Henley v. Davis

1916 OK 65, 156 P. 337, 57 Okla. 45, 1916 Okla. LEXIS 474
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJanuary 18, 1916
Docket5630
StatusPublished
Cited by30 cases

This text of 1916 OK 65 (Henley v. Davis) 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
Henley v. Davis, 1916 OK 65, 156 P. 337, 57 Okla. 45, 1916 Okla. LEXIS 474 (Okla. 1916).

Opinion

Opinion by

BLEAKMORE, C.

This is an action commenced in the district court of Muskogee county on March 5, 1912, by Sarah Henley against Fred W. Davis, Harry Pearsons, and O. V. Taft, for the possession of certain lands and damages for their detention, etc. The case was tried to the court, and resulted in a general finding and judgment for defendants.

The plaintiff is an enrolled Creek freedman citizen, to whom the lands involved were allotted. On August 25, 1909, in consideration of $800, she executed and delivered to Fred W. Davis a warranty deed describing 40 acres of her allotment, and on February 14, 1910, in consideration of $600, she executed and delivered to said Davis a second warranty deed describing an additional *47 30 acres of said allotment. On June 2, 1910, she executed and delivered to said Davis, for $1 and other valuable considerations, a third warranty deed purporting to convey the 70 acres described in the two former conveyances. Plaintiff had enjoyed exceptional educational advantages for one of her class, having attended Oberlin University in the State of Ohio, where she was a student at the time of the transactions in question. She received and used the consideration recited in her deeds.

On June 30, 1910, Fred W. Davis, to secure á present loan to him of $1,200, executed and delivered to the defendants Pearsons and Taft a mortgage covering the lands described in the deeds of the plaintiff to him.

Plaintiff contends that at the time 'of the execution of the deeds of August 25, 1909, and February 14, 1910, .she was a minor, under the age of 18 years, as shown by the enrollment records of the Commissioner to the Five Civilized Tribes, and therefore said deeds were void and ineffectual to convey title to the lands described therein; that her deed of June 2, 1910, to said Davis, purporting to convey the entire .70 acres of land described in the two prior deeds, was intended to bé and was in fact a mere attempted ratification of said former conveyances, and is therefore void.

The defendants Pearsons and Taft contend that the plaintiff is estopped to assert the invalidity of the mortgage of Davis to them or to set up any adverse claim to the premises in controversy against them, for the reason that they informed her that they contemplated making the loan to Davis to be secured by mortgage on said land prior to the execution of said mortgage, and that plaintiff represented to them that she was more than 18 years of age, *48 that she had sold the land to Davis and • received every dollar of the consideration, and was fully satisfied with the transaction.

The established rule in this jurisdiction, by virtue of the provisions of section 6 of an act of Congress approved May 27, 1908 (35 Stat. L. 312, c. 199), is that the deed of a minor freedman allottee attempting to convey his allotted lands is void. Tirey v. Darneal, 37 Okla. 606, 133 Pac. 614; Tirey v. Darneal, 37 Okla. 611, 132 Pac. 1087; Reid v. Taylor, 43 Okla. 816, 144 Pac. 588.

In support of her contention as to her minority plaintiff introduced in evidence, as the enrollment record, a duly certified copy of her census card, by Which it is conceded her age is shown to have been seven years in May, 1899. It appears therefrom that she' had not arrived at majority at the time of the execution of the deeds of August, 1909, and February, 1910.

Defendants offered in evidence as a part of the enrollment records of the Commissioner to the Five Civilized Tribes a certified copy of what is known as a citizenship certificate, by which it appears that the plaintiff was eight years of age on June 13, 1899, said certificate being as follows:

“Muskogee, I. T. Application No. 1193.
“Department of the Interior.
“Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes,
“Creek Nation.
“To the Clerk of the Land Office at Muskogee:
“This is to certify that the name of Rachel Taylor, age 55, and the names of the following six persons whom he represents, to wit:
*49 Cm6gd3RfoofruhWXWSiaSgHz0zvFyyTwSsH8HNSA

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Bluebook (online)
1916 OK 65, 156 P. 337, 57 Okla. 45, 1916 Okla. LEXIS 474, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/henley-v-davis-okla-1916.