O'Neill v. Lauderdale

1921 OK 18, 195 P. 121, 80 Okla. 170, 1921 Okla. LEXIS 20
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJanuary 18, 1921
Docket11365
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 1921 OK 18 (O'Neill v. Lauderdale) 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
O'Neill v. Lauderdale, 1921 OK 18, 195 P. 121, 80 Okla. 170, 1921 Okla. LEXIS 20 (Okla. 1921).

Opinion

McNEILL, J.

Eliza Lauderdale commenced this action in the district court of Stephens county against Bird E. O’Neill, as administratrix of the estate of John O’Neill and Bird E. O’Neill, Elizabeth O’Neill, Annie Sparks, and T. M. Beckett and other defendants to recover an undivided one-half interest in the allotments of Julius Webster and Ella Webster, situated in said county, and to recover certain rents for the use and occupation of said land. The plaintiff alleged in her petition that Julius Webster, enrolled as a full-blood member of the Choctaw Tribe of Indians, died intestate on the 7th day of February, 1905, seised and possessed of his homestead and surplus allotments, leaving as his sole heir Ella Webster, his daughter. Thereafter, in 1910, Ella Webster, enrolled as a full-blood member of the Choctaw Tribe, died intestate, seised of her homestead and surplus allotments and the allotments inherited from her father, and left as her sole heii’s, the plaintiff herein and Elsie Billy, each of whom inherited an undivided interest in said allotments.

The defendants admit the lands were allotted to Julius Webster and Ella Webster, and admit that Julius Webster died on the 7th day of February, 1905, and his allotment descended to his daughter, Ella Webster, subject to a dower interest of his wife in a part of the allotment, and Ella Webster died in September, 1910, and claim title by reason of various conveyances. Defendants admit that Elsie Billy is the daughter of Elizabeth Webster, but deny that Elizabeth Webster and Elizabeth Houston were one and the same person, and deny that plaintiff was the daughter of Elizabeth Webster, by a former marriage with Sam Houston.

The case was first tried in the district Court of ‘Stephens county, and the jury returned a verdict adverse to Eliza Lauderdale and she appealed; the case being reported as Lauderdale v. O’Neill, 74 Oklahoma, 177 Pac. 113. The opinion of this court in that case reversed the judgment of the district court, holding the evidence of defendants was not sufficient to support a judgment in their favor. After the plaintiff and defendants hád introduced their evidence upon the second trial of the case, the court instructed the jury to return a verdict for the plaintiff, and entered judgment for the plaintiff for an undivided one-half interest in the land and for $2,775 for the use and occupation of said land. From said judgment, the defendants have appealed.

For reversal of said judgment plaintiffs in error first brief the question that the court erred in sustaining a demurrer to the evidence offered on behalf of plaintiffs in error and in directing a verdict for the plaintiff below. The argument upon this question is directed to the sole question regarding the evidence whether Eliza Lauderdale and Elsie Billy, nee Webster, were half-sisters and daughters of the same mother, to wit, Elizabeth Webster, nee Houston.

The plaintiff, as a witness in her own behalf, and three other witnesses produced by her testified directly and positively that Elizabeth Webster, the mother of Elsie Billy, and Elizabeth Houston, the mother of Eliza Lauderdale, were the same p'erson; that the mother was first married to Samuel Houston and plaintiff was a child of that marriage, and thereafter Elizabeth Houston married Francis Webster and Elsie Billy is the daughter of that marriage.

*172 In addition to this testimony, the plaintiff introduced a decree of the county court of Atoka county rendered in a proceeding in said court to determine the heirs of Elia Webster; it being admitted that Ella Webster had died in Atoka county, and that the county court of Atoka county had jurisdiction to determine her heirs. The decree of the county court of Atoka county recited that Ella Webster died intestate in said county and left surviving her, as her next of kin, Elsie Billy, nee Webster, and Eliza Lauderdale, nee Houston, and that both were daughters of Elizabeth Webster, nee Houston. It was admitted, however, that notice of appeal had been given in the proceeding to determine the heirs. The record does not disclose whether the determination of heirship in that proceeding has become final.

The defendants produced the same witnesses as in the former trial and introduced practically the same testimony which this court in the former opinion held was negative testimony and not sufficient to support a judgment for the defendants. In addition to the witnesses produced at the former trial, the defendants produced three other witnesses, to wit, Frank Jones, Redmond Bond, and William Riddle, and an affidavit of Elsie Billy. The testimony of Redmond Bond and Frank Jones did not prove any facts, but was negative testimony, and did not strengthen the testimony introduced in the former trial.

The evidence of Eliza Lauderdale and her witnesses was to the effect that Sam Houston and Elizabeth Houston were married and lived in the Choctaw Nation close to what is now the town of Caddo and what was then Blue county, and that the plaintiff, Eliza Lauderdale, was the daughter of said marriage and bom about 1856. That sometime along about 1866 or 1867, Sam Houston and Elizabeth Houston separated; Sam Houston keeping the custody of Eliza Lauderdale and living with her at the home of people by the name of Gardner. That Elizabeth Houston, the wife, after the separation, took a younger child, the issue of said marriage by Houston, and moved from Caddo to near the town of Atoka in what is now Atoka county. That the younger child died shortly thereafter, and Sam Houston died within a year or two after the separation, and Elizabeth Houston married Francis Webster and continued to live in what is now Atoka county. That after the death of Sam Houston, Eliza Lauderdale continued to live in the home of the Gard-ners.

The defendants produced as a witness William Riddle, who claimed to be a grandson of the Gardners who reared Eliza Laud-erdale and lived in the same vicinity when a boy, .and being a couple of years older than plaintiff, and he corroborated the evidence that Eliza Lauderdale was the daughter of Sam Houston, and testified that he understood that she was an orphan. The witness testified as follows:

“A. Well, my understanding, my grandmother said she was an orphan girl; that is, she had a father, but I supposed her mother was dead. I don’t know, I was informed she was an orphan girl.”

The witness testified that he then lived at Wynnewood and had not seen the plaintiff for some 40 years. Being asked the names of the children of the Gardners, he named four or five and upon cross-examination admitted there were four or five more that he had forgotten. The witness further testified that it was generally reported in the neighborhood that Eliza was an orphan girl. His testimony discloses that Eliza’s father died when she w^s about eight or ten years old. He does not pretend to know who her mother was, but supposed she was dead. After testifying as stated above, the plaintiffs in error offered to prove that the witness had heard his grandmother and his uncle, Green Gardner, upon several occasions say the plaintiff’s mother was dead, and that she was an orphan. This offer was objected to as being hearsay, incompetent, irrelevant, and immaterial, and the objection thereto was sustained by the court. This ruling of the court is assigned as error and urged along with the first assignment of error.

The general rule regarding hearsay testimony to establish relation of parties, is stated in vol. 2, Jones on Evidence, 705, as follows:

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1921 OK 18, 195 P. 121, 80 Okla. 170, 1921 Okla. LEXIS 20, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/oneill-v-lauderdale-okla-1921.