State Ex Rel. Cartwright v. Hillcrest Investments, Ltd.

1981 OK 27, 630 P.2d 1253, 21 A.L.R. 4th 1312, 1981 Okla. LEXIS 244
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedMarch 10, 1981
Docket54906
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 1981 OK 27 (State Ex Rel. Cartwright v. Hillcrest Investments, Ltd.) 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
State Ex Rel. Cartwright v. Hillcrest Investments, Ltd., 1981 OK 27, 630 P.2d 1253, 21 A.L.R. 4th 1312, 1981 Okla. LEXIS 244 (Okla. 1981).

Opinions

BARNES, Vice Chief Justice:

Alien ownership of land has, throughout our Anglo-Saxon legal history, been rigidly controlled.1 At common law, aliens could own land until their alienage had been established in a judicial proceeding. Once their alienage was established, the land es-cheated to the Crown.2 This common law rule was held to be part of American law in Fairfax’s Devisee v. Hunter’s Lessee, 11 U.S. (7 Cranch) 603, 3 L.Ed. 453 (1813). In Hauenstein v. Lynham, 100 U.S. 483, 25 L.Ed. 628 (1879), the United States Supreme Court held that the right to control [1255]*1255alien ownership of land resided in the various States. In that opinion, Mr. Justice Swane stated:

“The law of nations recognizing the liberty of every government to give to foreigners only such rights, touching immovable property within its territory, as it may see fit to concede. * * * In our country, this authority is primarily in the State where the property is situated.” [Cites omitted] 100 U.S. 483 at 484.

The controversy before us today deals with the restrictions ,/hich the State of Oklahoma has placed upon alien ownership of land within Oklahoma. The material facts giving rise to the controversy are as follows: The Attorney General of the State of Oklahoma, Jan Eric Cartwright, pursuant to the duty imposed upon him by the provisions of 60 O.S. 1971 § 125, instituted a suit in behalf of the State of Oklahoma, praying for the escheat of several parcels of land which the Attorney General had reason to believe were being held by an alien in contravention of Article 22, Section 1, of the Oklahoma Constitution, and the provisions of 60 O.S. 1971 § 121 et seq. The defendant in that case, Hillcrest Investments, Ltd., an Alberta, Canada, corporation, filed an answer admitting that it did own some of the land described in the petition, but denied ownership of other parcels claiming to have conveyed such land prior to the commencement of the escheat action. Hillcrest admitted that it was a corporation formed under the laws of Alberta, Canada, in 1968, and that on October 14, 1977, it filed Articles of Domestication with the Secretary of State of Oklahoma, and that on that same date it received a Certificate of Authority to transact business in the State of Oklahoma. Additionally, Hillcrest affirmatively plead three affirmative defenses: (1) that under the provisions of Article 22, Section 2, of the Constitution of the State of Oklahoma, it was lawfully entitled to own the land and property described in the petition; (2) that the State was acting to selectively enforce, in an unlawful manner, the laws of the State of Oklahoma, in a manner prejudicial to Hillcrest; (3) that the provisions of Article 22 of the Constitution of the State of Oklahoma violate the defendant’s rights under the Constitution of the State of Oklahoma, the Constitution of the United States of America, and are contrary to the provisions of treaties properly entered into by the United States of America. After defendant’s answer was filed, discovery was conducted,3 and the case proceeded to trial.

After evidence was presented and argument of counsel was heard, the trial court issued a final order entering judgment for Hillcrest. In that journal entry, the court found that the restriction on alien ownership contained in Article 22, Section 1, of the Oklahoma Constitution, applied only to natural persons and not to corporations.

Having found that the restrictions on alien ownership contained in Article 22, Section 1, of the State’s Constitution, did not apply to corporations, the court then determined that under the provisions of Article 22, Section 2, and various provisions of the Oklahoma Statutes, an alien corporation could own urban land within the State of Oklahoma, once it became domesticated. As Hillcrest was a domesticated alien corporation, the trial court concluded that the land owned by Hillcrest was not owned in contravention of the laws of the State of Oklahoma. Accordingly, the trial court entered judgment for Hillcrest, dismissing the State’s petition. The State’s appeal is from this order of the trial court.

I.

The first issue presented on appeal is whether the trial court erred in holding that the restrictions on alien land ownership contained in Article 22, Section 1, of the [1256]*1256Oklahoma Constitution, did not apply to corporations.

Article 22, Section 1, of the Oklahoma Constitution, provides:

“No alien or person who is not a citizen of the United States, shall acquire title to or own land in this state, and the Legislature shall enact laws whereby all persons not citizens of the United States, and their heirs, who may hereafter acquire real estate in this state by devise, descent, or otherwise, shall dispose of the same within five years upon condition of escheat or forfeiture to the State: Provided, This shall not apply to Indians born within the United States, nor to aliens or persons not citizens of the United States who may become bona fide residents of this State: and Provided Further, That this section shall not apply to lands now owned by aliens in this State.” [Emphasis added]

Whether the restrictions on alien land ownership provided for in the above quoted section of Article 22 apply to corporations depends upon whether the drafters of the Oklahoma Constitution intended to include corporations within the term “alien” or “person”. The trial court found that the inclusion of the phrase “and their heirs” in the section manifests an intention by the framers of the Constitution not to include corporations within the meaning of the word “person” because only natural persons have heirs. We cannot agree with the trial court’s analysis. The mere inclusion of the phrase “and their heirs” does not negate the possibility that the framers of the Constitution intended that corporations should be included within the term “person”, as the phrase “and their heirs” would logically have been included in the restriction in order to provide for those persons who are individuals and not corporate bodies. Thus, the inclusion of that phrase was not necessarily meant to exclude a class; the inclusion could have been made to provide for a subclass within a general class.

Accordingly, we hold that the inclusion of thé phrase “and their heirs” is not a sufficient indication that the drafters of the Oklahoma Constitution intended to exclude corporations from the restrictions on alien land ownership contained in Article 22, Section 1, of the Oklahoma Constitution. This being the case, an analysis of the terms “person” and “alien”, as they were understood, in law, at the time of the drafting of this State’s Constitution, is essential in determining whether the drafters of the Constitution intended to include corporations within either term.

After an examination of the territorial statutory law which existed at the time the State Constitution was adopted, the case law which existed at the time the Constitution was adopted, and the propositions introduced at the Constitutional Convention, we conclude that the drafters of our Constitution did intend to include corporations within the terms “person” and “alien”, as they were used in Section 1 of Article 22 of the Oklahoma Constitution.

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State Ex Rel. Cartwright v. Hillcrest Investments, Ltd.
1981 OK 27 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1981)

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Bluebook (online)
1981 OK 27, 630 P.2d 1253, 21 A.L.R. 4th 1312, 1981 Okla. LEXIS 244, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-cartwright-v-hillcrest-investments-ltd-okla-1981.