Court Opinion

ID: 9559799
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 17:35:47.936492+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:11:44.528148
License: Public Domain

BLACKBIRD, Justice
(dissenting).
I cannot agree with the views of the majority. In upholding the trial court’s judgment sustaining defendant’s demurrer to plaintiff’s petition, it seems to me that this Court has not only misconstrued the facts alleged in said petition and misapplied the law applicable thereto, but in effect has anticipated and prejudged plaintiff’s evidence before it has been introduced.
As I read plaintiff’s petition, J. P. Moore and his wife, Louella had not only “acknowledged” that' the latter owned an undivided interest in the subject real estate as her separate property (as stated in the majority opinion), but- soon after their «. marriage they agreed that any such property purchased during their marriage would be taken in Mr. Moore’s name, but that Louella’s interest would be held by him for her benefit, and, upon her death, would go to their children, if any; that it was in accord1 with this agreement that Louella contributed her separate' funds to the purchase of the subject real estate. According to plaintiff’s petition, the Moores thereafter had one child, who died, and after his death they agreed that Louella’s interest in the property would thereafter be • held in trust by Mr. Moore for plaintiff, with the understanding that he would have the use and benefit of the entire premises during his lifetime, but upon his death, his said wife’s undivided interest therein would go to plaintiff. It was pursuant to this agreement that the wife, Louella, then made and delivered to her husband, J. P. Moore, her holographic will that devised her undivided one-half interest in the property to plaintiff, subject to a life estate in her said husband. When Louella died she had never revoked this will and it was shortly thereafter that Mr. Moore communicated with plaintiff about his agreement with his deceased wife and promised her that he was going to see that said wife’s wishes and his agreement with her were carried out. I think this statement supplementing the Majority’s meager disclosure of the petition’s allegations of facts is important to show the entire situation existing just before and after Mrs. Moore’s death, and to show the following: (1) That she died with her husband having led her to believe that he would respect' her wishes and do his part in carrying out their agreement, she having performed her part (insofar as .humanly possible) by willing to him the continued use of the property during that part of his life after her death (which was the consideration for his promise to leave it to her sister, the plaintiff, at his death) ; (2) That by his assurance to plaintiff that his agreement with Louella would be carried out, Moore lulled plaintiff into believing *284it was not necessary for her to see that her sister’s holographic will was probated or, as third party beneficiary of the couple’s agreement, to take any other steps to obtain its enforcement or the discharge of his obligation thereunder. Also, from the above additional facts and permissible inferences to be drawn therefrom, I think it plain that there was created between Moore and his wife a good and valid trust agreement, of which plaintiff was the beneficiary or cestui que trust, and which was partially performed. When Moore died, having had the use of Louella’s half interest therein throughout his life after her death, he had fully received the entire consideration that was to accrue to him under the agreement. In secretly (as far as plaintiff was concerned, if her allegations are to be taken as true) breaking that agreement and willing the property to his second wife, Beulah (and it can be assumed that as he enjoyed the use and benefit of his first wife’s share of the property throughout his life with Beulah that she also benefited either directly or indirectly therefrom) plaintiff was, in effect, defrauded. The trust and Moore’s unfaithfulness to it, which worked the fraud on plaintiff and deprived her of a property interest rightfully hers and so intended by her sister, Louella, its true owner, is the real gravamen of plaintiff’s alleged cause of action. In other words, her action was based upon a partially performed oral agreement for testamentary disposition, the remainder of whose terms she sought to have performed, rather than being based upon any will. This is the reason that the principle that one can derive no interest in real estate through an unprobated will accorded decisive effect and importance in the majority opinion, and for which Smith v. Reneau, 188 Okl. 629, 112 P.2d 160, is cited therein, has no application to the present case.
