Missouri Pacific Railway Co. v. Cullers

13 L.R.A. 542, 17 S.W. 19, 81 Tex. 382, 1891 Tex. LEXIS 1374
CourtTexas Supreme Court
DecidedJune 16, 1891
DocketNo. 6862.
StatusPublished
Cited by43 cases

This text of 13 L.R.A. 542 (Missouri Pacific Railway Co. v. Cullers) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Texas Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Missouri Pacific Railway Co. v. Cullers, 13 L.R.A. 542, 17 S.W. 19, 81 Tex. 382, 1891 Tex. LEXIS 1374 (Tex. 1891).

Opinion

MARR, Judge, Section A.

Appellee J. M. Cullers filed suit against appellant in the District Court of Grayson County on March 4, 1887, and by amendment filed October 28,1887, set up that on November 21, 1885, defendant negligently allowed sparks and fire to escape from its engine, which fire caught and destroyed the following property, to-wit: one portable engine, valued at $500; one hay press, valued at $400; one hay press, valued at $250; one mower, valued at $85; one mower, valued at $70; one derrick and hay loader, valued at $50; six bundles hay wire, valued at $15; one sickle grinder, valued at $10; two dozen hay forks, valued at $6; one rubber belt, valued at $30; 4500 bales of hay, valued at $1600; one hay shed, valued at $200; one house and kitchen, valued at $200; and one stable, valued at $50; all of which property was located in the Indian Territory, and was reasonably worth, at the time and place of its destruction, in the aggregate the sum of $3666. Certain portions of the hay machinery and fixtures were owned by appellee G. T. Black and H. C. Lavo individually, but they were used in the partnership business of the firm, consisting of appellee Black and Lavo, which said firm was engaged at the time in the hay business, and the hay belonged to thein jointly. Appellee and Lavo were citizens of the county of Grayson, Texas. Black was a citizen and member of the tribe of Chickasaw Indians. ' Black and Lavo for valuable considerations had transferred their interest in the claim against the appellant for the destruction of said property to appellee, and had authorized him to sue therefor in his own name.

The trial before a jury on September 19, 1888, resulted in a verdict and judgment in favor of appellee for the sum of $4519.78, of which amount appellee remitted the sum of $100 on November 12, 1888. From this judgment appellant has perfected its appeal to this court.

Black transferred his claim to plaintiff to aid in the payment of the debts of the firm, which Cullers had partly paid and assumed the balance.

The assignments of error present several questions which require a decision thereof by this court. The first and second assignments, relating to the sufficiency of the evidence in law to support the imrdict of the jury, and the fourth assignment based upon the refusal of the court to allow the second instruction requested by the defendant, and dependent for support upon the nature of the evidence, will be postponed until we have determined the other questions presented by the appellant for our consideration. Summarized, the other 'points contended for by appellant’s counsel are that the court erred in refusing to instruct the jury, as requested by appellant, to the following effect:

*386 1. That Black, being a member of an Indian tribe and an Indian himself, can not sue, nor by assignment of whatever right of action he might have elsewhere authorize or confer upon plaintiff the right to sue in the courts of this State, and therefore plaintiff can not recover as to so much of the property destroyed as originally belonged to Black.

2. In refusing to charge that the court below had no jurisdiction of controversies arising in the Indian Territory between Indian citizens and citizens of the United States—the defendant being a citizen of Missouri—and that a citizen of an Indian Ration can not transfer his claim for such damages to a citizen of the State of Texas, so as to enable the latter to maintain the suit thereon in the courts of this State.

3. In refusing to charge that in any event the plaintiff could not recover damages for the destruction of “the houses, stables, and other real property situated on lands of the Choctaw Indians and belonging to a member of that tribe,” and that nothing should be allowed “by reason of the burning of the dwelling house and stable mentioned in the petition.”

4. In refusing “to instruct the jury as requested in the fifth instruction, that plaintiff having shown no right to cut or put up the hay for the loss of which he sues, on the lands of the Choctaw Ration, is not entitled to recover anything by reason thereof.”

The plaintiff J. M. Cullers, as well as Lavo, is a citizen of Texas and of the United States, but Black is a citizen of the Chickasaw Ration, and the property destroyed was at the time in the territory of the Choctaw Ration. It will thus be seen that the plaintiff himself is under no disability to sue in our courts, unless it be that the fact that á part of his right to recover being derived from the Indian Black imparts to him a partial disability to that extent. But it seems to us that even then the question would not be one of the personal disability of the plaintiff to sue, but would depend upon the right of Black to assign his claim. If he could do this, then undoubtedly plaintiff as his assignee could maintain the suit on the claims, whether Black could have done so originally' or not. The plaintiff is entirely, free from any disability which under the law would deny him a standing ih the courts, if he possesses otherwise a right of action. There is no .question of “comity” in such case. Borer’s Interstate Law, p. 155. If, however, it were necessary for us to decide the question, we think we would have little difficulty in holding that an Indian like Black is a “person” within the meaning of our State Constitution and laws, and is thereby guaranteed the right of redress for injuries done to him “in his person, property, or reputation.” If he is not a person, then what is he? Even the plea of an alien enemy has been denounced by our courts as an “odious plea,” though it must be sustained if timely interposed. Bishop v. James, 28 Texas, 294. Every day alien citizens of friendly nations are allowed to sue in our courts, nemine dissentiente. *387 We should not hesitate to hold that an Indian—certainly a civilized Indian—is entitled to a redress of wrongs through our State courts. It is not a question of comity, but of right given by law, supposing the court otherwise to have jurisdiction of the controversy. Swartzel v. Rogers, 3 Kans., 377; Wiley v. Keokuk, 6 Kans., 94; Id., 111; 10 Am. and Eng. Encyc. of Law, p. 440, note 5; Dicey on Parties, pp. 1, 2; Gho v. Julles, 1 Wash. (Ter.), 325; Cool, on Torts, p. 35. The Federal courts, by deciding that an Lidian is neither “an alien” nor a “citizen” until naturalized or admitted to citizenship, necessarily deprived those courts of jurisdiction over controversies between Indians and citizens of one of the States of the Union, whenever the jurisdiction is dependent upon the status of the parties. This does not apply to the State courts. But in the present case there was no plea in abatement or special exception to the disability of the plaintiff supposed to result from a supposed disability affecting Black’s right to sue himself in person or through another; therefore the question is waived anyhow by the pleadings of the defendant.

It may be, however, that the right of Black to assign the claim and thus invest plaintiff with the ownership thereof, as well as the right of the plaintiff to recover damages done to such of the property as defendant contends was real estate, and if so was not owned by any of the parties, is sufficiently raised and presented by the pleading of the general issue, which we think throws on the plaintiff the burden of showing at least prima facie his right to the property destroyed or to the damages done thereto.

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Bluebook (online)
13 L.R.A. 542, 17 S.W. 19, 81 Tex. 382, 1891 Tex. LEXIS 1374, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/missouri-pacific-railway-co-v-cullers-tex-1891.