Noble v. Oklahoma City Higgings v. Same, s. 335

• Decision Date: 02 March 1936
• Docket Number: Nos. 335,336,s. 335
• Citation: 56 S.Ct. 562,80 L.Ed. 816,297 U.S. 481
• Parties: NOBLE et al. v. OKLAHOMA CITY. HIGGINGS et al. v. SAME
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

297 U.S. 481

56 S.Ct. 562

80 L.Ed. 816

NOBLE et al.

v OKLAHOMA CITY.

HIGGINGS et al.

v. SAME.

Nos. 335, 336.

Argued Feb. 4, 5, 1936.

Decided March 2, 1936.

Messrs. Charles H. Garnett, of Oklahoma City, Okl., Warren E. Libby, of Los Angeles, Cal., and Joe T. Rogers, of Wichita, Kan., for petitioners.

Messrs. Harlan Deupree and W. H. Brown, both of Oklahoma City, Okl., for respondent.

Mr. Justice ROBERTS delivered the opinion of the Court.

These were actions in ejectment tried in a state court. The petitioners in No. 335 sued as the heirs of Naoma Noble, the petitioners in No. 336 as the heirs of Robert W. Higgins. Title to a town lot and a portion of another parcel of land located in the respondent city was in dispute.

The tracts formerly were part of the tribal lands of the Creek Indians. Pursuant to treaties the Creeks removed from east of the Mississippi river to a large area in Indian Territory, now in the State of Oklahoma,¹ and a patent was issued by the President of the United States, granting them the lands 'to have and to hold * * * so long as they shall exist as a Nation and continue to occupy the Country hereby conveyed to them.'² By the Treaty of Washington³ the tribe ceded to the United States the western half of their domain, which included the site of what is now Oklahoma City, in trust, to be sold and used as homes for civilized Indians whom the United States might desire to settle thereon. This and a prior treaty vested in Congress power to grant railroad rights of way through the Creek country. The United States did not sell any portion of the ceded area to Indians or permit white settlement in the region of Oklahoma City and the land remained vacant.

By Act of February 18, 1888,⁴ Congress authorized the Choctaw Coal & Railway Company to locate and construct a railroad traversing the southeastern portion of the Indian Territory, through lands of the Choctaw Nation whose title was similar to that of the Creek Nation.⁵

The President, on January 19, 1889, negotiated a treaty with the Creeks⁶ by which they ceded to the United States full and complete title to the entire western half of their lands, thus freeing the area from the trust under which it had theretofore been held. This treaty was subject to ratification by the council of the tribe and by Congress. It was confirmed by the former January 31, 1889.

Pending the ratification of the treaty, Congress, on February 13, 1889, amended the Act of February 18, 1888, to authorize the railway company to construct a branch extending from its main line northwest-wardly through Choctaw and Creek country.⁷ The road so authorized now traverses Oklahoma City. The Creek Tribe then owned the eastern portion of the Creek country through which the branch line was to run, and retained an interest in the western portion. March 1, 1889, Congress ratified the treaty of January 19, 1889, and, in the act of ratification, provided that 'the lands acquired by the United States under said agreement shall be a part of the public domain.'⁸

By Act of March 2, 1889,⁹ Congress directed that the lands acquired from the Creek Nation should be disposed of to actual settlers under the homestead laws but that no person should be permitted to enter thereon until the territory was opened for settlement. The release, conveyance, and extinguishment of the Indians' rights was not to inure 'to the benefit of or cause to vest in any railroad company any right, title, or interest whatever in or to any of said lands * * * and all grants or pretended grants of said lands or any interest or right therein now existing in or on behalf of any railroad company, except rights of way and depot grounds,' were declared forfeited for breach of condition.

March 23, 1889, the President issued a proclamation opening a portion of the lands to settlement at noon April 22, 1889. Before the latter date the railway company had surveyed the line of its proposed railroad through what is now Oklahoma City and market it by stakes along the center line of the right of way and by signs warning that the land was claimed for right of way and station purposes. It appears to have been then known that a townsite would be laid out on the quarter-section in which the Noble tract is located. Prior to the opening of the land a plat had been made and, at 12 o'clock, April 22, 1889, surveyors began to run lines and drive stakes to locate the lots and blocks of the townsite. On that day many settlers, amongst whom was Naoma Noble, arrived and staked and occupied lots. As the survey proceeded they adjusted their claims and boundaries to the survey lines. In surveying and staking out lots both the surveyors and the ancestor of the petitioners in No. 335 disregarded the right of way marks. All the lots in the original townsite, comprising the quarter-section in which the Noble land is situated, were occupied on the da of opening. On the same day Robert C. Higgins, the ancestor through whom the petitioners in No. 336 claim, settled upon the quarter-section adjoining the townsite on the west, and undertook to file a homestead entry thereon.

