Evans v. Victor

199 F. 504, 1912 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1212
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Oklahoma
DecidedAugust 30, 1912
DocketNo. 1,852
StatusPublished

This text of 199 F. 504 (Evans v. Victor) 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
Evans v. Victor, 199 F. 504, 1912 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1212 (E.D. Okla. 1912).

Opinion

CAMPBELL, District Judge.

The question arises on plaintiff’s application for temporary injunction. The bill alleges that the plaintiff resides at Muskogee, in this district; that defendant Victor is United States marshal for this district; that the defendant Larsen is the duly appointed, qualified, and acting chief special officer of the United Statés Indian service, located at Muskogee, Old., and charged with the duty of enforcing the laws of the United States prohibiting the introduction of intoxicating liquors from other states of the Union into the state of Oklahoma; that the plaintiff is owner and proprietor of the Fountain Drug Store, in Muskogee, engaged in the general retail drug business, including cigar stand, and soda fountain. It is alleged that on August 7, 1912, the defendant Victor, acting through his deputy, Joe Hubbard, and the defendant Larsen, acting under color of their said offices, entered plaintiff’s place of business, over his protest, and without the authority of a search warrant or other process, and proceeded to search the same for intoxicating liquors; that thereby, for reasons set [505]*505■out in the bill, the plaintiff has been damaged in the sum of $3,100. It is further alleged that the defendants threaten to continue making such searches, without search warrant or other process, and the question is raised whether, by virtue of their said offices, they may lawfully do so.

[1] It appears from the response of the defendant Victor that said deputy, Joe Hubbard, was not acting as his deputy when the said search of plaintiff’s place of business was made, but was acting as deputy special officer under the said Larsen. So that the question here is confined to whether the defendant Larsen, or his deputies, may make such searches in the Eastern District of Oklahoma by virtue of their official position and without the formality of search warrants or other process. That so far as the introduction of liquor is concerned the Eastern District of Oklahoma, in which this question arises, is “Indian country” is -settled by the decision of the Circuit Court of Appeals for this circuit in U. S. Express Co. v. Friedman, 191 Fed. 673, 112 C. C. A. 37, unless, as contended by counsel for plaintiff, the later United States Supreme Court cases of Ex parte Webb, 225 U. S. 663, 32 Sup. Ct. 769, 56 L. Ed. 1248, decided June 10, 1912, and Clairmont v. United States, 225 U. S. 551, 32 Sup. Ct. 787, 56 L. Ed. 1201, decided the same day (neither of which has been officially reported), may be said to authorize a contrary holding. In the Eriedman Case, supra, the Circuit Court of Appeals holds that that portion of Oklahoma formerly the Indian Territory (which this district now comprises) did not cease to be Indian country on the admission of the state, nor did such admission affect the application to that part of the state of Revised Statutes, § 2139, or of Act Jan. 30, 1897, c. 109, 29 Stat. 506, relating to the introduction of liquor into the Indian country.

In the Webb Case, the Supreme Court said, as to the Eriedman Case:

“The Circuit Court of Appeals in United States Express Company v. Eriedman, 191 Fed. 673 [112 C. C. A. 37], dealt with the question whether that portion of Oklahoma formerly known as the Indian Territory ceased to be ‘Indian country’ upon the admission of Oklahoma as a state, so that these acts were no longer applicable, and with the question whether the admission of Oklahoma as a. state had the effect of repealing them so far as pertained to the introduction of liquors into the territory. Petitioner’s application to this court for a habeas corpus was intended to bring that decision under review, and the agreed statement of facts was designedly so framed as to show the grounds of his contention that the locus in quo is no longer ‘Indian country.’
“Tho government, however, in resisting the application, relied for support of the jurisdiction of the District Cburt, not only upon the acts just referred to, but also upon section 8 of ‘An act to provide for the appointment of additional judges of the United States court in the Indian Territory, and for other purposes,’ approved March 1, 1895 (28 Stat. 693, e. 113).
“The throe enactments in question are set forth in chronological order in tho margin.
“At the time of the passage of the act of 1895 the territory known as* the Indian Territory was that which was described by metes and bounds in Act May 2, 1890, 26 Stat. 81, 93, e. 182, § 29. It included the lands of the Cherokee Nation, and the city of Vinita, where the petitioner’s alleged [506]*506offense was committed. It is now, of course, a part of the state of Oklahoma.
“It is not open to serious dispute that, if the prohibition of the act of 1895 against ‘carrying into said territory any such liquors or drinks’ remains operative so far as pertains to the carrying of intoxicating liquors from another state into that part of Oklahoma which was the Indian Territory, the acts admittedly done by the petitioner constitute an offense thereunder, of which the United States District Court has jurisdiction. Whether the offense is sufficiently alleged in the indictment is another question, which, on familiar grounds, is not a proper subject-matter for inquiry on habeas corpus. Ex parte Parks, 93 U. S. 18, 23 L. Ed. 787; Ex parte Virginia, 100 U. S. 339, 25 L. Ed. 676; Ex parte Carll, 106 U. S. 521 [1 Sup. Ct. 535], 27 L. Ed. 288; Ex parte Belt, 159 U. S. 95 [15 Sup. Ct. 987], 40 L. Ed. 88; Ornelas v. Ruiz, 161 U. S. 502 [16 Sup. Ct. 689], 40 L. Ed. 787. Recognizing this, counsel for the petitioner, upon the oral argument and in a supplemental brief, modified his original contentions, so as to deal with the act of 1895. As thus modified, the grounds upon which he relies are the following:
“First. That the act of 1895, being a special act applicable to the Indian Territory, had the effect of superseding as to that territory the existing general statute against the introduction and sale of intoxicating liquors in the Indian country.
“Secondly. That the act of 1897, being amendatory of the general statute against the introduction and sale of intoxicating liquors in the Indian country, did not apply to the Indian Territory, because that territory was covered by the special act of 1S95.
“Thirdly. That the jurisdiction cannot be rested upon the act of 1897, because the place where the alleged offense was committed was not Indian country within the meaning of that act, since there was no Indian title remaining in the town site of Vinita; the insistence being that, where there is no Indian title, no inalienable land, and no allotted land held in trust, there' can be no ‘Indian country.’
“Fourthly. That, whether the act of 1895 or the act of 1897 would otherwise be applicable, these acts were both repealed, as to that part of Oklahoma which was formerly the Indian Territory, by the force of Oklahoma Enabling Act June 16, 1906, c. 3335, 34 Stat.

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Related

Ex Parte Parks
93 U.S. 18 (Supreme Court, 1876)
Bates v. Clark
95 U.S. 204 (Supreme Court, 1877)
Ex Parte Virginia
100 U.S. 339 (Supreme Court, 1880)
Ex Parte Carll
106 U.S. 521 (Supreme Court, 1883)
In Re Belt
159 U.S. 95 (Supreme Court, 1895)
Ornelas v. Ruiz
161 U.S. 502 (Supreme Court, 1896)
Clairmont v. United States
225 U.S. 551 (Supreme Court, 1912)
Ex Parte Webb.
225 U.S. 663 (Supreme Court, 1912)
United States Express Co. v. Friedman
191 F. 673 (Eighth Circuit, 1911)

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Bluebook (online)
199 F. 504, 1912 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1212, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/evans-v-victor-oked-1912.