DEEP ROCK OIL CORP. v. STATE

DEEP ROCK OIL CORP. v. STATE
1934 OK 71
29 P.2d 618
167 Okla. 324
Case Number: 24919
Decided: 02/13/1934
Supreme Court of Oklahoma

DEEP ROCK OIL CORPORATION
v.
STATE.

Syllabus

¶0 Appeal and Error--Reversal in Accordance With Confession of Error by State in Proceeding for Assessment of Omitted Property.
Where an appeal is taken to this court from an order of the county court ordering omitted property to be assessed, and a party representing the state files in this court a confession of error, this court will examine the record and the authorities filed in support of the proceedings, and if the facts and the law warrant, will, upon the filing of a confession of error, vacate the order and judgment rendered in accordance with the confession of error.

Appeal from County Court, Payne County: Henry W. Hoel, Judge.

Proceedings by the State for assessment of omitted property of the Deep Rock Oil Corporation. From an order of the county court assessing omitted property, the corporation appeals. Reversed and remanded, with directions.

Rainey, Flynn, Green & Anderson and Wilcox & Swank, for plaintiff in error.
Guy L. Horton, County Attorney, L. G. Lewis, and John W. Whipple, for defendant in error.

PER CURIAM.

¶1 This action was commenced by J. H. Brown, tax ferret, before the county treasurer of Payne county, and a decision of the county treasurer ordering the assessment against plaintiff in error of certain omitted property was appealed to the county court of Payne county in the time and manner required by law. The county court sustained the action of the county treasurer, from which an appeal is taken to this court.

¶2 On the 31st day of January, 1934, the state of Oklahoma, by its representative, the county attorney of Payne county, filed a confession of error, as follows:

"Comes now the defendant, by its attorney, and confesses error of the county court of Payne county, Okla., in the trial of said cause in this, to wit:

"That at the time of the trial in the county court of Payne county, Okla., that the judgment of the county court was rendered in accordance with the judgment of the Supreme Court in the case of Johnson Oil Refining Company, Plaintiff in Error, v. State of Oklahoma ex rel. C. E. Mitchell, County Attorney of Pawnee County, Okla., et al., Defendant in Error. That since said date said cause has been appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States, and on the 4th day of December, 1933, an opinion was rendered in said cause, to wit: Johnson Oil Refining Company v. State of Oklahoma ex rel. C. E. Mitchell, County Attorney of Pawnee County, Okla., et al. (290 U.S. 158, 54 S. Ct. 152, 78 L. Ed. 238), to the Supreme Court of the United States and by the opinion rendered by the Supreme Court of the United States on the 4th day of December, 1933, said cause of the Johnson Oil Refining Company, Plaintiff in Error, v. State of Oklahoma et al., has been reversed and remanded back to the Supreme Court of the State of Oklahoma. That conforming to the opinion of the United States Court that the judgment rendered in this cause was erroneously rendered. Therefore, your defendants, in open court, confess error and move that this cause be remanded to the county court of Payne county, Okla."

¶3 This court has held that where an appeal is taken to this court and the question involves a matter of public interest such as taxation and a confession of error is filed on behalf of the representative of the state, this court will examine the facts and law involved, and if the action warrants, reverse and remand the action, with directions in accordance with said confession of error. In the Chicago, R. I. & P. Ry. Co., 164 Okla. 264, 23 P.2d 690.