Lasoya Oil Co. v. Zulkey
| Decision Date | 13 January 1914 |
| Docket Number | Case Number: 4083 |
| Parties | LASOYA OIL CO. v. ZULKEY. |
| Court | Oklahoma Supreme Court |
¶0 1. GUARDIAN AND WARD--Invalid Lease by Guardian--Ratification by Ward. Where a corporation leases a minor's land from her guardian for oil and gas purposes, paying therefor to the guardian, for the use of his ward, $ 40 per acre bonus and an eighth royalty, and at the same time and as a part of the same consideration pays to the guardian, for his own use and benefit, $ 20 per acre for the improvement on the land, claimed by the guardian to be his property, when in fact such improvements were purchased with the money belonging to the ward, the ward may maintain an action against such corporation for a cancellation of the lease. But where such action is commenced by the ward after majority, and she sets out in her petition all of the facts relative to the fraudulent transaction between the corporation and her guardian, and verifies the same, and where such ward is a person of ordinary intelligence, if thereafter she voluntarily makes final settlement with her guardian, receiving from him valuable property and money, knowing said property and money to be the proceeds of such lease, such settlement is a ratification of the lease.
2. TENDER--Binding Effect. The party making a tender in the trial of a cause for the purpose of doing equity is bound by such tender.
Error from District Court, Rogers County; T. L. Brown, Judge.
Action by Ada A. Zulkey against the Lasoya Oil Company, a corporation. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant brings error. Reversed and rendered.
George S. Ramsey, W. E. Woodcock, Virgil Hicks, and C. L. Thomas, for plaintiff in error
Charles Richardson, E. R. Perry, and Stuart, Cruce & Gilbert, for defendant in error
¶1 In 1901 Ada, Minnie, Alexander, and Leroy Zulkey, minor children of Mark F. Zulkey, were the owners of four contiguous allotments in the Cherokee Nation. Mark F. Zulkey, the legal guardian of said minors, with the approval and under the direction of the United States District Court of the Northern District of the Indian Territory, leased said allotments to the Lasoya Oil Company for oil and gas purposes; the consideration stated in the lease being $ 40 per acre bonus and an eighth royalty, said lease running for a period of fifteen years. The said lease was negotiated by John P. and James H. Elkin, stockholders in said oil company, and as a part and parcel of the same transaction the said oil company agreed to pay Mark F. Zulkey the sum of $ 20 per acre for his own use and benefit, he representing that the improvements on said allotments were placed there at his own expense and labor; but it is shown by the evidence that the improvements were, in fact, the property of the minor children. The Lasoya Oil Company paid to Mark F. Zulkey the $ 40 per acre bonus for the children and the $ 20 per acre bonus for his own use and benefit, and have drilled 22 wells upon the tract of land belonging to Ada A. Zulkey; nine of these wells being dry holes, and the others small producers. A short time after Ada A. Zulkey became of age she commenced this action to cancel the lease, alleging that the same was obtained by fraud and collusion of said oil company and her guardian, and that the true consideration for the lease was $ 60 per acre bonus and an eighth royalty, and that they had knowingly and fraudulently paid Mark F. Zulkey, her guardian, $ 20 per acre for his own use and benefit. The petition sets out fully all of the facts relative to this transaction, and the same is verified by Ada A. Zulkey. The Lasoya Oil Company denies the alleged fraud, and alleges its own utmost good faith in obtaining the lease, and further alleges that Ada A. Zulkey has, by her acts and conduct, ratified said lease since she became of age. The case was tried to the court, who found that the lease was obtained by fraud, and that Ada A. Zulkey is entitled to the possession of the land and cancellation of the lease, and entered judgment accordingly. There are several assignments of error urged, but the question of ratification is the only one necessary to consider in this case.
¶2 The evidence discloses that the money received by Mark F. Zulkey as guardian, under this lease, the bonus and royalty, were by said guardian, under the directions of the county court of Craig county, invested in property consisting of two lots and a ten-room house in the town of Chelsea; that after Ada A. Zulkey became of age, and after this suit was commenced, she voluntarily made a settlement with her guardian in the county court, receiving from him the said house and lots and about $ 800 in money. She testified that she knew that this property and money were the proceeds of this lease at the time she made the settlement; that she accepted the same, signed a receipt therefor, and settled in full with her father as guardian.
¶3 The acts and conduct of said ward were a ratification of the lease. For authorities holding that where a ward, after attaining majority, accepts the proceeds and benefits arising from a voidable transaction with reference to her estate, such ward is estopped to deny the validity of the transaction, see the following cases:
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