STATE ex rel. COMMISSIONERS OF THE LAND OFFICE v. KEEN

STATE ex rel. COMMISSIONERS OF THE LAND OFFICE v. KEEN
1940 OK 227
102 P.2d 143
187 Okla. 179
Case Number: 29752
Decided: 04/30/1940
Supreme Court of Oklahoma

STATE ex rel. COMMISSIONERS OF THE LAND OFFICE
v.
KEEN, Dist. Judge

Syllabus

¶0 1. MORTGAGES --Court not authorized to compel mortgagee to bid full amount of judgment or to release deficiency judgment as condition of confirmation of sale.
In foreclosure suit, trial court has no authority to compel judgment creditor to bid full amount of judgment or release deficiency judgment as a condition precedent to confirmation of sale where sale has been held in compliance with statutory requirements.
2. SAME--MANDAMUS-- Writ to compel court to confirm foreclosure sale where refusal to confirm purely arbitrary.
A mortgagee was entitled to writ of mandamus to compel court in which foreclosure decree was entered to confirm foreclosure sale where no objections or exceptions to sale had been filed and trial court had found that proceedings were regular and had been performed according to law but refused to confirm the sale on sole ground that the mortgagee refused to remit the deficiency judgment, since refusal to confirm sale was purely arbitrary.

Original action in mandamus by the State on the relation of the Commissioners of the Land Office against W. P. Keen, District Judge of the Twelfth Judicial District, and the District Courts of Dewey and Washita Counties, to compel the respondent to enter orders confirming foreclosure sales of real estate made by the sheriffs of those counties and directing said sheriffs to execute deeds. Writ granted.

Tom Huser and Campbell Hippen, both of Oklahoma City, for relator.

DANNER, J.

¶1 This is an original action in mandamus by the state on relation of the Commissioners of the Land Office against W. P. Keen, district judge of the Twelfth judicial district, to compel the respondent to enter orders confirming sales of real estate made by the sheriffs of Dewey and Washita counties in six different mortgage foreclosure cases and directing said sheriffs to execute deeds pursuant to the sales. Respondent, having been served with copies of the pleadings and the brief, as well as with an alternative writ which was heretofore issued herein, is sufficiently notified as to the numbers and names of the actions, so that same need not be repeated.

¶2 As to each of said cases, the same fact and legal situations exist in substance as were present in State ex rel. Commissioners of Land Office v. District Court of Custer County, 185 Okla. 597, 95 P.2d 851, and Fisher v. Keen, District Judge, 187 Okla. 5, 100 P.2d 859. The law of those cases is adopted as the ruling and syllabus hereof.

¶3 The writ is granted and the respondent is ordered to confirm the sales and cause execution of deeds by the sheriffs in conformance with the said sales. It is further ordered that the costs of this proceeding be taxed against the respondent personally, and that the respondent pay said costs.