Yarbrough v. Oklahoma Tax Commission

1947 OK 332, 193 P.2d 1017, 200 Okla. 402, 1947 Okla. LEXIS 775
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedOctober 28, 1947
DocketNos. 31947, 31948
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 1947 OK 332 (Yarbrough v. Oklahoma Tax Commission) 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
Yarbrough v. Oklahoma Tax Commission, 1947 OK 332, 193 P.2d 1017, 200 Okla. 402, 1947 Okla. LEXIS 775 (Okla. 1947).

Opinions

BAYLESS, J.

These appeals from the Oklahoma Tax Commission involve only the issue of the power of the State of Oklahoma to levy and collect an estate, transfer, and inheritance tax under 68 O.S. 1941 §988 et seq., on the estates involved. Dora Neal Rector, a full-blood, allotted, restricted Osage Indian, died leaving an estate consisting of (1) allotted homestead land; (2) allotted surplus land and land inherited from other Osages; (3) 2 and 13/252nds Osage mineral headright interests; (4) cash in the hands of the United States Treasurer derived from the income from the headright interest; and (5) cash in the hands of the United States Treasurer representing her share of the sale price of tribal lands in Kansas. It is conceded the allotted homestead is nontaxable and the Commission made no order taxing it under the above statute. Charles West, Jr., a deceased minor, unallotted Osage Indian, left an estate consisting of (1) 1 and 919/2520ths Osage mineral head-right interests; (2) land purchased with funds derived from the headright interests and land inherited from other Osages; (3) cash in the hands of the United States Treasurer representing accruals of income from the headright interests; (4) personal property purchased with funds derived from the headright interests; and (5) cash in the hands of the United States Treasurer representing his share of the sale price of tribal lands in Kansas. These appeals are consolidated for presentation to us and decision. In addition to the briefs of the parties, briefs amicus curiae have been filed.

Before directing our attention to the specific issues argued, we will discuss an aspect of these cases that inheres in the position of appellant and is an assumption that underlies virtually all of their arguments. It is both asserted and implied that there is no reason, and there should be no disposition on the part of this court, to delve into this issue again. Briefly the main issue can be stated thus: No tax is due under an earlier decision of this court, to-wit: Childers v. Pope, 119 Okla. 300, 249 P. 726.

In that case it was held that the portion of the estate of a restricted Indian consisting of land and mineral interests was not taxable under Oklahoma law. However, this holding was not original with this court; there is no language in it that manifests a concurrence in the rationale of the rule adopted, and it is obvious the opinion was forcedly adopted by the control-ing circumstance of an intervening opinion by the Supreme Court of the United States, to wit; Childers v. Beaver, 270 U. S. 555, 70 L. Ed. 730(7). It will be observed in reading the Childers v. Pope opinion that the decision there was based solely on the rule of the Beaver case, supra, and in the Pope case this court remarked it was “not disposed to go further than the rule therein established”--. (Beaver, supra), and expressly made subject to Oklahoma’s taxing power, as, an exception to the rule of the Beaver Case, the personal property of the estate.

One of the best of reasons for again going into this issue, since our independent judgment was obstructed earlier, is the recent review and revision by the Supreme Court of the United States of some of the rules of law of the earlier federal decisions on this branch of the law. The traditional federal court view of the nontaxability of the property of Indians is illustrated by United States v. Rickert, 188 U. S. 432, 47 L. Ed. 532, and Childers v. Beaver, supra. The alteration in this view is disclosed by Shaw v. Gibson-Zahniser Oil Corp., 276 U. S. 575, 72 L. Ed. 709; Supt., etc., v. Comm. Int. Rev., 295 U. S. 418, 79 L. Ed. 1517; United States v. Oklahoma Tax Commission, 131 Fed. 2d 635; Helvering v. Mountain Producers Corp., 303 U. S. 376, 82 L. Ed. 907; Oklahoma Tax Commission v. United States, 319 U. S. 598, 87 L. Ed. 1612, and the various decisions discussed therein.

[404]*404In Oklahoma Tax Commission v. United States, supra, it was stated:

“Childers v. Beaver, 270 U. S. 555, 70 L. Ed. 730, 46 S. Ct. 387, supra, was in effect overruled by the Mountain Producers Corp. decision.”

This alteration is sufficient justification for the state’s renewed effort, an effort regarded as serious and persistent in the opinion in Oklahoma Tax Commission v. United States, supra.

We reject at once as untenable the assertion that the title to this property remained in the federal government under the various laws applicable to the Osages. Globe Indemnity Co. v. Bruce, 81 Fed. 2d 143, and In re Martin’s Estate, 183 Okla. 177, 80 P. 2d 561. It will not serve any purpose useful to a decision in this matter to undertake to determine precisely what aspect of title remained in the federal government or was assumed by it as an instrumentality to further its supervision of and duty toward Osage Indians under the restrictive terms of the allotment laws and subsequent laws. The case of Oklahoma Tax Commission v. United States, supra, definitely establishes the rule that the levying of a tax such as this on the devolution of property similarly affected does not interfere with the federal government. There is a distinct difference between the situation of Osage Indians and their property, under the acts applicable to them, and the allottee and the property involved in United States v. Rickert, 188 U. S. 432, 47 L. Ed. 532, as is pointed out in Oklahoma Tax Commission v. United States, supra. Osage Indians are full citizens of the State of Oklahoma. Osage Indians have title to their allotments, to their aliquot parts of the mineral headright interests, and land sale trusts, and the accumulations from these sources in the federal treasury. These properties are identifiable, subject to constitutional and statutory protection, derive benefits for their owners, and pass by law at death. The title, if such it may be called, that rests in the federal government is a mere instrument for service, whereas the title in the Indians is an individual, beneficial, and valuable thing.

The Supreme Court of the United States said in Oklahoma Tax Commission v. United States, supra:

“It is true that our interpretation of the 1933 statute must be in accord with the generous and protective spirit which the United States properly feels toward its Indian wards, but we cannot assume that Congress will choose to aid the Indians by permanently granting them immunity from taxes which they are as able as other citizens to pay. It runs counter to any traditional concept of the guardian and ward relationship to suppose that a ward should be exempted from taxation by the nature of his status, and the fact that the federal government is the guardian of its Indian ward is no reason, by itself, why a state should be precluded from taxing the estate of the Indian. We have held that the Indians, like all other citizens, must pay federal income taxes. Superintendent of Five Civilized Tribes v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, supra, (295 U. S. 421, 79 L. Ed. 1520, 55 S. Ct. 820).

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Harry R. Carlile Trust v. Cotton Petroleum Corp.
732 P.2d 438 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1986)
Mason v. United States
461 F.2d 1364 (Court of Claims, 1972)
Texas Co. v. County of Los Angeles
338 P.2d 440 (California Supreme Court, 1959)
Arenas v. United States
140 F. Supp. 606 (S.D. California, 1956)
Texas Co. v. Oklahoma Tax Commission
1952 OK 39 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1952)
West v. Oklahoma Tax Commission
334 U.S. 717 (Supreme Court, 1948)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1947 OK 332, 193 P.2d 1017, 200 Okla. 402, 1947 Okla. LEXIS 775, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/yarbrough-v-oklahoma-tax-commission-okla-1947.