Oscar Lancaster v. Kathleen Oil Company
| Decision Date | 12 June 1916 |
| Docket Number | No. 336,336 |
| Parties | OSCAR M. LANCASTER and Patrick M. Kerr, Appts., v. KATHLEEN OIL COMPANY, Josiah Brown, et al |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
Messrs. William F. Tucker and Hulette F. Aby for appellants.
Messrs. George S. Ramsey, Edgar A. de Meules, Malcolm E. Rosser, Sol. H. Kauffman, and Edward H. Chandler for appellees.
This direct appeal is prosecuted to reverse the decree of the court below, dismissing the suit on the ground that the bill alleged no cause of action within the jurisdiction of the court as a Federal court.
Briefly summarized, the bill alleged that in 1903 Lizzie Brown received from the United States a patent to certain described land in Oklahoma as her homestead allotment as a member of the Creek Tribe of Indians; that she died in March, 1912, leaving surviving as her sole heirs her husband, Josiah Brown, and four minor children, all of whom were made defendants. It was alleged that Brown, the father, was appointed guardian of the children, and that in April, 1912, he and the children, as owners in fee of the land in question, made an oil and gas mining lease to the plaintiffs, which was recorded April 18th, 1912; that, notwithstanding this lease, about two months later, that is, June 2d, 1912, Brown, on his own behalf and as guardian, made an oil and gas mining lease covering the identical land, to the Kathleen Oil Company, also made a defendant, which lease was approved by the Secretary of the Interior and was duly recorded. It was alleged that plaintiffs entered upon the land under their lease, prepared to drill for oil, but, learning of the subsequent lease to the Kathleen Oil Company, withdrew and made an application to the Secretary of the Interior to cancel his approval of that lease, which was denied. It was averred that the Kathleen Oil Company had entered into its lease with full knowledge of the prior lease to the plaintiffs, but that it had nevertheless gone into possession and was operating under its lease, and was producing and selling oil and gas. The bill then alleged that the plaintiffs' lease, although not approved by the Secretary, was valid, and that the subsequent lease to the defendant company, which was approved by the Secretary of the Interior, was void because, by the act of Congress of May 27, 1908 (35 Stat. at L. 312, chap. 199), the land of Lizzie Brown descended to her heirs free from any restriction against leasing the same for oil and gas mining purposes, and because, if that act did impose restrictions as to such a lease, it was void for repugnancy to the Constitution of the United States. The prayer was that the defendant company be enjoined from entering on the land and from continuing to operate under its lease, that all the defendants be restrained from interfering in any manner with the plaintiffs in conducting operations under their lease, and from asserting or claiming any right to the oil and gas deposits under the land, or the right to mine and remove the same, and that the defendant company account to the plaintiffs for the gas and oil which it had removed.
The defendants moved to dismiss on the ground that the court was without jurisdiction as a Federal court to entertain the cause. The motion was granted, and a decree of dismissal entered, and, for the purpose of this direct appeal, the court certified under the statute that the dismissal had been ordered because 'the essential and appropriate allegations of the cause of action asserted in said bill...
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