Minshall v. Berryhill

1921 OK 315, 205 P. 932, 83 Okla. 100, 1921 Okla. LEXIS 315
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedSeptember 13, 1921
Docket11523
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 1921 OK 315 (Minshall v. Berryhill) 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
Minshall v. Berryhill, 1921 OK 315, 205 P. 932, 83 Okla. 100, 1921 Okla. LEXIS 315 (Okla. 1921).

Opinion

KiENNAiMER, J.

Willie Berryhill, as plaintiff, instituted this action in the district court of Tulsa county against E. R. Minshall, J. F. Sweeney, Lewis R. Lewis, Howard W. Phillips, and Prairie Oil & Gas Company, a corporation, to establish his ownership and title in and to an undivided! one-fourth interest in the lands described in his petition, for possession, and for his second cause of action set out in his petition prayed the judgment of the court for an accounting of the rents and profits arising from said lands during the time the defendants had been in possession of the same.

The plaintiff asserted ownership to an undivided one-fourth interest in the lands in controversy by reason of the following alleged facts set out in his petition: That the lands involved in the action were selected on the 5th day of February, 1903, on behalf of the heirs at law of Susanna Berryhill, enrolled on the final rolls of the Creek Indians, as prepared by the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes, opposite roll No. 4777 as a member of the Creek Tribe of Indians of the full blood; that • the allottee, Susanna Berryhill, was born on or about August 9, 1898, and .died on or about the 26th day of July, 1899, intestate, unmarried, without issue, leaving surviving her her mother, Louisa Berry-hill, a fúll-blood Creek Indian enrolled as such on the approved tribal rolls, Charley Berryhill. a brother of the whole blood, enrolled on the approved tribal rolls as a full-blood Creek Indian, and Willie Berry-hill. a paternal one-half brother, enrolled on the approved tribal rolls as a full-blood Creek Indian: that Samuel Berryhill was the father of the said Susanna Berry-hill, w&s a citizen of the Creek Tribe of Indians enrolled as such on the tribal rolls thereof; that the said Samuel Berryhill was dead at the time of the selection of the allotment, having died about the year 1898; that the estate of the said Susanna Berry-hill was an ancestral estate, the devolution of which is governed by the applicable provision of chapter 49 of Mansfield’s Digest of the Statutes of Arkansas, and that one-half of the estate of Susanna Berryhill, deceased, ascended to her mlother, Louisa Berryhill, and one-half to the paternal heirs.

The defendants Minshall, Sweeney, and Lewis filed answer, admitting the lands described in the plaintiff’s petition were allotted to one Susanna Berryhill as her proportionate share of the lands of the Creek *102 Nation;'that the allottee was a full-blood Greek Indian, enrolled as such on the flnál rolls of Greek citizens opposite roll No. 4777; 'the death of the allottee substantially a's alleged ify the plaintiff, ' find' the ■ 'selection of the lands"on 'February 5; 1003, and the issuance of patents theréfdr', and that Louisa Berryhill was the mother of the deceased allottee, and enrolled citizen of the Greek Nation'.

The deffendants denied that Samuel Ber-ryhill, alleged to .‘.be. the father of -Susanna Berryhill and of the plaintiff, .Willie .Berry-hill, was a citizen of the Greek .Nation, and denied that either he (Samuel ■ Berryhill) or his heirs inherited or were capable of inheriting any part of the allotment of the said ' Susanna : Berryhill.' These same defendants alleged ' that on' 'December1 23, 190.2, Louisa Berryhill, under the name of Louisa Brown, as the sole heir at law of the said Susanna Berryhill, executed and delivered to .15. R. Minshall an oil and gas mining lease of the lands described in the plaintiff’s petition ; that said lease, was approved by the' county court of Tulsa county, Oklahoma; and the Secretary of the Interior; that on -November 6; 1918, the Department of the Interior relinquished supervision of the sa’id lease, it having been made to appfear that the lands had been conveyed' by' Louisa Berryhill to' the defendant H. W. Phillips;' that -the defendant E. R. Minshall executed and delivered to the defendants Sweeney and Lewis an assignment of an interest in the lease.

The defendant Phillips filed separate answer, denying that- the plaintiff was the owner of any estate either legal or equitable in the lands, but admitting the allotment of the lands as pleaded by the plaintiff; that the allottee, Susanna Berryhill, was the daughter of Louisa Berryhill and Samuel Berryhill; that .Louisa Berryhill was an enrolled Greek Indian, as. pleaded by the plaintiff; but alleged that Samuel Berryhill was not a citizen, of the Greek Nation and was not on the.final rolls, and, therefore, was prohibited from receiving either directly or. indirectly .any lands, money, or property of any of the .Greek Tribe .of Indians. ■

The defendant Phillips, further answering, alleged that pursuant to the laws and treaties in such cases made and provided, the said Louisa Berryhill-. me mother of the deceased - allottee, ¡did, -on the 4th day of December, 1901, select for and on behalf of the heirs of said Susanna Berryhill, then deceased. 160 acres of land as' the proportionate share of the said Susanna Berryhill’s distributive share of the. lands of the Greek, Nation, and that -an allotment certificate- was , duly issued for 'the .same and delivered. to ¡Louisa. Berryhill, copy of I the ■ certificate being attached to the an- H swer and made/a part thereof; that this 1 selection was contested, and after a hear- H ing had the land described in said allotment certificate was awarded to another and thereafter ¡fhe said Louisa Berryhill in lieu of said selection for the heirs of said Susanna Berryhill was permitted to and did select the real estate described in the plaintiff’s petition, - but that said selection was made in -lieu of-and. as a substitute for the original selection made on December 4, 1901,' and 'by operation of law' and for the purpose of 'determining who are the persons entitled to receive the lands of the heirs of deceased allottee took effect as of the date of the original selection, which was on December 4, 190-1, and that the law in force under which the heirs of Susanna, Berryhill must be ' determined for the purpose of deciding who should receive the allotment to which she would have been entitled if-living must be ascertained according to the law in force on December 4, 1901, the date of the first selection, which at that time Was the law of descent and distribution of the Creek Nation; and the defendant Phillips alleged that the heir at law of the said Susanna Berryhill. according to the laws of descent and distribution of the Greek Nation, was her mother, Louisa Berryhill, that on the 11th day of November, 1916, Louisa Berry-hill, now Brown, joined by her husband, Joe Brown, executed a warranty deed conveying said lands to the defendant Phillips, which deed was approved by the county court of Tulsa county, the same having jurisdiction of the settlement of the estate of Susanna Berryhill, deceased, and that since said day he had been the absolute owner in fee simple of the lands in controversy under said deed.

The cause was tried by the court, jury having been waived by the parties. Judgment was. rendered in favor of the plaintiff for an undivided one-fourth interest in the lands and for $83.274.84, against the defendants Minshall. Sweeney, and Lewis, the same being one-fourth of the amount received by said defendants for - oil and gas produced and sold" from the premises, the court having deducted one-fourth ex *103 pended by them in drilling and developing the premises. ,

The court further adjudged that the plaintiff recover from the defendant H. W.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1921 OK 315, 205 P. 932, 83 Okla. 100, 1921 Okla. LEXIS 315, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/minshall-v-berryhill-okla-1921.