Bass v. Smith

CONTRACT — Illegal—Courts Will Not Enforce. No action either at law or in equity can he maintained on a contract that is forbidden by law. The sound policy of the law is to leave the parties in all such cases without a remedy, since the courts will not lend their aid to, a party who bases his action on a contract in violation of the organic law or the statute, or upon an act that is immoral, -or is in contravention of sound public policy. No legal right can arise from such a source. (Syllabus by the Court.)

Error from the District Court of Grant County; before James K. Beauchamp, Trial Judge. STATEMENT OF FACTS. This was an action brought in the district court of Grant county by Sarah C. Bass against the heirs at law and next of kin of David W. Smith, deceased, to compel the conveyance of a certain tract of land to the plaintiff by virtue, of a certain oral agreement entered into between David W. Smith and the plaintiff in error on the-°day of October 1895. The material averments in the petition are: That on the-day of 'October, 1895, David W. Smith, and the plaintiff entered into an oral agreement that if the plaintiff would procure a tract of land foT said decedent in Grant county, Oklahoma, and should continue to provide a borne., maintain, support, clothe, board and care for the said David W. Smith during the remainder of his life time he, the said Smith, in consideration therefor would convey by deed to the plaintiff the said tract of land procured for him by the plaintiff; that pursuant to said agreement the plaintiff purchased the northwest quarter of section twenty-three, township twenty-eight north, range six west of the Indian Meridian., containing one hundred and sixty acres; and that the said David W. Smith entered said tract of land under the homestead laws of the United States; that the plaintiff paid for said homestead claim the sum of three hundred dollars and afterwards expended the sum of eight hundred • dollars of her own money for improving said land; that on the 31st day of July, 1900, the said David W. Smith died intestate, and before he had acquired legal title to said land from the United States, and at the commencement of this action the title was in the heirs of the said David W. Smith, deceased. The plaintiff asks for the specific performance of said oral agreement, and that the legal title be conveyed to her, and that the heirs be divested of all interest and title therein and in the event that the specific performance of said agreement cannot be granted that the plaintiff be awarded compensation, in damages in the sum of eleven hundred dollars. . To this petition the defendant interposed a demurrer, alleging want of jurisdiction of the subject-matter, and that the petition failed to state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action in favor of the plaintiff and against the defendants. The court sustained the demurer on the ground that the petition failed to state a cause of action, and the plaintiff haying elected to stand upon said petition, the cause was dismissed. From which order and judgment of dismissal the plaintiff prosecutes this appeal. Affirmed.