Hargrove v. Cherokee Nation

129 F. 186, 63 C.C.A. 276, 1904 U.S. App. LEXIS 4033
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedFebruary 27, 1904
DocketNo. 1,866
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 129 F. 186 (Hargrove v. Cherokee Nation) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hargrove v. Cherokee Nation, 129 F. 186, 63 C.C.A. 276, 1904 U.S. App. LEXIS 4033 (8th Cir. 1904).

Opinion

THAYER, Circuit Judge,

after stating the case as above, delivered the opinion of the court.

As there was no trial below except on demurrer, and as the record contains no bill of exceptions, the questions for consideration by this-court are those which arise on the face of the record, and are in the main those which are presented by the demurrer to the second. amended complaint.

The reason assigned in support of the first ground of demurrer, namely, that the court had no jurisdiction of the case as respects the-defendant Conklin, and no right to render a judgment against him, [189]*189appears to be this: that the amended complaint contains no allegation that Conklin’s right to the improvements in controversy had_ been disallowed by the decision of the commission to the Five Tribes, or a judgment of the United States court in the Indian Territory, which had become final at the time he was made a party defendant. It is urged, in substance, that under the provisions of the third section of the act of Congress above quoted, under which the action is brought, the court before whom the case was tried had no power to cause Conklin to be removed, and the premises in controversy to be restored to the Cherokee Nation, until his membership in the tribe “and right” had been (as the act says) “disallowed by the commission to the Five Tribes or the United States court, and the judgment had become final”; and that, as the complaint showed no such disallowance of his membership and rights by the commission or the United States court, the lower court had no jurisdiction over him in this statutory proceeding. This contention is founded, apparently, upon a misconception of the reasons which caused the Cherokee Nation to make Conklin a party defendant. Its second amended complaint alleged that the defendants other than Conklin were claimants to citizenship in the Cherokee Nation, whose claim had been decided adversely to them by the United States courts and the Dawes commission, and that the judgment had become final; that said defendants were, at the time of the institution of this action, holding the improvements in controversy as claimants to citizenship in the Cherokee Nation; that the defendant Conklin, on or about and since the institution of the suit, had taken possession of the improvements in controversy jointly with the other defendants— that is, with the Hargroves; that he so took possession under an arrangement with the other defendants for the purpose of defeating the Cherokee Nation of its right to the improvements; that at the time of the institution of the present action Conklin had a suit pending against the other defendants to obtain possession of the identical improvements now in controversy; that the Cherokee Nation had filed its interplea in said case for the protection of its rights; and that subsequent to the filing of such interplea Conklin, through his attorney, had dismissed his action to recover the improvements from the other defendants, doing so in pursuance of a combination or agreement with the other defendants for the purpose of holding the improvements in controversy contrary to and against the will of the Cherokee Nation. The complaint contained another allegation to the effect that the defendants were at the time in unlawful possession of the lands and improvements in controversy, that they were not the owners thereof or entitled to the possession, and that the Cherokee Nation was the absolute owner, and as such entitled to the immediate possession of the same.

Fairly construed, these allegations of the complaint must be understood to mean that Conklin acquired such possession as he had subsequent to the commencement of the present action against the other defendants, who were in possession of the improvement in controversy when the suit was instituted, and whose claim and right thereto had been disallowed by the commission, and that such possession as he had gained was obtained by collusion with the other defendants to prevent the Cherokee Nation from recovering the possession of the im[190]*190provement in this action, which was then pending. In view of the foregoing averments, it is manifest, we think, that Conklin was named as a party defendant to the second amended complaint upon the theory that he could not, by collusion with the Hargroves, take possession of the land and improvements in controversy subsequent to the institution of the action, and by so doing defeat the purpose of the suit, although such claim to the improvement as he may have had had not been disallowed by the commission or the United States courts. This view of the case appears to us to be well founded. It is a general rule of law, and one which is absolutely essential to the effective prosecution of an action for the recovery of the possession of real property or to enforce a lien against the same, that one who acquires possession of property from a person against whom a suit is at the time pending for the possession thereof or to enforce a lien against the same takes it subject to the outcome of the pending action, and may be dispossessed precisely as the person from whom he acquired the possession might have been dispossessed had he retained the possession, whether such intruder is made a party to the suit and has his day in court or not. Any other rule would render suits for the recovery of real property ineffectual, as they might be defeated by repeated transfers of possession during the pendency of the action. Tilton et al. v. Cofield, 93 U.. S. 163, 168, 23 L. Ed. 858; Whiteside v. Haselton, 110 U. S. 296, 301, 4 Sup. Ct. 1, 28 L. Ed. 152; Burleson v. McDermott, 57 Ark. 229, 21 S. W. 222; Bailey v. Winn, 113 Mo. 155, 165, 20 S. W. 21. See, also, Am. & Eng. Ency. of Law, vol. 21 (2d Ed.), p. 595, and cases there cited. We perceive no reason why this doctrine should not be held applicable to a case like the one at bar, which is an action by the Cherokee Nation to recover an intruder’s improvement on land belonging to the nation, although it is a statutory proceeding authorized by an act of Congress. The same reasons exist in such a case as in ordinary cases why an action which is brought by the nation in pursuance of the statute to recover an improvement, provided it is brought against the parties who- are in actual possession at the time the suit is instituted, should not be affected, or in any manner interrupted, by a subsequent transfer of the possession to a third party. The facts alleged in the complaint as against Conklin are fully admitted by the demurrer, and inasmuch as it appeared that he acquired possession of the improvement subsequent to the institution of the suit against the Hargroves, he could have been ousted by the nation under a judgment against them, even if he had not been made a party. We are of opinion, therefore, that he has no right to complain because he was made a party and given an opportunity to assert his rights if he had any; and we entertain no doubt of the jurisdiction of the court as respects Conklin, or of its power to enter a judgment against him for the restoration of the land and the improvements thereon to the Cherokee Nation.

The other objections to the amended complaint, which are specified in the demurrer, are that there “is a defect of parties defendant,” and that “said amended complaint does not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action.” The first of these objections only challenges the right of the plaintiff to make Conklin a party defendant, as it saw fit to do. It therefore presents the same question which has [191]*191already been considered and decided.

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Bluebook (online)
129 F. 186, 63 C.C.A. 276, 1904 U.S. App. LEXIS 4033, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hargrove-v-cherokee-nation-ca8-1904.