Paulter v. Manuel

• Decision Date: 09 November 1909
• Docket Number: Case Number: 911
• Citation: 25 Okla. 59,1909 OK 283,108 P. 749
• Parties: PAULTER v. MANUEL. MANUEL v. PAULTER et al.
• Court: Oklahoma Supreme Court

1909 OK 283

108 P. 749

25 Okla. 59

PAULTER v. MANUEL.

MANUEL v. PAULTER et al.

Case Number: 911

Supreme Court of Oklahoma

Decided: November 9, 1909

Syllabus

¶0 1. APPEAL AND ERROR--Cross-Appeal--Dismissal. A cross-appeal must be prosecuted like other appeals, or it will be dismissed.

2. APPEAL AND ERROR--Cross-Appeal--Failure to Serve Citation. Under the law in force in the Indian Territory at the time of the admission of the state, a citation is one of the necessary elements of a cross-appeal taken after the term, and if it be not issued and served upon the appellee to the cross-appeal before the end of the next ensuing term of the appellate court, and be not waived, the cross-appeal becomes inoperative.

3. APPEAL AND ERROR--Report of Master--Presumption of Correctness. The legal presumption where the evidence is conflicting is that the findings of fact of a master in chancery are correct, and his report will not be set aside unless it appears witch reasonable clearness that he has fallen into a mistake of fact.

4. DEEDS--Cancellation of Instruments--Mental Capacity--Inadequacy of Consideration. Where a grantor is of a mind so weak and ignorant that she had no intelligent conception of the quality or the quantity of land she was undertaking to convey, and had no intelligent idea of the price offered and paid her, does not understand numbers, and cannot count money, and is so ignorant and weak-minded that she does not know whether $ 15 is more than $ 30, or whether $ 10 is more than $ 100, and where the consideration was grossly inadequate, a court of equity, upon application of the injured party, will grant relief by setting aside the conveyance; and, where the property has been conveyed by her grantee, and a reconveyance by him cannot be ordered, a court of equity will retain jurisdiction, and grant the plaintiff judgment for the value of her land, less the amount actually received by her from her grantee.

Appeal from the United States Court for the Western District of the Indian Territory at Muskogee; William R. Lawrence, Judge.

Action by Robert J. Manuel, guardian of Lizzie Manuel, against J. F. Paulter and the Oklahoma Land Company. Decree for plaintiff and defendant Paulter appeals, and plaintiff brings cross-appeal against the Oklahoma Land Company. Affirmed.

This action was originally brought in the United States Court for the Western District of the Indian Territory at Muskogee, by Robert J. Manuel as guardian, of Lizzie Manuel, hereinafter called plaintiff, against J. F. Paulter and the Oklahoma Land Company, hereinafter called defendants. Plaintiff alleges in his complaint that Lizzie Manuel is a Creek freedwoman, and that as such she had allotted to her, and has received, from the government of the United States 160 acres of land, situated a few miles west of Muskogee in the Creek Nation, as her surplus allotment; that she is now, and has been during all her lifetime, a person of unsound mind, and mentally incapable of managing her own affairs and incompetent to contract. He charges that on April 28, 1904, defendant Paulter, knowing full well, that Lizzie Manuel was a person of unsound mind, and incapable of understanding or transacting any kind of business, especially business relating to the sale of land, and knowing that she was without sufficient knowledge as to the value of land, by persuasion and coaxing induced her to execute and deliver to him a warranty deed conveying 120 acres of land; that said deed expressed a consideration of $ 500, while, as a matter of fact, the sum of only $ 220 was paid by defendant Paulter to her; that on the 28th day of May, 1904, defendant Paulter, with full knowledge of Lizzie Manuel's condition, by persuasion and coaxing induced her to execute to him a second warranty deed conveying 40 acres of such allotment; that said deed expressed a consideration of $ 150. He also charged that on December 17, 1904, while an application was pending in the United States Court for the Western District of the Indian Territory for an inquiry as to the sanity of the said Lizzie Manuel, and for the appointment of a guardian of her person and estate, the defendant Paulter pretended to make a sale to the Oklahoma Land Company of a portion of the land purported to be conveyed by the deeds from Lizzie Manuel to him. He alleges that said pretended sale was made by the defendant Paulter to the Oklahoma Land Company for the purpose of divesting defendant Paulter of the title to the land before the court could adjudge Lizzie Manuel a person of unsound mind and appoint a guardian of her estate. Plaintiff prays for a judgment of the court, declaring the deeds from Lizzie Manuel to Paulter void, and for judgment against the Oklahoma Land Company, decreeing that the deed executed by Paulter to it be declared void and directing the same to be canceled, and for general and special relief.

