McKinney v. Black Panther Oil & Gas Co.

280 F. 486, 1922 U.S. App. LEXIS 1815
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedMarch 25, 1922
DocketNo. 5574
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 280 F. 486 (McKinney v. Black Panther Oil & Gas Co.) 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
McKinney v. Black Panther Oil & Gas Co., 280 F. 486, 1922 U.S. App. LEXIS 1815 (8th Cir. 1922).

Opinion

LEWIS, Circuit Judge.

This is McKinney’s appeal brought from an order denying him the right to intervene in the pending cause as guardian of Martha Jackson, a full blood Creek Indian. The litigation to which he sought to become a party in his claimed representative capacity was of long standing, and had its inception in a bill brought by the United States to cancel an allotment made by the Dawes Commission to Barney Tholocco, a citizen by blood of the Creek Tribe. See United States v. Bessie Wildcat et al., 244 U. S. 111, 37 Sup. Ct. 561, 61 L. Ed. 1024. That suit was begun on November 1, 1913. Before that a like suit had been brought by the United States in February, 1911, against the unknown heirs of Tholocco, and in July, 1911, a decree cancelling the allotment, ordering that the 160 acres be restored to the Creek Na-[488]*488tioh, and that it be sold on advertisement, was entered pro confess©. In June, 1913, J. Coody Johnson, an attorney at law, entered into a written contract with Saber Jackson as guardian of-Martha Jackson, by which Jackson employed Johnson to manage, conduct and prosecute a suit in behalf of Martha Jackson as the sole heir of Barney Tholocco for the recovery of the 160-acre allotment. If Johnson should succeed in establishing the sole heirship of Martha, it was agreed that he should have an oil and gas lease on the land; if he failed, he would get nothing for his services. In August, 1913, Jackson as guardian gave to Johnson the oil and gas lease, which was approved by the probate court. Thereafter Johpson succeeded in getting the pro confesso decree set aside; whereupon- that suit was voluntarily dismissed and the United States at once filed its bill in this cause and lost its case on final hearing. 244 U. S., supra. Martha Jackson, a minor, and Saber Jackson as her guardian and next friend, were made defendants in this suit. It was charged that she and fifteen others named, who were made defendants, were the sole heirs of Barney Tholocco. J. Coody Johnson and Black Panther Oil & Gas Company were also made defendants. Johnson had assigned his oil and gas lease to that company and was interested in it. Pending the appeal, and before the final determination of the cause against the United States, á large number of other persons had come in by intervention on the claim that they were heirs of Barney Tholoc-co, and before that question was finally passed on by the trial court there were almost two hundred Indians who set up that relationship. The only issue in the case after the bill was finally dismissed as to the United States, on February 11, 1918, under mandate, was the question as to who was the heir or heirs of Barney Tholocco. Pending the appeal oil and gas were discovered in the vicinity of the tract in litigation. It was realized that the extraction of those minerals from adjoining lands would drain the allotment, and at the request of all parties to the cause the district court appointed a receiver and directed him to give an oil and gas lease on the allotment pending the controversy. With the approval of the court he gave a lease to the Black Panther Oil & Gas Company, which required that company to pay to the receiver one-fourth of the amount or value of the gross production which it might make and obtain under the lease, and as consideration therefor the lessee should have the other three-fourths. The land proved to be of great value in the oil that could be produced from it, the one-fourth of which that had been paid over to the receiver by the lessee at the time the trial court made its final determination of heirship, amounted to more than $1,000,000. In the late winter of 1898 and 1899 smallpox prevailed in the Creek Nation. The Federal authorities provided camps for the detention and treatment of those who were infected. It appears that Barney Tholocco and his entire family were treated in one of these camps. He had two sons and a daughter. His son John was married and had two children. Barney and all of his children, and his two grandchildren, died from the scourge within a short space of time; the only survivor being Annie, wife of his son John. Annie, who died later, married Saber Jackson, and Martha is the only child of that marriage. It was a question as to whether the [489]*489other son was married, and if so, did his wife survive him. The dates of the respective deaths of Barney Tholocco and his children and grandchildren were contested questions between those claiming as heirs. It was realized by all who asserted heirship that it was impossible to obtain certain and definite proof of these dates, and there was chance of casting the lines of descent in many different ways. The trial court in its opinion finally brought them down under the proof to five different classes of heirs. Martha admittedly was not of the blood of the common source. Her case at best was a doubtful one, both in fact and law, and the multitude of claimants put upon her and those representing her a great, if not impossible, burden to establish that she was the sole heir.

Saber Jackson, who was the guardian of Martha and named as such in the original bill of complaint, was removed by an order of the probate court iu which he was appointed, and Lafayette Walker appointed in his stead. Later Walker was removed and R. W. Parmenter was appointed in his stead, and he, after his appointment and throughout; the trial, appeared in the cause as the legal representative of Martha., In July, 1917, Parmenter as guardian, in apparent compliance with the State statutes and permissible Congressional Acts, obtained the proper orders from the probate court of Seminole county, which had appointed him, authorizing him to sell the interest of Martha Jackson in the allotment, and in the accumulated royalties, for $12,000 paid down, plus 25 per cent, of the share of the royalties to which she might finally become entitled by the decree of the court in the pending controversy, subiect to certain charges, but in no event to be less than $25,000 additional. The probate court found that the interest of Martha Jackson in the property was indefinite and uncertain, that there were then about seventy-three other persons claiming to be the sole heirs and only owners of the property, that Martha’s father was unable to support, maintain and educate her, that she did not have sufficient income for that purpose, and that it was necessary to sell her interest in the allotment and the impounded royalties in order to obtain funds to support, maintain and educate her. The guardian’s deed, on the terms stated, was approved by the court, and the $12,000 therefor paid over by Thomas Kelly, the purchaser. At the same time, and as part of the same transaction, Kelly entered into a contract with the guardian, by which he agreed to prosecute the establishment of Martha’s claim in the allotment, for the purpose of obtaining for her the largest interest possible as an heir thereto, and in the impounded royalties, and to pay to her 25 per cent, of those royalties to which she might become entitled, either by decree or compromise of the suit, and that the minimum sum so to be paid should not be less than $25,000 net, and to give a bond in the sum of $25,000 for the performance of his agreement. The guardian’s deed assigned to Kelly the impounded royalties on the terms noted. One of the objections raised by McKinney is that the probate proceedings just noted were not in compliance with the State statute, which requires that the full consideration on the sale of a minor’s real estate shall be paid down. But the accumulated royalties were not real estate; and while the proceedings in probate coupled together the $12,-

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Bluebook (online)
280 F. 486, 1922 U.S. App. LEXIS 1815, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mckinney-v-black-panther-oil-gas-co-ca8-1922.