Warren v. Martin
| Decision Date | 20 April 1925 |
| Docket Number | (No. 328.) |
| Citation | 272 S.W. 367 |
| Parties | WARREN v. MARTIN et al. |
| Court | Arkansas Supreme Court |
Appeal from Ouachita Chancery Court; J. Y. Stevens, Chancellor.
Separate actions by Jane Warren against C. M. Martin and another and against the Standard Oil Company of Louisiana and another, which were tried together. From the decree, plaintiff appeals. Reversed, with directions.
Jno. P. Streepey, of Little Rock, for appellant.
Gaughan & Sifford and Elbert Godwin, all of Camden, for appellees.
Two suits were instituted by appellant in the First Division of the chancery court of Ouachita county, one against C. M. Martin et al., to cancel a quit-claim deed executed by her to Mandy Johnson on July 26, 1922, for an undivided one-fourth interest in the S. ½, S. W. ¼ section 29, township 15 S., range 15 W., in said county, containing 80 acres, upon the ground that it was procured through fraud; and the other against the Standard Oil Company of Louisiana et al. to cancel the oil, gas, and mineral lease upon the same lands, and which S. L. Johnson, the husband of Mandy Johnson, executed to E. P. Edwards on May 19, 1919, for the term of six years, upon the ground that same automatically forfeited for failure to pay rents in accordance with the provisions in the lease.
Many pleadings were filed in the cases, but, when completed, the issues joined were whether the quitclaim deed had been obtained through fraud, whether the lease had been forfeited for nonpayment of rentals, and whether appellant was entitled to an accounting for her share of the oil which had been taken from the land. It was agreed that the cases might be tried together, and that all the testimony introduced in either case and in the case of Jane Warren v. Sun Oil Company et al. might be used in all of the cases when pertinent and relevant.
Upon a hearing of the cause, the court found that the quitclaim deed and lease were valid, binding instruments upon all parties, but that C. M. Martin was indebted to appellant in the sum of $225 for her proportion of the purchase money he paid Mandy Johnson for 63/64 interest in the oil, gas, and mineral in said land. Pursuant to the finding the court dismissed the bills and substituted bills for the want of equity, and rendered judgment against C. M. Martin in favor of appellant for $225, and declared a lien on the interest of C. M. Martin in the lands to secure the payment of same, from which decree appellant has duly prosecuted an appeal to this court.
The record reflects without dispute that S. L. Johnson, a negro, was the owner by purchase of the land in question and an adjoining 40-acre tract; that he occupied the 80-acre tract with his wife as their homestead until his death on October 22, 1919; that his wife has resided thereon since his death; that he left surviving him his wife, L. A. (Mandy) Johnson, his sister, Jane Warren, and his half-brother, Jesse Johnson, as his only heirs; that on May 9, 1919, S. L. Johnson and wife, Mandy, executed an oil, gas, and mineral lease on said lands, including the 40-acre tract, to E. P. Edwards, trustee, in which it was provided that the lease should become ipso facto null and void if a well were not drilled upon the land within one year, unless the time should be extended by payment of 10 cents per acre in advance as rental, the rental money to be mailed to S. L. Johnson at Louann, Ark., or to be deposited to his credit in the Camden National Bank of Camden, Ark., and that the lease should extend to his heirs as to all conditions; that the lease was assigned by E. P. Edwards, trustee, to the Standard Oil Company in July, 1922, and by the Standard Oil Company to the Gulf Refining Company on August 8, 1922; that Jane Warren executed a quitclaim deed for her interest in said land to Mandy Johnson on July 26, 1922; that Mandy Johnson conveyed a 63/64 interest in all the oil, gas, and mineral in or under said land to C. M. Martin for $2,000, subject to the gas, oil and mineral lease therein to E. P. Edwards, trustee; that S. L. Johnson executed a deed of trust upon said land to W. P. Watts & Bros. to secure a loan of $1,099 due October 1, 1918, which was assigned to E. P. Edwards on January 13, 1922; that on August 5, 1922, C. M. Martin conveyed an undivided one-half interest in 63/64 of all the oil, gas, and mineral on said land to R. E. Davidson for $4,800; that on July 31, 1922, E. P. Edwards released the Watts Brothers' deed of trust to R. E. Davidson as to the one-half interest bought by him in 63/64 interest in all the oil, gas, and mineral in said land from C. M. Martin, which release contained a recital that R. E. Davidson obtained the conveyance of said one-half