Pangaea Exploration Corp. v. Ryland
| Decision Date | 05 October 2007 |
| Docket Number | No. 104,402. Released for Publication by Order of the Court of Civil Appeals of Oklahoma, Division No. 1.,104,402. Released for Publication by Order of the Court of Civil Appeals of Oklahoma, Division No. 1. |
| Citation | 173 P.3d 108,2007 OK CIV APP 106 |
| Parties | PANGAEA EXPLORATION CORPORATION, successor to Mickey J. Overall, Plaintiff/Counter-Defendant/Appellee, v. Sarah RYLAND, Marie Billings, Barbara Ann Gill, Ross Lee Thomas, Mildred Ellis, Georgia Burlingame, Jacob W. Blevins, Ruth M. Blevins, Bill Dolan, Barth Campbell, Denise Campbell, Kevin Campbell, James Lynn Blevins, Roy Phillip Blevins, Arleta Gayle Blevins, Steven Ellis Blevins, Michelle Blevins, David M. Blevins, and John M. Billings, Defendants/Counter-Plaintiffs/Third-Party Plaintiffs/Appellants, and Grace Arlene Billings, Judith Marie Teeple, Elizabeth Billings, and Phern Billings, Defendants/Counter-Plaintiffs/Third-Party Plaintiffs, v. Oklahoma Title & Closing Company, Inc., Third-Party Defendant. |
| Court | United States State Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma. Court of Civil Appeals of Oklahoma |
Appeal from the District Court of Logan County, Oklahoma; Honorable Donald L. Worthington, Judge.
REVERSED AND REMANDED
Richard Gore, Travis Brown, Mahaffey & Gore, P.C., Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, for Plaintiff/Counter-Defendant/Appellee.
Timothy Allen Heefner, Jennifer Bruner, Goolsby, Olson & Proctor, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, for Defendants/Counter-Plaintiffs/Appellants.
¶ 1 Defendants/Counter-Plaintiffs/Appellants Sarah Ryland, Marie Billings, Barbara Ann Gill, Ross Lee Thomas, Mildred Ellis, Georgia Burlingame, Jacob W. Blevins, Ruth M. Blevins, Bill Dolan, Barth Campbell, Denise Campbell, Kevin Campbell, James Lynn Blevins, Roy Phillip Blevins, Arleta Gayle Blevins, Steven Ellis Blevins, Michelle Blevins, David M. Blevins, and John M. Billings (Appellants) appeal from summary judgment granted in favor of Plaintiff/Counter-Defendant/Appellee Pangaea Exploration Corporation (Pangaea).1 In 2005, Pangaea sought to quiet title to a mineral interest. Appellants counterclaimed seeking to quiet title in their names, claiming they did not intend to convey the minerals when they conveyed the surface estate to Pangaea's predecessor in 1997. Appellants' counterclaim required reforming the deed. The trial court erred in finding that the limitations period for reformation of deed began to run from the date the deed was recorded. The five-year limitations period for reformation of deed due to mutual mistake runs from the time the plaintiff discovered or should have discovered the mistake. Pangaea's cause of action for quiet title accrued when Appellants filed their Notice of Claim of Interest July 9, 2004. Under 12 O.S.2001 § 2013(C), Appellants' counterclaim is timely if it was not barred by a statute of limitations before Pangaea's claim arose. The evidence in the record on appeal2 shows Appellants and the original grantee discovered the mutual mistake in 2004. We remand for trial of when the limitations period began to run as to Appellants' counterclaim, and consequently whether it is timely under § 2013(C).
¶ 2 Mickey J. Overall filed his Petition August 11, 2005. Overall asserted that in 1997, Appellants conveyed their interest in real property3 in Logan County to Nations-Bank as Trustee of the Larry K. Wilson Managed IRA, Trustee for Larry K. Wilson. The warranty deeds conveying the property contained no reservation of minerals. Overall noted on July 9, 2004 Appellants filed in Logan County a Notice of Claim of Interest to All Mineral Rights. In the Notice, Appellants claimed they did not intend to convey the minerals with the surface. Overall asserted that Appellants had attached to their Notice the August 23, 1997 agreement to sell the real property. Larry K. Wilson conveyed "100% of his interest in and to all of the oil and gas and other minerals" in the property to Overall by quit claim deed executed January 11, 2005 and recorded the next day.4 Overall asserted Appellants' Notice was a cloud on his title to the mineral interest. Overall asked for judgment quieting title to the minerals in his name.
¶ 3 In their Answer, Appellants asserted Overall's quiet title action was barred by mistake and estoppel. Appellants asserted also the warranty deeds purporting to convey the mineral interest were made and recorded in error and mistake and without the required intent to pass title to the minerals. Appellants included a Counterclaim for quiet title against Overall. Appellants averred the sales contract expressly excluded mineral rights from the sale. Appellants alleged that on October 3 and 23, 1997 they executed the warranty deeds, which were prepared by agents of Third-Party Defendant Oklahoma Title & Closing Co., and that, through a scrivener's error, the warranty deeds failed to reserve the mineral interest in the real property. As noted above, Appellants executed and recorded their Notice of Claim of Interest to All Mineral Rights July 9, 2004. After Appellants filed their Notice, Larry K. Wilson conveyed his interest in the minerals to Overall by quit claim deed. Appellants asserted that on and after January 11, 2005, the date of the quit claim deed, Overall was on notice that Appellants claimed rights superior to all others in the mineral interest. Appellants asserted that Overall's claim to the minerals is adverse to theirs and asked the court to quiet title to the minerals in Appellants.
