Holt v. Murphy
| Decision Date | 06 January 1908 |
| Docket Number | 61 |
| Citation | 207 U.S. 407,52 L. Ed. 271,28 S. Ct. 212 |
| Parties | <P><B><CENTER>AMELIA M. HOLT, Appt.,</P> <P>v.</P> <P>SAMUEL MURPHY, Anton H. Classen, Frank M. Riley, et al.</CENTER></B></P> |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
AMELIA M. HOLT, Appt.,
v.
SAMUEL MURPHY, Anton H. Classen, Frank M. Riley, et al.
Argued December 6, 1907.
Decided Januuary 6, 1908.
This was a suit commenced in the district court of Oklahoma county, Oklahoma, by appellant, praying that the appellees, the holders of the legal title to a tract of land in Oklahoma county, be decreed to hold that title in trust for her benefit. The district court entered a decree in favor of the defendants, which was affirmed by the supreme court of the territory (15 Okla. 12, 79 Pac. 265), from whose decision this appeal was taken.
These facts are undisputed: On April 23, 1889, Ewers White made a homestead entry of the land. Subsequently two other parties, C. J. Blanchard and Vestal S. Cook, attempted to enter the same land. On July 16, 1889, in a contest before the local land officers, they held that all the claimants were disqualified because of entering the territory in violation of the President's proclamation. On appeal the Commissioners of the General Land Office, on March 7, 1890, affirmed their ruling, dismissed the contests of both Blanchard and Cook, and held the entry of White for cancelation. From this decision White prosecuted an appeal to the Secretary of the Interior, who, on July 21, 1891, affirmed the decision of the Commissioner. 13 Land Dec. 66. During the time allowed for appeal to the Secretary from the Commissioner, and on March 11, 1890, Levi Holt, by his attorney in fact, filed a soldier's declaratory statement for the land, which was suspended by the register and receiver pending final action on the appeal. Thereafter and on November 29, 1890, before the decision by the Secretary of his appeal, White filed a relinquishment of his entry and all rights thereunder, and the defendant Samuel Murphy immediately thereafter made a homestead entry thereon.
In addition it was charged by plaintiff that after a decision by the Secretary of the Interior, in a contest between Murphy and Holt in favor of Holt, or rather in favor of his widow (as he had died in the meantime), a contract was entered into between plaintiff's attorney and the defendant Samuel Murphy, by which her attorney should deceive her as to her right in the land, and, for a pecuniary consideration received from Murphy, should file a waiver of her right of entry, and thus permit him to acquire a patent, all of which was done; that Anton H. Classen (the present holder of the legal title) and the other defendants were fully aware of what was thus wrongfully done; that the entry of Murphy appearing on the record as being unchallenged, a patent was, on January 19, 1898, issued to him. Subsequently the title to most of the land passed to defendant Classen, who, at the time of the filing of the waiver by plaintiff's attorney, was receiver of the land office of the district in which the tract in controversy is situated, and who claimed in his answer, among other things, that he was a bona fide purchaser and without notice of any equities of the plaintiff.
Sections 2304 and 2309, Rev. Stat. (U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, pp. 1413 and 1418), provide for homestead entries by soldiers and officers who served in the Army of the United States. By § 2309 the declaratory statement of such soldier or officer may be made by an agent as well as personally, and he is allowed six months thereafter to begin settlement and improvement, whereas, in ordinary cases, the entryman must make affidavit of his right to enter before the register or receiver, and must commence his residence and cultivation of the land immediately after the filing of the affidavit.
Messrs. William Frye White, John S. Jenkins, and John B. Cotton for appellant.
[Argument of Counsel from pages 409-410 intentionally omitted] Mr. J. H. Everest for appellees.
[Argument of Counsel from pages 410-411 intentionally omitted] Mr. Justice Brewer delivered the opinion of the court:
The plaintiff alleges in her petition that the land is worth $100,000. It appears that she has never been in Oklahoma; that neither she nor her husband ever entered upon or cultivated the land; and yet she asks the court to give her this valuable property, taking it away from those who, at least by their presence and occupation of the tract, have assisted in building up a state having more than a million inhabitants.
Another matter is worthy of notice. According to a report of the register of the local land office to the General Land Office, at Washington, on May 12, 1897, the attorney for the plaintiff was notified of the decision in her favor by the Commissioner of the General Land Office, and on June 16 of that year that attorney filed the waiver of the preference rights thus awarded to her. The patent to Murphy was issued on January ary 19, 1898, and recorded in the office of the register of deeds in Oklahoma county on January 25, 1898. This suit was commenced on September 16, 1901. It therefore appears that the plaintiff took no action until more than four years after the waiver by her attorney of her preference rights and three and a half years after the issue of the patent and its record in the county in which the land is situate. It is true that she claims to have been ignorant of the decision in her favor, and that she relied upon her attorney, whom she charges was engaged in a conspiracy to defraud her. Although this reliance, so far as it was reasonable and in fact controlled her, may, to some extent, at least, have excused her inaction, yet it must also be remembered that not improbably her inaction may have influenced some of the defendants to deal with the land in reliance upon the title passing by the patent to Murphy.
The decree in the district court finds that the plaintiff 'has failed to sustain the material allegations of her petition,' and holds that neither she nor any of the heirs of Levi Holt 'have any right, equity, or interest in and to said tract of land above described or any part thereof,' and quiets the title of defendants against all their claims, while the supreme court, in its opinion, says that the district court was warranted in finding that the 'allegations of fraud in the petition were not sustained by the evidence.'
The supreme court, however, rested its decision largely upon this rule of law: That whenever an entry has been made of a tract of land, that tract is segregated from the mass of public land subject to entry until the existing entry is disposed of.
Counsel for appellant do not question the general rule as to the effect of an entry regular upon its face, and concede that it is no longer open to doubt, in view of the many ruling of the Land Department and the decision of this court (Hodges v. Colcord, 193, U. S. 192, 48 L. ed. 677, 24 Sup. Ct. Rep. 433; McMichael v. Murphy, 197 U. S. 304, 49...
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