HERRON v. LANTHIN

HERRON v. LANTHIN
1951 OK 261
236 P.2d 692
205 Okla. 221
Case Number: 34288
Decided: 10/16/1951
Supreme Court of Oklahoma

(Syllabus.)

¶0 PLEADING - Judgment may not be rendered for plaintiff without proof of allegations as to his title. In an action in ejectment joined with an action to quiet title, rendition of judgment for plaintiff by sustaining plaintiff's motion for judgment on the pleadings without any evidence to support averments of petition as to plaintiff's title was error.

Appeal from District Court, McCurtain County; Howard Phillips, Judge.

Action in ejectment by J.A. Lanthin against Leonard G. Herron, Sr., et al. to recover possession of land and to quiet title. Judgment for plaintiff on the pleadings, defendant Leonard G. Herron, Sr., appeals. Reversed, with directions.

Finney & Finney, Idabel, for plaintiff in error.

Bill Montgomery, Idabel, for defendant in error.

JOHNSON, J.

¶1 This is an action in ejectment joined with an action to quiet title by plaintiff, J.A. Lanthin, against Leonard G. Herron, Sr., et al. to recover possession of 160 acres of land in McCurtain county, Oklahoma, to cancel and remove as a cloud on his title an alleged void tax deed and to quiet title in him.

¶2 After defendants filed an answer with exhibits attached thereto, the trial court on motion of plaintiff rendered judgment on the pleadings in favor of the plaintiff without any proof of the averments of the petition as to plaintiff's title.

¶3 The plaintiff in error here, defendant below, contends, among other things, that judgment for plaintiff on the pleadings cannot be rendered in an action of ejectment without proof of averments of petition as to plaintiff's title.

¶4 In the absence of special statutory provisions, general rules as to motions for judgment on the pleadings applies, 28 C.J.S., Ejectment, § 75; and the plaintiff may properly be awarded judgment on the pleadings where, as in this case, defendants' pleading, in effect, admits plaintiff's right to possession, Id. But by statute, the rule in an ejectment action is otherwise in this jurisdiction. See Title 12 O.S.A. 1142. Under this section, judgment for plaintiff cannot be rendered in an action of ejectment without proof of averments of petition as to title in plaintiff; and we have so held in Light of Truth Spiritualist Church of Tulsa v. Davis, 192 Okla. 284, 135 P.2d 35, and cases cited therein.

¶5 There are other errors complained of but are such as may not reoccur upon retrial.

¶6 The judgment is reversed and the cause remanded with directions to proceed in accord with the views herein expressed.