producing Company, a corporation, F. E. Harper and Roy J. Turner, as plaintiffs, brought this suit in equity against the defendants, H. R. Barker, C. A. Davis and Clara Davis, plaintiffs in error here, to quiet their title to an oil and gas leasehold estate in certain lands in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, the acreage in controversy being about two and one-half acres. The parties will be referred to as they appeared in the trial court.

On March 25, 1941, the said C. A. Davis and Clara Davis, his wife, while the owners of a number of blocks in the Gee and Jones Subdivision of the west half of the southwest quarter of Sec. 4. Twp. 12 North, Range 2 West, in said Oklahoma County, executed a contract of sale and warranty deed to Auguste D. Bellegarde and Ida Rowland Bellegarde, as grantees, on a five acre block, in said subdivision, designated number 13, reserving, however, to the grantors an undivided one-half interest in the oil and gas underlying the premises. The contract and deed, without being recorded, were placed in escrow with one Frank Trosper, for delivery to the grantees when the total purchase price of $600 had been paid in accordance with the terms of the contract. The sale of this block and of several other blocks in said subdivision were negotiated and handled by the said Trosper. The Bellegardes did not take actual possession of the property which was rough unoccupied land, nor did they pay taxes or any of the purchase price other than the original small down payment.

On April 16, 1947, C. A. Davis and Clara Davis executed and delivered to the plaintiffs, F. E. Harper and Roy J. Turner, an oil and gas lease covering said block 13 and eight other blocks in the subdivision. The lease was for a primary term of five years, contained a general warranty of title and was recorded April 17, 1947. At the time of filing this suit, the lease was owned jointly by all the plaintiffs, insofar as block 13 was concerned. In June, 1949, the defendants, Davis, employed one Hal Folmar to clear up the title to said block 13 and, as compensation, agreed to give him an oil and gas lease on said block and a mineral interest in some other land. Folmar located the Bellegardes and, on June 10, 1949, for $1 consideration, secured a quitclaim deed from them to him. On June 13, 1949, Folmar executed an oil and gas lease on block 13 to the defendant, H. R. Barker, and on June 20, 1949, he executed a quitclaim deed thereon to Davis. The warranty deed from Davis to Bellegarde, the quitclaim deed from Bellegarde to Folmar, the oil and gas lease from Folmar to Barker and the quitclaim deed from Folmar to Davis were all recorded on June 21, 1949.

Although the facts are rather detailed, the issues between the parties are simple. Plaintiffs contend that their lease covers said block 13 in its entirety and that, at the time of its execution, the lessees had no notice, either actual or constructive of any claim or interest of the Bellegardes to the premises; that the deed from Davis to Bellegarde was never delivered nor was the purchase price ever paid; that the quitclaim deeds from Bellegarde to Folmar and from Folmar to Davis were elements of a fraudulent attempt to defeat the warranty of title in the lease from Davis to Harper and Turner and that Folmar and the defendants, Davis and Barker, were estopped from asserting any interest adverse to plaintiffs.

Defendants, on the other hand, assert that the oil and gas lease from Davis to Harper and Turner covered only the right, title and interest of the lessors in the premises at the time of the conveyance; that plaintiffs' lease covered only an undivided one-half interest in the minerals under said block 13, because that was all that was owned by Davis at that time; that Bellegarde owned a one-half interest in the minerals until foreclosure or voluntary conveyance and that the defendant, Barker, obtained a leasehold estate which was never reconveyed to Davis and, therefore, could not have passed to plaintiffs as an after-acquired title under the warranty of title in plaintiffs' lease.

A trial of the case to the court resulted in a...