Jones v. Snyder
| Decision Date | 01 April 1924 |
| Docket Number | 13301. [a1] |
| Citation | 233 P. 744 |
| Parties | JONES et al. v. SNYDER. |
| Court | Oklahoma Supreme Court |
Opinion Withdrawn, Corrected, and Refiled, and Rehearing Denied February 24, 1925.
Syllabus by the Court.
Judgments of courts of general jurisdiction are conclusive against collateral attack, and vulnerable on direct attack only as to jurisdictional questions. Among the methods of direct attack is an equitable action for fraud extraneous of the issues involved in the proceeding. Where a petition is filed for the appointment of a guardian for a minor, and in such petition it is alleged that such minor is illegitimate and that her mother is dead, when the fact is that the father of such child has adopted and legitimated her in the manner authorized by Comp. Stat. 1921, § 8057, and such child is not a resident of the county where such petition is filed although alleged to be, such allegations of orphanage and illegitimacy are extraneous to the issues involved in the proceedings. Being extraneous, and the court being thereby designedly and fraudulently induced to dispense with notice to the father as required by Comp. Stat. 1921, § 1431, and the minor and her father both being designedly prevented thereby from having their day in court, equity will vacate the appointment of a guardian so procured and all proceedings based thereon because of such fraud.
Where guardianship proceedings resulting in the sale of a ward's lands are regular on their face, and void only because of extraneous fraud, one purchasing such lands by mesne conveyance in good faith, for value, and without notice of such fraud, will be protected to the extent of his equity in the lands so purchased in reliance on the record title.
Commissioners' Opinion, Division No. 1.
Appeal from District Court, Creek County; Lucian B. Wright, Judge.
Suit by Harry C. Snyder, as guardian of Gustava Marshall, a minor against Frank Jones and others, to cancel certain deeds and to quiet title. From a decree for plaintiff, defendants appeal. Modified and affirmed.
Gustava Marshall is a Creek freedman, duly enrolled as a new-born opposite roll No. 421, and there was allotted to her by virtue thereof the southwest quarter of section 22, township 14 north, range 10 east, in Creek county, Okl. She was an illegitimate child of Anna Ethel Phillips, and her mother died in Muskogee county in 1909, when plaintiff was about 6 years of age. Soon after her mother's death, the exact date not being shown by the record, her reputed father Abednego Marshall, took her to his home in Wagoner county where she became a member of his family and remained until the death of his wife, when he placed her with his aunt, Rose Childers, who resided in the same county, and with whom she thereafter lived for 4 or 5 years.
On April 19, 1910, Frank Jones and Mabel Jones, his wife, the latter being an aunt of Gustava Marshall on her mother's side, filed a petition in the county court of Tulsa county to have Frank Jones appointed as guardian of the person and estate of Gustava Marshall, and in said petition the relationship of said Mabel Jones and said minor was alleged, and it was further alleged that Mabel Jones and Frank Jones were residents of Tulsa county, and that Gustava Marshall was in their custody and control and was a resident of Tulsa county. It was also alleged that she was illegitimate and that her mother was dead. By proceedings, the apparent regularity of which is not questioned, said county court of Tulsa county appointed Frank Jones as guardian, and thereafter ordered and directed a sale of the lands of the minor above described, and confirmed the sale thereof, and directed deed to be issued to the purchaser, W. S. Hall, for a cash consideration of $530. Said guardian's deed was duly recorded in the office of the register of deeds of Creek county, and by mesne conveyances, all of which are likewise recorded in said county, title to said lands passed to and vested in C. C. Kimble and Wm. H. Reading, and was so vested at the time this action was commenced.
Plaintiff's action was based upon the alleged fraud of Frank Jones and Mabel Jones in alleging and testifying to the residence of Gustava Marshall in Tulsa county, in order to give the county court of that county jurisdiction to make the appointment of Frank Jones as guardian, and upon this alleged fraud is predicated the invalidity of all subsequent proceedings and conveyances made pursuant to such appointment.
The defendants Frank Jones, W. S. Hall, and Hattie Hall made default in the action. All other defendants filed demurrers to the petition, which were overruled by the court, and exceptions saved. These same defendants thereafter filed separate answers, admitting the matters shown of record, but denying the allegations of fraud, denying that Gustava Marshall was not a resident of Tulsa county at the time of the appointment of Frank Jones as guardian, alleging affirmatively that she was such resident and was living with Frank Jones and Mabel Jones, alleging the regularity of all proceedings in said county court of Tulsa county, and alleging the good faith and want of notice of any infirmity in the title when they purchased said property. Plaintiff replied to these separate answers, and the case was tried September 28, 1921, resulting in a judgment in favor of the plaintiff and against each and all of the defendants.
After unsuccessful motion for new trial, defendants have brought the case here for review by petition in error with case-made attached. The parties will be hereafter referred to as plaintiff and defendants, respectively, as they appeared in the trial court.
McDougal, Lytle, Allen & Pryor, Ellinghausen & Ellinghausen, and Albertson & Blakemore, all of Sapulpa, for plaintiffs in error.
W. T. Hunt, of Tulsa, for defendant in error.
LOGSDON, C. (after stating the facts as above).
Only two propositions are presented in the brief of defendants for a reversal of this judgment. The first of these is that this action is a collateral attack on the judgment of the county court of Tulsa county appointing Frank Jones as guardian; and the second, that the defendants were innocent purchasers in good faith of said premises.
A careful examination of the record in this case shows that there is practically no conflict in the evidence upon the question of the actual residence of Gustava Marshall after the death of her mother in 1909. There is no testimony showing or tending to show that she ever, at any time subsequent to the death of her mother, lived in Tulsa county with Mabel Jones or any one else; but the testimony is conclusive that soon after her mother's death she was taken from Muskogee county to Wagoner county by Abednego Marshall, her reputed father, and that she thereafter resided continuously in Wagoner county for a number of years. The record being in this condition, the only question to be determined under the first proposition presented is whether this action constitutes a collateral or a direct attack upon the order and judgment of the county court of Tulsa county appointing Frank Jones as guardian.
If it is a collateral attack, it must fall, because of the conclusive presumption in favor of the judgment of the county court of Tulsa county; that being a court of general jurisdiction in probate matters....
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