Chastain v. Larney

1928 OK 698, 272 P. 471, 134 Okla. 127, 1928 Okla. LEXIS 817
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedDecember 4, 1928
Docket18301
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 1928 OK 698 (Chastain v. Larney) 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
Chastain v. Larney, 1928 OK 698, 272 P. 471, 134 Okla. 127, 1928 Okla. LEXIS 817 (Okla. 1928).

Opinion

HALL, C-

This action or controversy involves the devolution of the estate of Nellsie, a Seminole Indian. The devolution is on a second cast of an “ancestral estate.” The Arkansas law governs the descent.

Nellsie had one full brother, whose name was Tom Chotkey. Their mother was Cho Chee, and their father was Parhose. Nellsie had a half-brother named Alma Chotkey, whose mother was Cho Chee and whose father was some other Indian or person than Parhose. Of these three children Nell-sie died first, in the year of 1902, and Tom Chotkey, her full brother, died about one year later. Alma Chotkey, the maternal half-brother, is still living. Cho Chee, the mother of these three children, died at about the same time of the death of Nellsie. She was dead when Tom Chotkey died. The date of her death is not material to this controversy. Parhose, the father of Nellsie and Tom Chotkey, was a Seminole citizen, and died prior to December 31, '1899, and was not enrolled.

These facts as above set forth conform to the findings of the trial court. The issue is purely a question of law. Both parties recognize the legal fiction that the allotment of Nellsie was an, ancestral estate, and that upon her death one-half of her estate passed to her kindred in the line of her father, and one-half to her kindred in the line of her mother; that Alma Chotkey and Tom Chot-key represented the line of the mother of Nellsie, and took that half interest in equal parts attributed to the blood of Cho Chee. Further, that Tom Chotkey alone represented the line of Parhose, the father of Nellsie, and therefore he (Tom) took all that half. It is over this half, represented by the line of Parhose, that this controversy arose. Tom died seized of this one-half as well as one-fourth represented by the line of his mother, Cho Chee.

The contention of the plaintiff in error is ■well set forth by counsel in their brief as follows:

“Defendants below, and plaintiff in error here, contend that Nellsie is the ancestor of Tom Chotkey in this second descent; that it is the kin of Tom Chotkey of the blood of Nellsie who take on the death of Tom Chot-key; that, on this second east, the blood of Parhose is not to be considered; that Alma Chotkey, the half-brother of Nellsie was her next of blood kin, and was next of kin of Tom Chotkey, and on the death of the latter, the interest of Tom Chotkey passed to his kin of the blood of Nellsie; and Alma Chotkey took all.”

The plaintiffs below, and defendants in error herein, contend, and the court held that on the death of Tom Chotkey, his next of kin of the blood of Parhose took the interest that came to him- through his blood of Parhose; that no matter how many descents and different casts, it must follow the blood of Parhose.

The governing statutes, included in chapter 49 of Mansfield’s Digest of the Statutes of Arkansas, are a s follows;

“Section 2531. In cases where the intestate shall die without descendants, if the estate comes by the father, then it shall ascend to the father and his heirs; if by the mother, the estate, or so much thereof as came by the mother, shall ascend to the mother and her heirs. * * *” (Matter dealing with new acquisitions.)
“Section 2533. Relations of the half-blood *129 shall inherit equally with those of the whole blood in the same degree; and the descendants of such relatives shall inherit in the same manner as the descendants of the whole blood, unless the inheritance come to the intestate by descent, devise, or gift, of some one of his ancestors, in which case all those who are not of the blood of such ancestor shall be excluded from such inheritance.” (Emphasis ours.)

The trial court, in reaching his legal conclusions, in this case, and in construing these statutes of descent (sections 2531-2533, Mansfield’s Digest), followed the rules in force at common law governing the devolution of ancestral estates.

This rule of the common law, and sometimes referred to as the “fifth canon of descent,” is as follows:

“The heir must be of the blood of the ancestor who brought the estate into the family; or, to be more specific, the ancestor who last acquired the estate by purchase, no matter how many intervening transfers of title by descent or by gift, or by gratuitous devise from an ancestor there may have been.”

The doctrine was applied by the North Carolina Supreme Court, in the case of Poisson v. Petteway, 159 N C. 650, 75 S. S. 930, in which it was said:

“Even since 1842 we think that it has been settled substantially that when an estate goes to a person through a series of descents or settlements, and that person dies without issue, it results back to those of his collateral relations who would be heirs of the ancestor from whom it originally descended or by whom it was originally settled. Wilkerson v. Bracken, 24 N. C. 315.”

This common-law doctrine, like nearly every other provision of the common law relating to th'e succession of real property, has never met with any considerable favor by the courts of this country. There are, however, a few exceptions: Pennsylvania, Maryland, and North Carolina being the states adhering to the common-law doctrine relative to ancestral estates. Arkansas has afforded a fertile field for meritorious debate, — the courts of that state having decided the question both ways during the last 20 years.

As against this common-law rule, is the American doctrine, which is as follows:

“On the other hand, by the construction placed upon these statutes in the majority of the states where the question has arisen, it is only necessary and proper to look to the intestate’s ancestor, and no inquiry will be made as to the mode in which such ancestor obtained his title. Stated in other ways, the majority rule is that title and succession will not be traced back to remote ancestors, that the statutes refer to immediate and not mediate descents, and that the statutes mean an immediate descent, devise, or gift, and make; the immediate ancestor, donor, or devisor the sole stock of descent.” 18 C. J. 817.

Had this judgment been rendered before the decision of the Arkansas Supreme Court, in the case of Carter v. Carter, 129 Ark. 7 and 573, 195 S. W. 10 and 1184, the question and problem before us would have been even more complex and more difficult. We think, however, the Carter Case, supra, which we will later discuss, definitely settles the law governing this controversy. But, by reason of the fact that the Carter Case, supra, was not rendered until 1917, a considerable time subsequent to the act of Congress and treaty provisions applying the Arkansas statutes of descent to lands allotted to the Seminole Indians, it will be necessary to discuss the Arkansas law of descended estates, in the light of the interpretation given its statutes, by its own courts of last resort, prior to their adoption by the Seminole Tribe of Indians, which was on June 2, 1900.

It clearly appears that, at the time chapter 49 of Mansfield’s Digest of the Statutes of Arkansas, was made applicable to the lands of the Seminole Indians, and for a considerable time thereafter, the exact question presented here had never been directly decided The question was considered on the 13th day of January, 1908, in the case of Johnson v. Phillips, 85 Ark.

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Bluebook (online)
1928 OK 698, 272 P. 471, 134 Okla. 127, 1928 Okla. LEXIS 817, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chastain-v-larney-okla-1928.