July 13, 1889, the railway company filed with the Secretary of the Interior a map of definite location of its line as staked out through Oklahoma City. The road ran diagonally through the town site quarter-section, included the whole of the Noble lot, and traversed diagonally Higgins' adjoining quarter-section.

The Act of May 2, 1890,¹⁰ organizing the territory of Oklahoma, provided that: 'No part of the land embraced within the Territory hereby created shall inure to the use or benefit of any railroad corporation, except the rights of way and land for stations heretofore granted to certain railroad corporations. Nor shall any provision of this act or any act of any officer of the United States, done or performed under the provisions of this act or otherwise, invest any corporation owning or operating any railroad in the Indian Territory, or Territory created by this act, with any land or right to any land in either of said Territories, and this act shall not apply to or affect any land which, upon any condition on becoming a part of the public domain, would inure to the benefit of, or become the property of, any railroad corporation.' Not until May 14, 1890,¹¹ did Congress pass a townsite act applicable to Oklahoma. In the meantime, the citizens had established a form of government and elected officials. A plan of the townsite was filed in the office of the city recorder and provision made by ordinance for recording transfers of the plotted property. The recorder issued certificates to the occupants of lots and transfers were made by quitclaim deeds. After the passage of the townsite act trustees were appointed and the entire quarter-section constituting the original townsite was patented to the trustees without exception, limitation, or reservation. In due time the trustees issued their deeds for the various lots, including the Noble tract.

From 1889 to 1893 the railway company and the lot claimants were in disagreement, the former contending that the acts of Congress vested it with title to the right of way, the latter insisting that their occupation before the filing of the company's plot with the Secretary of the Interior gave them the superior title. The dispute was amicably settled by the company's relinquishing its claim to the diagonal 300-foot right of way as plotted, and relocating it, 100 feet wide, parallel to the streets and alleys shown on the city plan. The lots or portions of lots required for the relocation were obtained from the owners by deeds or condemnation. March 28, 1891, Naoma and George Noble executed a deed to the railway company containing the following clause: 'Being intended for the use and occupation of said party (grantee), its successors and assigns, as and for its right-of-way for the constructing, operation and maintenance of its railroad and business at or upon the land hereby released and quit claimed: Provided, that in case of abandonment of said premises by said second party, its successors or assigns for the purposes above mentioned, the same shall revert to the grantors, their heirs or assigns.'

The right of Higgins to make a homestead entry being involved in a land office contest the company constructed its road across his quarter-section and was operating trains thereover in 1892. After the contest eventuated in his favor he conveyed to the railroad, in 1898, for a pecuniary consideration, a strip of land 100 feet wide across his quarter-section 'for a right of way for its railroad, Telegraph and Telephone Lines, and for Railroad or Station purposes.' The habendum clause was 'To have and to hold the same by the said Choctaw Oklahoma and Gulf R ilroad Company, together with all and singular the rights, privileges and appurtenances thereunto belonging and all the rights and privileges which said company is authorized to have, hold and exercise under and by virtue of the Act of Congress granting the Choctaw Coal and Railway Company a right of way through the Indian Territory, approved February 18th, 1888, and subsequent Acts of Congress amending and extending said Act together with all the rights and privileges granted unto said Choctaw, Oklahoma and Gulf Railroad Company by an Act of Congress approved August 24th, 1894, and the Act of Congress approved April 24th, 1896, and unto its successors, and assigns forever.'

The road constructed on the right of way so acquired in Oklahoma City was operated by the railway and its successors until December 4, 1930. Pursuant to an agreement made with the city, the then owner and operator secured the approval of the Interstate Commerce Commission of the abandonment of the line, ¹² and executed a quitclaim deed to the city for the abandoned portion. A decree was obtained from the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma adjudging that the land had been abandoned for...