State v. Nolegs

1914 OK 126, 139 P. 943, 40 Okla. 479, 1914 Okla. LEXIS 63
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedMarch 10, 1914
Docket4476, 4477, 4478
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 1914 OK 126 (State v. Nolegs) 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 v. Nolegs, 1914 OK 126, 139 P. 943, 40 Okla. 479, 1914 Okla. LEXIS 63 (Okla. 1914).

Opinion

LOOFBOURROW, J.

The state of Oklahoma, plaintiff in error, was the plaintiff below, and commenced this action against the defendants in error, defendants below, to quiet title in and to the river bed of the Arkansas river in section 25, range 8, and in the west half of section.30, range 9, and an island described as lots 7 and 11 in said Arkansas river, the same being in the east half of said section 25 and the west half of said section 30, all in township 21. The state contends that the Arkansas river is a navigable stream, and that, under the'.common law *481 and the various acts of Congress, the United States held the title to the bed of such navigable stream and this particular island in trust for the state and until statehood, when such title passed to the state. The Jim Crow Oil Company intervened as the lessee of the Commissioners of the Land Office of the state of Oklahoma. The Arkansas river in Oklahoma is a meandered stream, the meander line appearing on the plats as forming one of the boundaries of each of the lots above and hereinafter mentioned. When the land in Pawnee county became subject to homestead entry defendant, H. A. Thomas, made homestead entry for the S. W. J4 of the S. W. containing 40 acres, and lots one (1), containing 12.20 acres, two (2), containing 44.80 acres, and three (3), containing 22.10 acres, and holds by deed lot four (4), containing 41.30 acres, all in section 25, township 21, north of range 8 E., the north boundary of said lots being the meander line or right bank of the Arkansas river. Thomas leased said lots to defendant, J. E. Duffy, who assigned a three-fourths interest therein to the defendant, the Producers’ Oil Company, for oil and gas purposes. It is further alleged that the Producers’ Oil Company has drilled an oil well on its said lease, and has expended in so doing and otherwise developing said lands for gas and oil the sum of $10,000.

Defendant, W. H. Edmisten, holds, by warranty deed from one Caldwell, the title to lots eight (8), nine (9), and ten (10), of section 30, towñship 21 north, range 9 E., lots eight (8) and nine (9), lying on the right bank of the Arkansas river, and containing 21.40 acres and 24.16 acres respectively; Edmisten leased for oil and gas purposes said lots eight (8), nine (9), and ten (10) to defendant, Milliken Oil Company.

The defendants, H. A. Thomas and his grantees, and W. H. Edmisten and his grantees, contend that the Arkansas river is not a navigable stream, and that as the riparian owners they hold to the thread of the stream in the river bed, and further contend that the south channel of the Arkansas river, between the right bank thereof and said island, is no longer a part of the bed of the Arkansas river and that the title thereto, as well as the island, which is immediately north of lots three (3), four *482 (4), nine (9), and eight (8), respectively, is in the defendants as their interests respectively appear; and said Thomas and Edmisten and those claiming under them further contend that the tract 'of land referred to as an island is not, and never was, an island, and that said land is and always has been south of the main channel of the Arkansas river, and that the island and bed of the south channel of the Arkansas river is above low-water mark.

The defendant, Larry Nolegs, is a member of the Osage Tribe of Indians, and contends that the island in controversy, as well as what is now Osage county, was by treaty between the Cherokee Nation of Indians and the United States, awarded and set apart by the United States government for the Cherokee Nation of Indians, and that later' the Cherokee Nation of Indians, in consideration of a sum of money to that tribe paid by the Osage Tribe of Indians, deeded to the United States, in trust for the Osage Indians, Osage county, together with all of the islands in the Arkansas river, excepting Turkey and Beaver islands ; that through an oversight the island in controversy was not surveyed until 1908, at which time the United States government caused the same to be surveyed; that said island was designated in the field notes and plats as lot 7, in section 25, range 8, and lot 11, section 30, range 9, all in township 21 E., and’that the same is located'in Osage county; that said Nolegs is the owner thereof in fee si'mple, subject only to restrictions against- alienation and th'e reservation to the United States for 25 years from June 28, 1906, of the oil and gas thereunder in trust for the Osage Nation or Tribe of Indians, and that said Nblegs was, on July 30, 1909, under and in pursuance of an act of Congress, entitled, “An act for the division of the lands and funds of the Osage Indians in Oklahoma Territory and for other purposes,” approved June 28, 1906, together with other lands, duly allotted the said lots 7 and 11 by the approval then and there of the Secretary of the Interior of an allotment deed duly issued to said Nolegs, and executed by Peter C. Bigheart, principal chief of the Osages.

After the case was closed the trial court made certain findings of fact and conclusions of law, and entered judgment in *483 favor of the defendants Thomas and Edmisten, holding that they are.the proprietary owners of the land in controversy, and that-the plaintiff, the state of Oklahoma, and the defendant, Larry Nolegs, have no title or interest therein or thereto, and dissolving the injunction theretofore issued in said case. From this judgment the state of -Oklahoma, the Jim Crow Oil. Company, and Larry Nolegs appeal.

Numerous errors are assigned by those aggrieved by the judgment below, and one of the principal- questions is whether, or not this court will take judicial notice that the Arkansas river is a navigable stream in such sense that the title of the: bed thereof is vested in the state. This identical question was before the Supreme Court of Kansas in Dana v. Hurst et al., State, Intervener, 86 Kan. 947, 122 Pac. 1041, in November, 1911, and again on rehearing in April, 1912. There the title to.am island in the Arkansas river in Reno county, near Plutchinson, was . involved. The court held that the Arkansas river is a. navigable stream at. that point -in such sense as that the title to the bed of the river and the islands therein not claimed by the federal government passed to the state.

In the federal. court for the eastern district of Oklahoma,in the case of the United States v. Mackey et al., opinion by Judge Campbell, rendered in June, 1913, reported in 209 Fed. ——, wherein the question of -the title to the bed of the Arkansas river, at a point near Tulsa, was involved, it is held that the ■Arkansas river is a navigable stream so far as concerned the question of title to the bed thereof, and that the state of Oklahoma owns the bed of the Arkansas river below high-water mark, and the case of Dana v. Hurst, supra, was expressly- approved.

In addition to the numerous acts of Congress, public records and documents of the several departments at Washington, cited-in the Kansas case, wherein the navigability of the Arkansas river is recognized, we find in the eleventh census report of the United States, 1890, in statistics of transportation by water, the following statement:

*484

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1914 OK 126, 139 P. 943, 40 Okla. 479, 1914 Okla. LEXIS 63, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-nolegs-okla-1914.