WORLD FIRE & MARINE INS. CO. v. MORGAN

WORLD FIRE & MARINE INS. CO. v. MORGAN
1941 OK 370
118 P.2d 1017
189 Okla. 579
Case Number: 29491
Decided: 11/04/1941
Supreme Court of Oklahoma

WORLD FIRE & MARINE INS. CO. OF HARTFORD, CONN.
v.
MORGAN

Syllabus

¶0 APPEAL AND ERROR--Reversal--Failure of defendant in error to file brief.
Where plaintiff in error has served and filed brief, but the defendant in error has neither filed a brief nor offered any excuse for his failure to do so, the court is not required to search the record to find some theory upon which the judgment of the trial court may be sustained, but may, where the authorities cited in the brief filed, appear reasonably to sustain the assignments of error, reverse the cause with directions.

Appeal from District Court, Love County; Marvin Shilling, Judge.

Action on insurance contract by R. C. Morgan against the World Fire & Marine Insurance Company of Hartford, Conn. From a judgment for the plaintiff, defendant appeals. Reversed and remanded, with directions.

Pierce, McClelland, Kneeland & Bailey, of Oklahoma City, for plaintiff in error.
John Steele Batson, of Marietta, for defendant in error.

PER CURIAM.

¶1 The defendant has appealed from an adverse judgment on an insurance contract, and on October 2, 1939, filed its petition in error and on February 19, 1940, filed its brief, in which the authorities reasonably sustain the assignments of error.

¶2 The plaintiff has filed no brief and offers no excuse for such failure. As stated in Osborne v. Osborne, 163 Okla. 273, 21 P.2d 1056, it is not the duty of this court to search the record for some theory upon which to sustain the action of the trial court.

¶3 The cause is reversed and remanded, with directions to grant a new trial.

¶4 WELCH, C. J., CORN, V. C. J., and OSBORN, BAYLESS, GIBSON, and HURST, JJ., concur. RILEY, DAVISON, and ARNOLD, JJ., absent.