Bruno v. Getzelman

1918 OK 364, 173 P. 850, 70 Okla. 143, 1918 Okla. LEXIS 764
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJune 11, 1918
Docket8929
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 1918 OK 364 (Bruno v. Getzelman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bruno v. Getzelman, 1918 OK 364, 173 P. 850, 70 Okla. 143, 1918 Okla. LEXIS 764 (Okla. 1918).

Opinion

Opinion by

RUMMONS, 0.

This action was commenced by John A. Bruno and Mary Bruno, the plaintiffs below, against the defendants to recover the possession of SO acres of land in Pottawatomie county, damages for withholding possession, for mesne profits, to quiet title; to said lands in plaintiffs, and to cancel and set aside two decrees in foreclosure affecting said lands. It was alleged in the petiition of plaintiffs that they were the owners in fee simple of the lands and entitled to immediate possession thereof; that plaintiffs acquired title to said lands by virtue of a patent issued therefor "to Mary Bruno by the United States under date June 22, 1904, under the provisions of Act Cong. feb. 8, 1887, c. 119 (24 Stat. 388), as amended by Act Cong. March 3, 1891, c. 543 (26 Stat. 1020). The petition further alleges that on February 12, 1910, M. A. Milner recovered a judgment in the superior court of Pottowat-omie county decreeing the foreclosure of a mortgage upon said lands and ordering said lands sold to satisfy said judgment. Plaintiffs allege that no service of summons was had upon them or either of them, and that they did not enter their appearance in said action or authorize the same to be done, and that said judgment was null and void and of no force and effect. The petition further alleges that on June 4, 1910, the defendant M. C. Getzelman recovered a judgment in the superior court of Pottawatomie county against the plaintiffs decreeing the foreclosure of a mortgage upon said land executed by plaintiffs' and ordering a sale of said lands to satisfy said judgment. Plaintiffs allege that no summons was ever served upon them in said action, and that they did not enter their appearance in said action or authorize the same to be done, and that said judgment is void and of no effect. The petition further alleges that at the time of the execution of the mortgages and the rendition of said judgments they were members of the Citizen Band of Pottawatomie Indians and the said lands were restricted lands, that plaintiffs had no capacity to alienate said lands by deed or mortgage, and that said judgments are therefore null and void.

The defendant M. C. Getzelman filed an answer in effect a general denial. The defendant B. C. Getzelman filed his answer and cross-petition, denying generally the al--legations of the petition, and pleading affirmatively the judgments set up in the petition of plaintiff, the sale of said lands thereunder, the execution and delivery of sheriff’s deeds therefor to M. C. Getzelman, and a conveyance by M. C. Getzelman to him. Said answer further alleges that said lands were originally patented by the United States to John A. Bruno, a Pottawatomie Indian; that thereafter, on March 19, 1903, said John A. Bruno for $1 and other valuable considerations conveyed s£iid lands to his wife, Mary Bruno, and .thereafter, on November 21, 1903, said deed of conveyance was approved by the Secretary of the Interior, and that title to said lands passed and was transferred by reason of said conveyance and said approval from John A. Bruno to- Mary Bruno, his wife; that, by the execution of said deed' and the approval thereof by the Department of the Interior of the United States, pursuant to acts of Congress, all the right, title, and interest of the United States in and to said lands and all restrictions upon the right to alienate or incumber the same was extinguished, and said lands became alienable; that thereafter the said Mary Bruno, joined by her husband, John A. Bruno, executed the mortgages foreclosed in the actions upon which the judgments set up in the petition were rendered. The answer thereupon prayed that title of said defendant to said lands be quieted, and that he be adjudged and decreed to be the owner in fee simple thereof.

The plaintiff replied to said answer and crossLpetition, denying generally the allegations therein contained. This reply was not verified. Both the plaintiffs and the defendants moved for judgment on the pleadings. The trial court overruled the motion of plaintiffs and rendered judgment upon the pleadings in favor of the defendants. The plaintiffs here seek to reverse this judgment.

The lands in controversy were a part p of the allotment of the plaintiff John A. Bruno, a member of the Citizen Band of Pottawatomie Indians in Oklahoma. The allotment was made pursuant to Act Cong. Feb. 8, 1887, c. 119 (24 Stat. 388), and Act Cong. March 3, 1891, c. 533 (26 Stat. 1019). Under the provisions of the act of Congress of March 3, 1891, patents were issued to the al-lottees under the terms of act of Congress of February 8, 1887, which provides:

“That upon the approval of the allotments provided for in this act by the Secretary of the Interior, he shall cause patents to issue therefor in the name of the allottees, which patent shall be of the legal effect, and declare, that the United States does and will hoid the land thus allotted, for the pe *145 riod of twenty-five years, in trust for ttie sole use and benefit of the Indian to whom such allotment shall have been made, or in ease of his decease, of his heirs according to the laws of the state or territory where such land is located, and that at the expiration of said period the United States will convey the same by patent to said Indians, or his heirs as aforesaid, in fee, discharged of said trust and free of all charge or in-cumbrance whatsoever; Provided, that the President of the United States may in any case in his discretion extend the period.
“And if any conveyance shall be made of the lands set apart and allotted as herein provided, or any contract made touching the same, before the expiration of the time above mentioned, such conveyance or contract shall be absolutely null and void.” 24 Stat. 389.

Act Cong. Aug. 15, 1894, c. 290 (28 Stat. 2S0), is as follows:

"Provided, that any member of the Citizen Band of Pottawatomie Indians or the Absentee Shawnee Indians of Oklahoma, to whom a trust patent has been issued under the provisions of the act approved February eighth, eighteen hundred and eighty-seven (Twenty-fourth Statutes,, three hundred and eighty-eight), and being over twenty-one years of age, may sell and convey any portion of the land conveyed by such patent in excels of eighty acres, the deed of conveyance to be subject to approval by the Secretary of the Interior under such rules and regulations as he may prescribe, and that any Citizen Pottawatomie not residing upon his allotment, but being a legal resident of another state or territory, may in like manner sell and convey all the land covered by said patent, and that upon the approval of such deed by the Secretary of the Interior the title to the land thereby conveyed shall vest in the grantee therein named. And the land sold and conveyed under the provisions of this act shall, upon proper recording of the deeds therefor, be subject to taxation as other lands in said territory, but neither the lands covered by such patents not sold and conveyed under the provisions of this act, nor any improvements made thereon, shall be subject to taxation in any manner by the territorial or local authorities during the period in which said lands shall be held in trust by the United States.”

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1918 OK 364, 173 P. 850, 70 Okla. 143, 1918 Okla. LEXIS 764, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bruno-v-getzelman-okla-1918.