Swanson v. Green

1925 OK 406, 239 P. 919, 113 Okla. 78, 1925 Okla. LEXIS 885
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedMay 19, 1925
Docket12861
StatusPublished

This text of 1925 OK 406 (Swanson v. Green) 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
Swanson v. Green, 1925 OK 406, 239 P. 919, 113 Okla. 78, 1925 Okla. LEXIS 885 (Okla. 1925).

Opinion

HUNT, J.

C. L. Swanson and the Wad-dell Investment Company prosecute this appeal from the district court of McIntosh county, to reverse a judgment rendered against them in an action brought by Stepney Green. Stepney Green was a duly enrolled citizen of the Creek Nation of the one-half blood. His mother was one Martha Green, a citizen of the Creek Nation, who *79 died about 1901, after receiving her allotment as a citizen of said tribe. Stepney Green, the plaintiff herein, inherited an undivided half interest in his said mother's allotment. At the time of said inheritance, the plaintiff was a minor, and did not reach his majority until sometime shortly before the institution of this suit. He seeks to recover from the defendants, plaintiffs in error, the one-half interest he had inherited from liis said mother in her individual allotment.

The conclusion and judgment of the trial court was based upon a stipulation as to the facts; the only part of which we deem material is, in substance, this: That the land involved was part of the allotment of Martha Green, mother of the plaintiff; that after receiving certificate of allotment, she departed this life July 1, 1901; that she left her husband, Davis Green, and the said plaintiff, each of whom inherited one-half of said land. That the plaintiff became of age on November 25, 1918; that Sarah Green-leaf was appointed guardian of said minor by the United States Court for the Western District for the Indian Territory, and that as a culmination of probate proceedings instituted prior to statehood in the said United States court, the county court of Muskogee county did on January 2, 1908, confirm a sale theretofore made by the guardian of Stepney Green on Decemher 11, 1907, and direct said guardian to execute to Warren Mooney a deed conveying the interest of said minor in his said mother’s allotment, through whom, by mesne conveyances, defendant Swanson claims title. That there was an adult heir, Davis.Green, father of che plaintiff, but. the said adult heir did not join in the deed of the minor, but had long theretofore conveyed his interest in said Martha Green’s allotted land. That that part of the land described as W. % of S. E. %, and S. E. % of S- E. %, 21-12 N., 15 E. was allotted as the “surplus allotment” of Martha Green, and that the plaintiff claims to be the owner, as against the defendants, of an undivided half interest thereof.

On appeal, the defendants, who are plainciffs in error here, contend that the judgment of the district court of McIntosh county quieting title to. an undivided one-half interest in said surp'us allotment in plaintiff is erroneous, in that it is contrary to law.

The only question here for decision is whether or not the probate proceedings, the regularity of which is not attacked, and the guardian deed, supra, growing out of the same, were effective to convey the interest of the plaintiff in the inherited land vested in plaintiff on the death of his mother. The land was allotted under the Original Greek Agreement of 1901, as supplemented by the Act of Congress of June 30, 1902, familiarly known as the Supplemental Creek Agreement. These acts of Congress impose certain restrictions against al.enation of lands allotted thereunder while in the hands of both the original allottee and as the heir. Section 16 of the Supplemental Creek Agreement (32 St. at L. 500) in effect imposes restrictions against alienation by the allot-tee and his heirs until the expiration of five years from the date of the approval of said agreement. The said agreement was approved August 8, 1902. This inhibition against alienation, therefore, expired August 8, .1907. But herein does not lie the only difficulty, for that on April 26, 1906, Congress passed an act which, among other things, provided:

“Sec. 22. Conveyance of Inherited Lands: That the adult heir of any deceased Indian of either of the Five Civilized Tribes whose selection has been made * * * may sell and convey the lands inherited from such decedent: and if there be both adult and minor heirs of such decedent, then such minors may join in a sale of such lands by a guardian duly appointed by the proper United States court for the Indian Territory. * * *”

It is the contention of the plaintiff that, since the sale here in question of the minor’s interest was not one made along with the sale of’the adult heir’s interest, the attempted sale was in violation of this provision of tbe act of Congress, and therefore did not operate to com ey title to the purchasers. This contention, as we view it, would no doubt have been correct bad this sale through the probate court been made prior to August 8, 1907. The said section 22 was a removing provision, and not an extension of the inhibition against alienation of such lands.

This court in effect said as much in the case of Burtschi v. Wolfe, 82 Okla. 27, 198 Pac. 306; the exact language of said opinion relative thereto' being :•

“Obviously the primary purpose of the act was to remove restrictions from inherited lands.”

Tne removal which this section 22 effectuated as to the land in question here was only to authorize its alienation when the provisions of said section 22 were met, and that only between April 26, 1906, and August 8, 1907, for that if said section 22 had never been enacted, the restriction against alienation of the interest of the minor through the *80 proper probate court would have ended, by reason of the said section 16 of the Supplemental Creek Agreement, on said August 8, 1907, and thereafter the courts in probate would have been free to handle the lands so inherited by the plaintiff from his mother in the same manner as if no restrictions against alienation .had ever existed thereon.

Since after the termination of said restriction imposed by the Supplemental Agreement there were no federal inhibitions against alienation of the interest the minor inherited from his mother, and since said section 22 did not extend restrictions, the alienation through proper probate proceeding of the inherited interest of the plaintiff in the land of his mother was effective, and the provisions of said section 22 could have no application thereto.

We are therefore of the opinion that the only .effect of section 22 of the Act of April 26, 1906, on the alienation of the land involved herein was to make it possible for the minor heir, the plaintiff herein, through his guardian to alienate his inherited interest prior to the .expiration of the five-year restricted period by joining in a conveyance with the adult heirs. The land being restricted under the five-year restriction until August 8, 1907,. section 22 of the Act of April 26, 1906, operated as a partial removal of the plaintiff’s restrictions during the period between April 26, 1906, and August 8, 1907, the land being inalienable during that period but for the passage of the act and alienable during that period only by joining in with the adult heirs. It seems clear, then, that section 22 of the Act of April 26, 1906, was a removing act, and therefore did not extend or reimpose restrictions on plaintiff’s inherited interest in his mother’s alllotment after August 8, 1907. This view is sustained by the holdings of this court in Burtsdhi v. Wolfe, supra.

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Related

Burtschi v. Wolfe
1921 OK 6 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1921)
Patterson v. Carter
1921 OK 325 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1921)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1925 OK 406, 239 P. 919, 113 Okla. 78, 1925 Okla. LEXIS 885, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/swanson-v-green-okla-1925.