interest in said oil, gas, and mineral on said land from C. M. Martin on July 28, 1922; that on July 27, 1922, Jane Warren assigned a one-half interest in said land to J. F. Driesback in consideration of his agreeing to assist her in clearing the title of said land by employing counsel to prosecute a suit to set aside the quitclaim deed she had executed to Mandy Johnson; that, after the institution of the suit, Jane Warren assigned for a valuable consideration all of her interest in said land to the said J. F. Driesback in case she should prevail in the litigation; that the rents were paid upon the Edwards lease in the following manner: The first rental payment, due May 19, 1920, was placed to the credit of S. L. Johnson in the Camden National Bank within the specified time; the second payment, due May 19, 1921, was paid directly to Mandy Johnson either in June or July, 1921; the third rental payment, due May 19, 1922, was deposited to the credit of Mandy Johnson in the Ouachita Valley National Bank at Camden on May 17th or 18th, 1922, but was not delivered to Mandy Johnson until July, 1922; that on August 3, 1923, C. M. Martin sent $125 to Jane Warren, purporting to be in full payment of her interest in 63/64 interest in all the oil, gas, and mineral sold in the land after paying off the deed of trust for $1,099 and accrued interest thereon; that she returned the money by postal order to C. M. Martin about a week or ten days after receiving same, upon the advice of J. S. Driesback; that at the time he sent the money, he also sent her a letter informing her of her interest in the land and oil, but withheld from her that the V. K. F. discovery well of the Smackover oil field had come in and was producing a large amount of oil, and also withheld the fact that oil, gas, and mineral interests in lands near the well had greatly enhanced in value. The letter contained several paragraphs indicating that the oil, gas, and mineral interests in the land were of little value, and that the oil boom was insignificant. The two following paragraphs are indicative that the writer intended to make such an impression upon appellant:
The letter also indicated that it was necessary to have executed the quitclaim deed to prevent Mandy from losing her home, when in fact the real purpose of obtaining the deed was to clear up the title of oil interests in the land which Martin had bought or intended to buy from Mandy. The price of the interests sold, or intended to be sold, was also incorrectly stated in the letter. The record reflects a conflict between appellant's and appellee's witnesses relative to representations made to procure the quitclaim deed from appellant and Mandy Johnson.
Appellant, Pinkney Warren, and Estelle Warren testified that Allen Fortch, a negro man, and Sam Evans, a white man, came to appellant's home on July 26, 1922, which was 40 miles from Camden and about 20 miles from Smackover, and obtained a quitclaim deed from appellant to Mandy Johnson for her interest in the 80-acre tract of land upon the representation that Mandy was in distress; that there was a mortgage of $2,500 on her home which was about to be foreclosed and that she would lose it unless appellant conveyed her interest in the land to Mandy, and that she yielded to their entreaties and executed a quitclaim deed in order to help Mandy. These witnesses were corroborated by the testimony of Jesse Johnson, the brother of appellant, and L. J. Cook, who is a lawyer in Texarkana. Immediately after obtaining the quitclaim deed from appellant to Mandy Johnson, Fortch and Evans proceeded to Texarkana, where they found Jesse Johnson. Jesse testified that they made the same representation to him with reference to Mandy being in distress for fear she would lose her home which they said was under mortgage for $2,500. He said that they represented that he would have to pay the mortgage himself unless he signed the quitclaim deed; that he asked them to go with him to the office of his lawyer, Mr. L. J. Cook, to talk the matter over; that his lawyer advised him to do nothing until they found out definitely about the mortgage, and suggested to the men that they get a verified copy of the mortgage and a certificate from the circuit clerk that it had not been satisfied.
L. J Cook testified that Jesse Johnson came to his office in company with Allen Fortch and Sam Evans, and when he asked them what they wanted, Evans told him that he wanted a quitclaim deed from Jesse Johnson to Mandy Johnson in order to prevent a foreclosure of the mortgage held by Watts Bros., who were represented by C. M. Martin; that he advised Jesse Johnson not to execute the quitclaim deed until they looked into it, and...
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