Derrisaw v. Schaffer

8 F. Supp. 876, 1934 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1501
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Oklahoma
DecidedOctober 26, 1934
DocketNo. 4434
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 8 F. Supp. 876 (Derrisaw v. Schaffer) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Derrisaw v. Schaffer, 8 F. Supp. 876, 1934 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1501 (E.D. Okla. 1934).

Opinion

WILLIAMS, District Judge.

The first and second amended bills,. each entitled bill in equity or bill of review, but being a proceeding in equity to set aside and annul a judgment of this court on the ground of mistake and fraud, which bills have been superseded by the second amended bill and are therefore treated as abandoned. The allegations of fraud in the second bill, with the exception of the allegations in paragraph 4, are mere conclusions. Paragraph 4 alleges the recital in the compromise agreement submitted to Judge R. E. Campbell, at that time the United States District Judge for this district, that “some of the questions involved are questions of law that have never been decided by any court of competent jurisdiction within the knowledge of either party to this action,” was false, and misled and deceived Judge Campbell into rendering a consent decree, all of which is denied by the defendants. In the original cause of action No. 1970, in which the so-called decree was entered, the bill alleged that Sarah Derrisaw, plaintiff’s mother, “departed this life unmarried and intestate on or about the - day of March, 1904; that the said Sarah Derrisaw was never married.” The question was thereby raised that, if the complainant was a bastard, his father inherited nothing under the controlling law of descent and distribution, and the deed to Smock, under which defendants claim, would have been void because there was no adult heir to join with the guardian of the minor, as required by section 22 of the Act of Congress of April 26, 1906 (34 Stat. 137,145). The answer in said case, equity No. 1970, filed May 12,1913 (Defendants’ Exhibit 4), put that allegation in issue and averred: “That upon the death of S'arah Derrisaw in the year 1904, her husband, Barney Derrisaw, became vested with a life estate in her entire allotment, and that subject to said life estate the fee to said lands constituting her allotment, passed to and vested [877]*877in her three children Fannie Derrisaw, Tuxey Derrisaw and Beeley Derrisaw, each being entitled to an undivided one-third interest therein subject to the life estate of said Barney Derrisaw in the whole of said allotment.” The issue was squarely presented that Barney Derrisaw was the father of plaintiff in lawful wedlock, and that said father of said legitimate child took an estate of curtesy under the Arkansas law, extended over the Indian Territory by act of Congress, as applicable, which meant a life estate in said allotment. Whether or not the surviving husband of a full-blood Indian allottee took an estate of curtesy in his wife’s allotment at that time had not been decided by the Supreme Court of Oklahoma, or any other court, when said compromise was entered into and decree entered on October 25, 1913. In the case of Johnson v. Simpson, 40 Okl. 413, 139 P. 129, citing Armstrong v. Wood et al. (C. C.) 195 F. 137, it was held that the surviving husband was entitled to an estate of curtesy in his deceased Creek wife’s allotment, of which she was seized during coverture, decided on February 24, 1914, and followed thereafter by Pierce v. Ellis, 51 Okl. 710, 152 P. 340; Finley v. American Trust Co., 51 Okl. 489, 151 P. 865; Bridges v. Wright et al., 56 Okl. 10, 155 P. 883; Morris v. Sweeney, 53 Okl. 163, 155 P. 537; Miles v. Miles, 73 Okl. 198, 175 P. 222; Kenoly et al. v. Hawley et al., 84 Okl. 120, 202 P. 494.

The Supreme Court of Oklahoma thus continued to sustain the claim of a surviving husband to a curtesy estate in his fulbblood wife’s allotment until the opinion was handed down on May 12,1925, in Condren v. Marlin, 113 Okl. 259, 241 P. 826, rehearing being denied therein on December 1, 1925. On February 20, 1928, the Supreme Court of the United States in Marlin v. Lewallen, 276 U. S. 58, 48 S. Ct. 248, 72 L. Ed. 467, overruled such Oklahoma cases decided prior to Condren v. Marlin. Defendants’ answer in equity No. 1970 went further and alleged that: “Upon the death of Fannie Derrisaw in the year 1905, intestate, unmarried and without issue (Fannie was a sister of plaintiff) the entire allotment of said Fannie Derrisaw, being the lands hereinbefore specifically described, passed to and vested in the father, Barney Derrisaw, and that neither Beeley Derrisaw nor Tuxey Derrisaw took any interest therein, and that her one-third interest in the allotment of her predeceased mother passed to and vested in her father, Barney Derrisaw, and that neither Beeley Derrisaw nor Tuxey Derrisaw took any right or interest in her one-third of the title to the allotment of Sarah Derrisaw deceased. That upon the death of Tuxey Derrisaw in the year 1911, his one-third interest in the fee of the lands allotted to his predeceased mother Sarah Derrisaw, passed to and vested in his father Barney Derrisaw, and that the complainant Beeley Derrisaw took no interest, right, estate or title therein or thereto. * * * ”

The defendants in said answer pleaded that under the Arkansas law of descent and distribution, which was claimed to be in force in the Indian Territory, an allotment was neither an estate ancestral nor a new acquisition, and that upon the death of the allottee without child or surviving spouse the father inherited the entire estate or title in fee, basing said contention upon section 2522 of Mansfield’s Digest of the Statutes of Arkansas, chapter 49, which question was never finally determined in this jurisdiction until the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States on April 26, 1915, in McDougal v. McKay, 237 U. S. 372, 35 S. Ct. 605, 59 L. Ed. 1001. In equity 1970 the validity of the deed executed to Smock by plaintiff’s father, as an adult heir, and joined by plaintiff through his guardian, Hutchinson, and approved by the McIntosh county court under authority of section 22 of the Act of Congress of April 26, 1906 (34 Stat. 137, 145) was challenged on the ground the Act of Congress approved May 27, 1908 (35 Stat. 312), repealed section 22 of Act of April 26, 1906 (34 Stat. 137, 145), and that from and after date of Act of May 27, 1908, the minor’s allotment neither in whole nor in part could be conveyed by a guardian except under authority of an order of county court having probate jurisdiction in a proceeding conducted under the statutes of Oklahoma authorizing county courts to order the sale of a minor’s land. Defendants’ answer in equity 1970 put this directly in issue, contending that section 22 of Act of April 26,1906, was not repealed by Act of May 27, 1908. Under Wilson v. Morton, 29 Okl. 745, 119 P. 213, decided on November 14, 1911, Smock’s deed was valid, operating to vest in him title to Barney Derrisaw’s interest in the allotment unless Act of May 27, 1908, had repealed section 22 of Act of April 26,1906'. The Smock deed from the adult heir, joined in by Beeley Derrisaw’s guardian and approved by the McIntosh court, was obtained in April 1912, and up to that date no decision by the Oklahoma Supreme Court or any federal court, or any other court, had held that section 22 of Act of April 26, 1906, had been repealed by Act of May 27, 1908. The first decision of the Supreme Court of Oklahoma directly on this [878]*878question was decided on October 2,1917; two petitions for rehearing being filed and finally denied on October 23, 1919, more than two years thereafter. See Chupco v. Chapman, 76 Okl. 201, 170 P. 259. Whether Act of May 27, 1908, repealed section 22 of Act of April 26, 1906-, was a question not free from difficulty. Nothing in the caption of Act of May 27, 1908, indicated that it repealed all or any part of Act of April 26, 1906, and there is no general repealing clause in Act of May 27, 1908.

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Bluebook (online)
8 F. Supp. 876, 1934 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1501, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/derrisaw-v-schaffer-oked-1934.