True an agreement for the testamentary disposition of real estate, like an agreement for the sale of it comes under the Statute Of Frauds (Tit. 15 O.S. 1951 § 136, par. 5, rather than Tit. 16, sec. 4, cited in the majority. See 49 Am.Jur. 817) as said in Louthan v. Johnson (cited in the majority) and, under such statute, must be in writing to be “operative” or enforceable, but, as inferred in that case, any such valid agreement, as in the case of contracts for the sale of real estate, can be taken out from under the operation of said statute by partial performance. Jones v. Tautfest, 206 Okl. 380, 243 P.2d 1003; 15 Am.Jur. 539. In Louthan v. Johnson it was necessary neither in the syllabus nor body of the Court’s opinion to specifically recognize the important limitation on the statute’s operation to which I refer because the property involved was not jointly acquired and the Court not only found, on the basis of the evidence, that Adeline Louthan and her husband never entered into a contract, but that there was no consideration therefor.
As pointed out in Ewert v. Jones, 8 Cir., 255 F. 688, when a transfer of real property is made to one person and the consideration is paid by another the Statute of Uses and Trusts, Tit. 60 O.S. 1951 § 131 et seq., may apply and the rights of the parties be determined from the facts showing their intention, without regard to the formal requisites of contracts enforceable under the statute of frauds. The principles incorporated in our Statute of Uses and Trusts, supra, have frequently been applied to purchases by a husband with his wife’s separate funds. See Bailey v. Brown, 166 Old. 5, 25 P.2d 1088; Exchange Trust Co. v. Godfrey, 128 Okl. 108, 261 P. 197, and Simpson v. Drake, 90 Okl. 263, 217 P. 366. And they protect the rights of third persons who may be beneficiaries or cestui ques under an agreement between the two, as well as the rights of the contracting parties, themselves. The equitable principles involved have frequently been applied to the enforcement of oral contracts to make joint, mutual and reciprocal wills, Cook v. Hahn, 198 Okl. 364, 178 P.2d 894, and of a decedent’s agreement to leave property to another as compensation for his services. See authorities cited in York v. York, Okl. Sup., 270 P.2d 656.
Of course, in the present case, if the demurrer to plaintiff’s petition had not been sustained, she might not, in view of her allegations concerning the loss and destruc*285tion of Louella Moore’s holographic will, have been able to muster the convincing evidence needed to prove this type of contract. See Jones v. Tautfest, supra, and 49 Am.Jur., “Statute of Frauds”, sec. 315, Note 12, and sec. 330, Note 18. Nor might she have been able to muster the character of proof necessary to have proved it under the Statute of Uses and Trusts, supra, but the Court cannot indulge in speculation concerning such evidentiary matters in ruling upon demurrers to pleadings. To me, it is clear on the basis of the foregoing authorities and many others, that plaintiff’s petition states a cause of action on contract or as beneficiary of a trust agreement between her deceased sister and brother-in-law. Under our liberal system of pleading, the trial court should have overruled the demurrer, if on the basis of such alleged facts, plaintiff was entitled to recover on any theory, Detwiler v. Duncan, 199 Okl. 189, 185 P.2d 200, especially since no attempt had been made to require her to indicate upon what particular theory her action was based.
The application of the rule broadly stated in the 3rd paragraph of the syllabus of Louthan v. Johnson, supra, to the facts alleged in this case will set a dangerous, unjust and incorrect precedent; and such rule, if the limitations of its proper application are not recognized, will make it practically impossible in the future to state a cause of action for enforcement of an oral contract such as is here involved. That such contracts are enforceable by court action has never been denied in this jurisdiction as evidenced by the cases I have cited. If plaintiff’s allegations are true (as they must be assumed to be for the purpose of ruling on the demurrer) she has a right to the property interest involved. And, to my knowledge, this is the first time that any of our courts of last resort have ruled that where there is such right, there is no remedy.
For the foregoing reasons, I dissent.
I am authorized to announce that ARNOLD and WILLIAMS, JJ., concur in my dissenting views.