166 P. 90 | Okla. | 1917
This action was commenced by the plaintiffs in error to recover *247 from the defendants in error the sum of $340.85, alleged to be due plaintiffs in error as premium upon certain fire insurance policies issued upon the property of defendants in error. The defendants in error answered, and alleged that the insurance was effected under the terms of a mortgage executed by them to C.B. Littlefield, one of the plaintiffs in error. The answer further alleged that defendants in error had executed in writing an assignment to said C.B. Littlefield of the rents and profits arising out of the property covered by said mortgage, which assignment provided that the said C.B. Littlefield should apply the rents so collected upon any indebtedness to him from said defendants in error as he might designate, first, to the unsecured indebtedness; second, to the secured indebtedness, and further alleges that the said C.B. Littlefield has collected more than $782 of rents and profits from said mortgaged premises, and that the sum so collected should have been applied to the satisfaction of the premiums due upon the policies of insurance for which plaintiff in error sought to recover, and that said indebtedness has been fully satisfied thereby. Defendants in error had judgment, and plaintiffs in error, having unsuccessfully moved for a new trial, bring this proceeding in error to reverse such judgment.
The only assignment of error which we deem it necessary to discuss in the determination of this case complains of the giving of certain instructions by the court over the objection and exception of the plaintiffs in error. Each one of these instructions was properly excepted to by plaintiffs in error They may in reaching a conclusion in this case be considered together. They are as follows:
"The defendants in this case, as additional defense, maintain that no statement was ever sent them with reference to this account or as to how the rents were to be applied which were collected by the plaintiff. In that connection you are instructed that the plaintiff, after receiving the rents from the building, would have a right, without a contract to the contrary, to apply the rents upon any indebtedness existing between the plaintiffs and defendants. You are instructed that you are to take the contract, assignment of rents, and the mortgage and arrive as near as you can as to what happened in this transaction."
The vices charged against these instructions are that the court submits questions of law to the determination of the jury and invades the province of the jury as to questions of fact. It is contended by counsel for plaintiffs in error that, as there is no latent ambiguity or uncertainty in the terms of the mortgage and assignment of rents given by the defendants in error, the interpretation of those documents was the province of the court, and that in submitting the interpretation of them to the jury, as was done in the instructions above quoted, the court committed error. It is further contended that in the seventh instruction the court invades the province of the jury and advises them as to the facts in evidence before them. We think the contention of plaintiffs in error is correct in both particulars. Instructions Nos. 4, 5, 6, and 8 submitted to the jury the interpretation of the mortgage and assignment of rents. Instruction No. 7 advises that the transaction in this case was partnership business, and to that extent invades the province of the jury, since whether or not the acts of one of the partners in dealing with the defendants in error was in the scope of the partnership business was a question of fact for the jury.
Where a written contract contains no ambiguities or uncertainties, and needs no parol testimony in explanation of its contents, its interpretation and application to the facts to be found by the jury is for the court. The court therefore erred in not interpreting these contracts and in submitting their interpretation to the jury. Midland Valley R. Co. v. Bailey,
For these errors, the judgment of the court below should be reversed, and this cause remended for a new trial.
By the Court: It is so ordered.