125 F. Supp. 729

Donna GARVIN, Plaintiff, v. Clyde OSTERHAUS and Arlene Osterhaus, d/b/a Return Courts, Madill, Oklahoma, and Standard Gas Company, Inc., Defendants. Marguerite GARVIN, Administratrix of the Estates of Raymond C. Amerantes and Virginia Amerantes, Plaintiff, v. Clyde OSTERHAUS and Arlene Osterhaus, d/b/a “Return Courts”, Madill, Oklahoma, and Standard Gas Company, a Corporation, Defendants.

Civ. Nos. 3737, 3788.

United States District Court E. D. Oklahoma.

Oct. 8, 1954.

Thomas E. Shaw, Madill, Okl., J. N. Tincher, Jr., and D. Stewart Oswalt, Hutchinson, Kan., for plaintiffs.

James C. Hamill, Madill, Okl., Roy Paul and Connor O. Montgomery, Durant, Okl., for defendants.

WALLACE, District Judge.

The defendant in both of these cases,1 Standard Gas Company, has moved for summary judgments based' upon plaintiffs’ prior motions to dismiss with prejudice as to the original co-defendants of defendant gas company, Clyde Osterhaus and Arlene Osterhaus, doing business as Return Courts, Madill, Oklahoma, and the Court’s orders entered sustaining such motions.2

*730 There is no question but what under Oklahoma law that a judgment on the merits entered and satisfied as to one of several joint tort-feasors serves to bar any future action against remaining tort-feasors, regardless of language in the judgment attempting to reserve unto the plaintiff the right to proceed against the remaining tort-feasors.3 This rule finds root in the concept that there can be only one recovery for anyone wrong and an attempt to prosecute a claim against remaining tort-feasor defendants after judgment and satisfaction as to other joint tort-feasors is an attempt to split the plaintiff’s cause of action.4

However, in the instant cases, the judgments entered by the Court dismissing two of the alleged joint tort-feasors were not judgments on the merits wherein settlement agreements were approved by the Court and incorporated into final judgments in favor of plaintiffs, but were judgments entered sustaining plaintiffs’ motions to dismiss, without regard to the merits, and which technically amounted to judgments in favor of the dismissed defendants and not the plaintiffs.5

*731The defendant’s naked allegation that plaintiffs received a “substantial sum of money” in settlement at the time of plaintiffs’ motions to dismiss the other defendants, with prejudice, does not establish that the plaintiffs’ causes of action have resulted in judgment and satisfaction and therefore bar plaintiffs’ claims against the instant defendant.

Defendant’s motions for summary judgments should be overruled.

Garvin v. Osterhaus
125 F. Supp. 729

Case Details

Name
Garvin v. Osterhaus
Decision Date
Oct 8, 1954
Citations

125 F. Supp. 729

Jurisdiction
United States

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