¶ 4 After Pangaea's substitution as Plaintiff, it filed its Motion for Summary Judgment.5 Appellants filed their Response, in which they clarified certain facts. They show that in 1997 Appellants conveyed their interest in the property by warranty deed to Pangaea's predecessor. The contract for sale and other documents indicated the parties intended for Appellants to reserve their mineral interest from the conveyance, but through mutual mistake, the warranty deeds did not include a reservation of minerals.6 Seven years later, Appellants and Wilson discovered the deeds did not contain the mineral reservation. In 2004, Appellants filed their Notice of Claim of Interest to All Mineral Rights, in which they claimed that the warranty deeds failed to reserve the minerals due to a scrivener's error or inadvertent omission. Wilson later executed a quit claim deed in which he conveyed the mineral interest to Pangaea's predecessor.
¶ 5 Appellants asserted they filed their Notice of Claim in 2004 to give notice to prospective buyers of their claim and of the scrivener's error. Appellants further alleged they requested Wilson execute quit claim deeds to clear the chain of title to the minerals, to which Wilson agreed in exchange for reimbursement of the cost of having the minerals appraised.7 Appellants asserted that Oklahoma Title & Closing Co. offered to pay the appraisal costs, but Wilson never executed quit claim deeds conveying the minerals to Appellants. Appellants also alleged that after Wilson conveyed the minerals to Overall, Oklahoma Title & Closing Co. asked Overall to execute a corrective quit claim deed, but Overall refused.
¶ 6 In their Response to the summary judgment motion, Appellants asserted that on October 25, 1999, a Trustee's Special Warranty Deed was executed conveying the surface rights in the property from NationsBank as Trustee for Wilson, to InvesTrust as successor Trustee. Appellants noted that deed stated the conveyance was subject to all mineral reservations. Raymond Vaughn, counsel for the Wilsons, in a letter dated November 29, 2004, wrote that landmen approached Wilson to lease the minerals and "convinced him" that the minerals were his. On June 12, 2004, InvesTrust executed a quit claim deed conveying any interest in the minerals to Larry K. Wilson. Wilson conveyed his interest by quit claim deed to Overall six months after Appellants filed their Notice and Claim to the minerals. In August 2004, Eastern Land Services requested that Defendants Burlingame and Ryland execute an oil and gas lease on the property and advised them that the lease bonus would be held in escrow until the title issue was resolved. Appellants asserted this correspondence referred to prior communications on July 26, 2004. Appellants asserted that July 2004 was the first time Appellants received notice of the adverse claim.
¶ 7 In its Reply, Pangaea noted the parties did not dispute the material facts. Pangaea framed the issue as the legal question of when the statute of limitations begins to run against a party's right to reform a warranty deed due to mutual mistake. Although both Pangaea's claim and Appellants' counterclaim were for quiet title, Pangaea asserted the five year limitations period applicable to actions to reform a deed applied based on the following language in Maloy v. Smith, 1959 OK 69, 341 P.2d 912, 914: "... it is necessary to reform a deed regular on its face before title can be quieted, ...."8
¶ 8 The trial court filed the Journal Entry of Judgment against Appellants February 9, 2007. The trial court found the facts were undisputed and applied the five year statute of limitations in 12 O.S.Supp.2005 § 95(A)(12). The court relied on Overholt v. Indep. School Dist. No. 2, Tulsa County, 1993 OK CIV APP 75, 852 P.2d 823, to find that the limitations period "began to run against (Appellants') claims to reform such Warranty Deeds from the date the Warranty Deeds were filed of record ..." The trial court found that Appellants' claim to reform the warranty deed was made more that five years after the deeds were recorded and that it was therefore time barred. The trial court consequently quieted title to the minerals in Pangaea.9
¶ 9 Summary judgment proceedings are governed by Rule 13, Rules for District Courts, 12 O.S.2001, Ch. 2, App.1. Summary judgment is appropriate where the record establishes no substantial controversy of material fact and the prevailing party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Brown v. Alliance Real Estate Group, 1999 OK 7, 976 P.2d 1043, 1045. Summary judgment is not proper where reasonable minds could draw different inferences...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Suburban Realty Co. v. Cantley
...action to reform a deed is equitable, and in the case of a mutual mistake of fact, equity will correct the mistake." Pangaea Expl. Corp. v. Ryland , 2007 OK CIV APP 106, ¶ 10, 173 P.3d 108. " ‘In a case of equitable cognizance, a judgment will be sustained on appeal unless it is found to be......
-
Suburban Realty Co. v. Cantley
...action to reform a deed is equitable, and in the case of a mutual mistake of fact, equity will correct the mistake." Pangaea Expl. Corp. v. Ryland, 2007 OK CIV APP 106, ¶ 10, 173 P.3d 108. "'In a case of equitable cognizance, a judgment will be sustained on appeal unless it is found to be a......
-
Medicine Lodge Investments, L.L.C. v. Ear
...a mutual mistake of fact, equity will correct the mistake. Cunnius v. Fields, 1969 OK 8, 449 P.2d 703, 706; Pangaea Exploration Corp. v. Ryland, 2007 OK CIV APP 106, 173 P.3d 108. The record here shows that the 39% of the water rights in the 54.28 acres was conveyed to EAR in the Quit Claim......
-
Get LLC v. City Of Blackwell
...Oklahoma cases reflect the same relationship between scrivener error and mutual mistake. See, e.g., Pangaea Exploration Corp. v. Ryland, 173 P.3d 108, 113 n.11 (Okla. Civ. App. 2007); Davenport v. Beck, 576 P.2d 1199, 1201 (Okla. Civ. App. 1977). 6. Indeed, while we agree with the district ......