Ida Clung v. William Penny

• Decision Date: 06 April 1903
• Docket Number: No. 384,384
• Citation: 47 L.Ed. 751,23 S.Ct. 589,189 U.S. 143
• Parties: IDA McCLUNG, Plff. in Err. , v. WILLIAM A. PENNY
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

189 U.S. 143

23 S.Ct. 589

47 L.Ed. 751

IDA McCLUNG, Plff. in Err.,

v WILLIAM A. PENNY.

No. 384.

Argued March 6, 1903.

Decided April 6, 1903.

This was an action of forcible entry and detainer, commenced by Penny, the defendant in error, in the probate court of Kay county, Oklahoma territory, a court adjudged by the supreme court of the territory to have jurisdiction in such actions by virtue of § 4805, art. 13, chap. 67, and § 1562, art. 15, chap. 18, Rev. Stat. 1893. A judgment for the plaintiff was affirmed by the supreme court of the territory (69 Pac. 499), and thereupon the case was brought here on a writ of error. The testimony on the trial developed these facts: The parties contested in the Land Department the right to enter the tract in controversy as a homestead. The plaintiff's contention was sustained, and he was permitted to make entry. Having received the homestead certificate, he commenced this action.

Messrs. Samuel H. Harris and J. J. Darlington for plaintiff in error.

Messrs. A. G. C. Bierer, Frank Dale, and C. W. Ransom for defendant in error.

Mr. Justice Brewer delivered the opinion of the court:

The defendant in error has filed a motion to dismiss the writ of error for want of jurisdiction, on the ground that the value of the matter in controversy does not exceed $5,000, and in support thereof has filed the affidavits of himself and five others that the reasonable rental value of the land is not more than $620 per annum. The plaintiff in error contends that the matter in dispute is in fact not the possession of the land, but the ownership, and at the time the writ of error was allowed he filed the affidavits of four persons; one, his counsel, who testified that the action involved both the possession and the ownership of the lands, that the matter in controversy exceeded in value the sum of $6,000, that the value consisted in the right of possession and power to relinquish to the government the homestead entry; the others, who stated that the value of such relinquishment was $8,000 or $8,500. The record shows that in the answer was this averment: 'That said land, with the improvements of the defendant thereon, is reasonably worth, and the relinquishment thereof could be sold for, the sum of $5,000; that this defendant demands the right to remain in possession of said land by virtue of her vested interest therein, and as against the claims of said plaintiff under his void and unlawful homestead entry, in order to protect the limited title which defendant has acquired in said land, and to acquire a perfect legal title therein, under and by virtue of the laws of the United States;' and also that on the trial she testified that the value of the land was $5,000. In her answer she set up facts which she insisted showed that she had an equitable right to the land, and averred that she intended, as soon as the patent was issued to the plaintiff, to begin an action in the proper court to have the same declared a title in trust for her benefit, and asserted that by reason thereof an action of forcible entry and detainer could not be maintained against her. The supreme court of the territory, in affirming the judgment, held that the matter in controversy was simply the right of possession. It closed its opinion in these words:

'This court, in the case of Kirtley v. Dykes, 10 Okla. 18, 62 Pac. 808, says: '. . . When the matter was finally decided by the Land Department, and a judgment rendered in favor of the plaintiff, her right to the possession of the premises was completed.' Armour Packing Co. v. Howe, 62 Kan. 587, 64 Pac. 43;...