Howard v. Owens

1929 OK 521, 285 P. 5, 142 Okla. 82, 1929 Okla. LEXIS 43
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedDecember 5, 1929
Docket17695
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 1929 OK 521 (Howard v. Owens) 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
Howard v. Owens, 1929 OK 521, 285 P. 5, 142 Okla. 82, 1929 Okla. LEXIS 43 (Okla. 1929).

Opinion

ARRINGTON, J.

O. O. Owens, defendant in error, filed an action in the county court of Wagoner county, Okla., for the determination of the heirship of Will Jackson, a Greek Indian, under the Act of Congress approved June 14, 1918, entitled an act to provide for a determination of heirship in cases of deceased members of the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole Tribes of Indians in Oklahoma. The petition, among other things, alleged that Will Jackson was allotted land and died intestate, and that petitioner had purchased from the sole heirs of Will Jackson 'his allotment.

The county court entered a decree sustaining this petition. Mattie Howard, plaintiff in error here, filed a petition to reopen the ease and controverting the allegations of defendant in error. The case was then heard before the county court on the pleadings of the parties to this action, and the county court again found in favor of the defendant in error. The ease was then appealed by plaintiff in error to the district court, where a hearing was again had and witnesses were heard and documentary evidence introduced tending to sustain both sides. The district court found in favor of the defendant in error. In his findings of fact the court said that he was uncertain to what extent he was relying upon the oral statements of the lawyers in argument and Campbell’s Index of the Creek Tribe. Judgment was entered March 15, 1923.

A motion for new trial was filed by plaintiff in error within three days of the date of the judgment and decree of the court. This motion for new trial contains the statutory grounds except as to newly discovered evidence.

On April 9, 1923, plaintiff in error filed another motion for new trial, this time on the ground of newly discovered evidence, unverified by either plaintiff in error or her attorneys, but to which second motion for new trial there was attached the affidavit of one Thomas Tiger as to alleged facts which tend to support the position of the movant.

On the 9th day of April, 1923, plaintiff in error filed a third motion, entitled a motion to grant a new trial and to remand to the county court, alleging that there had been filed since the trial of this ease in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma a bill in equity by the Roxana Petroleum Corporation against plaintiff in error et al. to determine the question of title to said land and alleging that there are parties interested in the land involved who were not made parties to the original proceedings In the county court to determine heirship. The last motion also alleges that the petition filed in the original proceeding to determine heirship and the notice given pursuant thereto were insufficient.

The judgment of the district court was that the county court was without jurisdiction to try the matter and that the district court was without jurisdiction to entertain an appeal from the county court. On appeal of the case of O. O. Owens, Plaintiff in Error, v. Mattie Howard et al., Defendants in Error, 117 Okla. 151, 245 Pac. 874, the Supreme Court of Oklahoma reversed the trial court and held that the county court had jurisdiction to entertain the petition for determination of heirship in the first instance and that the district court had jurisdiction of said matter on appeal.

Pursuant to t'he mandate of the Supreme Court the district court proceeded to hear the first and second applications for a new trial and also evidence that there was another case pending involving the subject-matter of the instant case but filed afterward. There was also submitted in evidence, over the objections of defendant in error, affidavits of William Neff, attorney for plaintiff in error, and of Cornelius Boudinot, both of which affidavits were filed of the date of the 12th of June, 1926. The district court in conformity with the opinion and mandate of the Supreme Court set aside the order dismissing the cause for the want of jurisdiction and found generally for defendant in error. In the journal entry of judgment the *84 court says that the attention of the attorney for Mattie Howard was called to the enrollment record of Tom Couzzens as shown by Campbell’s Index and that he admittel during the argument that Tom Couzzens was so enrolled, but further contended that the enrollment record had not been introduce! in evidence and could not be consideren. The trial court concluded that a fact whic i was true and which was known by the court to be true and which was admitted by course! on argument to be true might be cor-sidered. From this judgment the case comes on the second appeal.

1. The evidence in this ease is conflicting. It was tried both before the county court and the district court, and the findings and judgments of both courts as to the question of heirship sustain the defendant in error. The findings by these trial courts were supported by both oral testimony and documentary evidence. We cannot say that such findings are contrary to the weight of the evidence.

There is in Oklahoma an unbroken line of authorities holding that if the evidencj reasonably tends to support the judgment of the trial court, such judgment will not be disturbed on appeal. A few of the most recent cases are: Thompson v. Coker, 112 Okla. 268, 241 Pac. 486; Childers v. Vernon, 85 Okla. 68, 204 Pac. 641; Gayer v. Pearce, 86 Okla. 102, 206 Pac. 822; Bradley & Metcalf Co. v. McLaughlin, 87 Okla. 34, 208 Pac. 1032.

2. The motion for new trial on the ground of newly discovered evidence was not veril fled by the plaintiff or her attorney; it had attached to it an affidavit of one not a party to the action as to certain alleged facts. There was no affidavit or verification showing when the alleged new evidence was discovered or showing diligence was used in an effort to discover the same. This question has been decided by the Supreme Court of Oklahoma in several cases, one of which is Bellis v. Radabaugh et al.. reported in 134 Okla. 9, 272 Pac. 423. In that case the court held:

“Under section 575, C. O. S. 1921, a motion for new trial on the ground of newly discovered evidence must be verified, showing the truth of the matters alleged. It is not enough to attach an affidavit of the witness as- to what his testimony would be leaving the allegations as to diligence, etc. unverified.”

The court quotes with approval from the case of Bryan v. Ramsey, 115 Okla. 233, 242 Pac. 222. In the case of Dodson & Williams v. Parsons, 62 Okla. 298, 162 Pac. 1090, the Supreme Court of Oklahoma says:

“It is true that affidavit of W. W. House-wrig’ht as to what his testimony would be is attached to the motion, but the motion itself in which the defendants set out their claim of reasonable diligence is not verified. It is necessary that the motion itself should be verified.”

To the same effect is the case of Wachtstetter v. Challinor, reported in 114 Okla. 119, and in the 244 Pac. 194.

In the case of Eskridge v. Taylor, 75 Okla. 139, 182 Pac. 516, the Supreme Court in the body of the opinion says;

“In the case at bar the facts constituting the diligence or excusing the diligence are not set forth, and in fact the motion is not verified by the plaintiff in error, and for aught that appears in the motion or record he might have known during the trial the contents of the letters about which he complains.”

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Bluebook (online)
1929 OK 521, 285 P. 5, 142 Okla. 82, 1929 Okla. LEXIS 43, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/howard-v-owens-okla-1929.