Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals | March 9, 2022

Decisions

RCB BANK v. STITT
2022 OK CIV APP 3
Case Number: 117835; Consol w/116548 116551
Decided: 01/05/2021
Mandate Issued: 03/03/2022
THE COURT OF CIVIL APPEALS OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA, DIVISION II

¶1 Kent Stitt (Kent) and Kent D. Stitt as Trustee of the 186th St. Land Trust #3240 (Trust) along with M. Keith Stitt & Associates (Keith), appeal the judgment entered in favor of RCB Bank in this mortgage foreclosure action. In the district court, both the Bank and Keith sued Kent and his Trust to collect unpaid promissory notes and to foreclose mortgages on property located in Washington County, Oklahoma, securing the payment of those notes. The district court granted the Bank’s motion for summary judgment and also granted Keith’s motion for summary judgment, in part. The parties’ appeals have been assigned to the accelerated docket pursuant to Oklahoma Supreme Court Rule 1.36(b), 12 O.S. Supp. 2013, ch. 15, app. 1, and stand submitted without appellate briefing. The appeals have been consolidated. The district court’s judgment provides that Kent’s notes to both plaintiffs were in default and that both plaintiffs were entitled to foreclose their respective mortgages. However, the judgment also provides that the Bank’s mortgage lien was superior to Keith’s mortgage lien and entitled to be satisfied first from the sale of the mortgaged property. Oklahoma law resolves the priority issue in favor of the Bank because its mortgage lien was recorded before Keith recorded its mortgage lien. Because the Trust agreed that its Washington County property would secure all of Kent’s debts when it signed the Bank’s mortgage, the Bank is entitled to satisfy its entire judgment from that property. Finally, the Bank is not required to marshal Kent’s assets and resort to other property on which it holds a mortgage before resorting to the Washington County property because, as between the Bank and Keith, there is no common debtor sufficient to invoke this equitable doctrine. The district court’s judgment is affirmed.