Franklin Lane v. United States of America Ex Relatione Julia Lamere Mickadiet

• Citation: 60 L.Ed. 956,241 U.S. 201,36 S.Ct. 599
• Decision Date: 22 May 1916
• Docket Number: No. 449,449
• Parties: FRANKLIN K. LANE, Secretary of the Interior, Plff. in Err., v. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA EX RELATIONE JULIA LAMERE MICKADIET, nee Tiebault, and Alma Lamere Tiebault
• Court: United States Supreme Court

241 U.S. 201

36 S.Ct. 599

60 L.Ed. 956

FRANKLIN K. LANE, Secretary of the Interior, Plff. in Err.,

v UNITED STATES OF AMERICA EX RELATIONE JULIA LAMERE MICKADIET, nee Tiebault, and Alma Lamere Tiebault.

No. 449.

Argued April 10, 1916.

Decided May 22, 1916.

Solicitor General Davis and Mr. Robert Szold for plaintiff in error.

[Argument of Counsel from page 202 intentionally omitted] Messrs. Irving F. Baxter, Norris Brown, Edward F. Colladay, and Howard Saxton for defendant in error.

[Argument of Counsel from page 203 intentionally omitted] Messrs. Charles J. Kappler and Harry L.

Mr. Chief Justice White delivered the opinion of the court:

The relators, who are defendants in error, invoked the aid of the trial court to control by mandamus the action of the Secretary of the Interior concerning an allotment in severalty of land made to an Indian in pursuance of the authority conferred by the act of February 8, 1887 (chap. 119, 24 Stat. at L. 388, Comp. Stat. 1913, § 4195), entitled, 'An Act to Provide for the Allotment of Lands in Severalty to Indians on the Various Reservations.' Under the facts stated in his return to the alternative rule, the Secretary, asserting that the land embraced by the allotment in question was held in trust by the United States for the benefit of the allottee, and that the official action sought to be prohibited was not subject to judicial control, because it was one of exclusive administrative authority, denied that there was a right to grant the relief prayed. The return was demurred to as stating no ground for withholding the relief. The trial court overruled the demurrer and discharged the rule, but the court below reversed, and, holding that the Secretary had no power to take the action which it was alleged he intended to take concerning the allotment in question, awarded the mandamus prayed (43 App. D. C. 414), and the correctness of this ruling is the question now to be decided.

The facts are these: Tiebault was a Winnebago Indian living on the tribal reservation in Nebraska, and in August, 1887, received an allotment in severalty of the tribal land to which he was entitled, made in virtue of the act of 1887. That act, after conferring authority upon the Secretary of the Interior to make allotments of tribal lands as therein specified, directed that official to issue to the allottees patents, which 'shall be of the legal effect, and declare that the United States does and will hold the lands thus allotted, for the period of twenty-five years, in trust for the sole use and benefit of the Indian to whom such allotment shall have been made, or, in case of his decease, of his heirs according to the laws of the state or territory where such land is located, and that at the expiration of said period the United States will convey the same by patent to said Indian, or his heirs as aforesaid, in fee, discharged of said trust and free of all charge or encumbrance whatsoever: Provided, That the President of the United States may in any case in his discretion extend the period.' (Section 5.)

About ten years after the allotment Tiebault, having continued to reside on the land and to enjoy the same conformably to the statute, began proceedings in the court of Thurston county, Nebraska, for the adoption as his children of the two relators, who were also Winnebago Indians, and a decree of adoption as prayed was entered. When, ten years after the adoption, Tiebault died without surviving issue, the adopted children, asserting rights as his sole heirs, sought the possession of the land embraced by the allotment and of some other land which had also been covered by an allotment made to a daughter of Tiebault, who died before him without issue, and which land he had therefore inherited. This claim of heirship was disputed by nephews and nieces of Tiebault claiming to be his next of kin. The result was the commencement of proceedings in the district court of the United States for the district of Nebraska on the part of the adopted children to obtain a recognition of their right of heirship, the nephews and neices being among the parties defendant. Considerable testimony was taken, but no decree was entered because, by the act of May 8, 1906 (chap. 2348, 34 Stat. at L. 182), and the act of June 25, 1910 (chap. 431, § 1, 36 Stat. at L. 855, Comp. Stat. 1913, § 4226), it resulted that the district court was without power to proceed further, exclusive jurisdiction over the subject having been conferred by the acts in question upon the Secretary of the Interior. The pertinent provisions of the act last referred to are in the margin.¹

The theater of the controversy was therefore, by the assent of the parties and of the United States, transferred to the Interior Department, where testimony was begun before an examiner, and the Secretary of the Interior, in June, 1913, entered an order in favor of the adopted children, holding them to be the lawful heirs of Tiebault, and entitled under the statute to the ownership and enjoyment of the allotted lands.

The Secretary having been given authority both by the 6th section of the act of 1906 and by the provisions of the act of 1910, which we have quoted, to reduce the twenty-five-year period, the recognized heirs applied for an order terminating the trust period and for the issue to them of a fee-simple patent. This application was opposed by the next of kin, who had been parties to the previous proceeding as to heirship, and they also asked to be permitted to reopen the controversy as to the validity of the adoption and the heirship resulting from it, on the ground that, as the result of newly discovered evidence, they desired to show that the Nebraska decree of adoption and the previous administrative order had been obtained by fraud. Under this request it would seem that considerable testimony was taken, but it was never acted upon because the recognized heirs, the relators, disputed the authority of the Secretory to reopen the controversy, on the ground that the previous departmental order recognizing them as heirs was not subject to be reopened or...