Defendants filed separate answers to plaintiff's petition, and each of them denies that Lizzie Manuel was, at the time of the execution of the deeds to Paulter, a person of unsound mind, and mentally incapable of contracting, and deny that at the time of making such sale her conduct and conversation was such as to apprise defendant Paulter of the condition of her mind, and each denies that the consideration paid by Paulter to her was wholly inadequate. Defendant Paulter alleges that in the deed executed by Lizzie Manuel on April 28, 1904, there was included 40 acres of land, allotted to her as her homestead, which should not have been in the deed, and that there was therefore 40 acres that should have been included; that the deed of May 28th was executed by her for the purpose of correcting this error, and that he had reconveyed to Lizzie Manuel the 40 acres that was included by mistake in the first deed. Both defendants deny that the sale of the land by defendant Paulter to the Oklahoma Land Company on December 17, 1904, was made for the purpose of divesting the title to said lands out of the defendant Paulter and into the land company, and thereby avoid the effect of an adjudication of Lizzie Manuel as being insane, and the appointment of a guardian for her person and estate; and allege that said sale was made in good faith for valuable considerations, and that the Oklahoma Land Company had no knowledge or notice, at the time of its purchase of the land from Paulter, of the mental condition of Lizzie Manuel, and no actual notice of the pendency of the petition of plaintiff to have her adjudged insane and a guardian of her person and estate appointed.

The case was referred by the court to a special master, to report findings of fact and conclusions of law. The master, by his report or findings of fact, found the issues of fact as to the mental condition of Lizzie Manuel at the time of the execution of said deeds by her to Paulter as alleged in plaintiff's complaint. He further found that the consideration paid by Paulter to her was grossly inadequate, and that, while the evidence showed that the sum of $ 250, was paid by the defendant Paulter for her land, she had realized for her own benefit only the sum of $ 58. He further found that the land at the time of its sale to the Oklahoma Land Company was worth the sum of $ 1,500; that the Oklahoma Land Company did not know, and did not have any actual notice of, the mental condition of Lizzie Manuel when it bought the land of Paulter. He found as his conclusions of law that the deeds from Lizzie Manuel to Paulter were voidable; that the petition pending in the probate court, asking that Lizzie Manuel be declared insane was not constructive notice to the Oklahoma Land Company, and that the Oklahoma Land Company was an innocent purchaser for value without notice, and had a good title to the land in controversy, and recommended that a decree be rendered declaring the Oklahoma Land Company the owner of the land in controversy, and that plaintiff recover against the defendant Paulter the value of said land at the time of the execution of said deeds, the sum of $ 1,500, less the sum of $ 58, actually used by Lizzie Manuel for her benefit.

A decree was rendered by the court in conformity with the recommendation of the master. From this decree defendant Paulter filed his appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Indian Territory, and plaintiff prosecutes herein his cross-petition against the Oklahoma Land Company, by which he seeks to have reversed that portion of the decree which declares that the Oklahoma Land Company is the owner of the land in controversy, and that it acquired same for a valuable consideration, without notice, either actual or constructive, as to the mental condition of Lizzie Manuel at the time she conveyed the same to Paulter.

N. A. Gibson and Masterson Peyton, for appellant, Paulter.

Gibson & Thurman, for appellee Oklahoma Land Co.

S. B. Daws, for appellee Manuel.

HAYES, J.

¶1 (after stating the facts as above). The judgment in this action was rendered in the United States Court for the Western District of the Indian Territory at Muskogee on the 29th day of June, 1907. On the 19th day of September, 1907, appellant presented to the Honorable William R. Lawrence, Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Indian Territory, his petition for appeal, which was allowed, and the transcript was filed in the United States Court of Appeals for the Indian Territory on October 21, 1907, where the cause was pending on the admission of the state.

¶2 On the 17th day of October, 1907, appellee Robert J. Manuel, as guardian of Lizzie Manuel, presented to the said William R. Lawrence his petition for a cross-appeal, which was allowed, and the transcript was filed in this court on March 14, 1908. No citation was issued by Judge Lawrence at the time he allowed the cross-appeal, and none has been issued by this court, or any member thereof. By the cross-appeal, appellee in the main appeal seeks to have reversed that portion of the judgment...