Peter v. Mozier

1929 OK 262, 281 P. 141, 138 Okla. 288, 1929 Okla. LEXIS 555
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJune 25, 1929
Docket19144
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 1929 OK 262 (Peter v. Mozier) 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
Peter v. Mozier, 1929 OK 262, 281 P. 141, 138 Okla. 288, 1929 Okla. LEXIS 555 (Okla. 1929).

Opinion

DIFFENDAFFER, C.

The parties hereto are in the same relation as in the trial court, and they will be referred to herein as plaintiffs and defendants.

Plaintiffs commenced this action in the district court of Grady county on the 2nd day of May, 1927. Plaintiffs seek to recover possession of certain lands situate in Grady county, Okla/, described as the S. % of sec. 29, twp. 10 north, range 7 west. They also prayed the cancellation of certain deeds -by them, separately, purporting to convey said premises to E. H. Peery and’ T. T. Johnson, who subsequently conveyed to defendant Fred M. Mozier.

Plaintiffs claim title derived as follows: That one Johnson Louis was a full-blood Choctaw Indian, enrolled as such, and that the lands described were allotted to him by and' through an application filed by an administrator; that Johnson Louis died intestate in 1903 leaving surviving him as his sole heirs, Susan Louis (now Susan Ishtiker), his wife, and Gilbert Louis, his son; that Gilbert Louis died intestate in 1905, single and without issue, leaving surviving him as his sole heirs, plaintiffs, Lydia Peter and Sibbie Benningfield; that upon the death of Gilbert Louis, the title to the land descended tó and become vested in plaintiffs' Sibbie Benningfield and Lydia Peter. The claim of plaintiff Susan Ishtiker is of a dower interest in the land as the surviving spouse of Johnson Louis, the allottee.

Defendants answered, admitting that Johnson Louis was a full-blood Choctaw Indian, and that the lands in question were allotted to him as such; they admit that he died intestate in 1903, and allege that he left surviving him as his sole heirs entitled to inherit said land his son, Gilbert Louis, and David Nakisha, a cousin on his mother’s side. They admit that Gilbert Louis died intestate in .1905, and left as his sole surviving heii-s at law, plaintiffs Sibbie Ben-ningfield and Lydia Peter. They then plead title to the land by deed from David Nakisha to their remote grantor. T. T. Johnson. They then plead a judgment of the district court of Grady county rendered June 9t 1913. wherein plaintiffs Sibbie Benningfield and *289 Lydia Peter were plaintiffs, and defendants herein were defendants, decreeing these defendants to be the owner of an undivided one-lialf interest in the lands, and decreeing plaintiffs Sibbie Benningfield and Lydia Peter to be the owners of the other undivided one-half interest. They further plead that after the rendition of the above judgment, to wit, July 13, 1913, Sibbie Benningfield, by warranty deed, conveyed all her right, title, and interest in the land to B. H. Peery, one of defendants’ remote grantors, and allege that said deed was presented to and approved by the county court of McCurtain county, the court having jurisdiction of the settlement of the estate of Johnson Louis, in that he died in that part of the Indian Territory now and then embraced in Mc-Curtain county. They then plead a warranty deed executed by plaintiff Lydia Peter, on-the 28th day of April, 1914, conveying her interest in the land to T. T. Johnson, one of their grantors, and plead the approval of this deed by the county court of McCurtain county on the 4th day of May, 1914, and further, that on the 2nd day of February, 1915, in an action then pending in the district court of Grady county, wherein Lydia Peter was plaintiff and these defendants were defendants, a final order and judgment was entered decreeing title to said lands in defendants as against plaintiff Lydia Peter, and that said judgment became final as to plaintiff Lydia Peter. They plead that, on the 9th day of June, 1913, in an action then pending in the district court of Grady county, wherein Lydia Peter was plaintiff and defendants herein were defendants and Susan Ishtiker, one of the plaintiffs herein, was intervener, a final judgment was entered decreeing that Susan Ishtiker had no right, title, or interest in said lands, and that said judgment became final. Copies of the several deeds were not attached, but it was alleged that they were all of record in Grady county. Copies of the approval of the deeds by the county court of McCurtain county were attached, and also copies of the several judgments in the district court of Grady county. Certain allegations were then made that Cicero F. Murray, Olive ¡Murray, O. E. McGoughy, and C. A. V'ose were claiming some interest in the land growing out of some kind of a contract between plaintiffs and Cicero I. Murray and Olive B. Murray, which contracts or agreements are of record and east a cloud upon the title of defendants and asked for an order making said Cicero I. Murray, Olive B. Murray, C. E. McGoughy, and C. A. Vose parties defendant. The latter request was granted and the parties mentioned were made parties-defendant.

Plaintiff replied by general denial, except; as' to such allegations in the answer as are'!, specifically admitted in the reply. The/ then, in substance, admit the rendition of-the several judgments and the execution approval and delivery of the several deeds set up in the answer.

As to the judgment and decree decreeing plaintiff Susan Ishtiker had no right, title, or interest to or in the lands, they attack the judgment and decree as being void on its face in that she, being a duly enrolled full-blood Choctaw Indian, and the surviving spouse of Johnson Louis, also a full-blood Choctaw Indian, enrolled as such, was the owner of a dower interest in the land, and the district court of Grady county was without jurisdiction to decree otherwise. They then attack the validity of; the ¡deeds executed by Lydia Pieter and Sibbie Benningfield as being void, for the sole reason that they were not approved by the proper county court as provided by the Act of Congress of May 27, 1908, in that administration proceedings in the settlement of the estate of Johnson Louis, the original allottee, were filed in thef United States court at Antlers, I. T., prior to statehood, and were pending therein at statehood, and by virtue of the Enabling Act arid the Constitution of Oklahoma, the administration proceedings were transferred to and vested in the county court of Pushmataha county, and that the deeds, having been approved by the county court of McCurtain county, were void and of no force or effect to convey, the title.

Defendants demurred to these affirmative allegations in the reply, which demurrer was sustained. Plaintiffs elected' to stand on the allegations in the reply and declined to plead further, whereupon the cause proceeded tb trial, upon the allegations of the answer, resulting in a judgment and decree in favor of defendants Fred M. Mozier and Minnie Mozier, quieting their title to the premises. From this judgment and decree, plaintiffs appeal.

The question presented, involving- the validity of -the deeds executed by plaintiffs Lydia Peter and Sibbie Benningfield, depends! upon the validity and effect of the Act of Congress, April 12, 1926, chap. 115, 44 U. S. Stat. at L. p. 239. The applicable portion of the act reads:

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1936 OK 835 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1936)
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1936 OK 554 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1936)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1929 OK 262, 281 P. 141, 138 Okla. 288, 1929 Okla. LEXIS 555, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/peter-v-mozier-okla-1929.