Rice v. Sioux City Memorial Park Cemetery
Decision Date | 22 September 1953 |
Docket Number | No. 48304,48304 |
Citation | 60 N.W.2d 110,245 Iowa 147 |
Parties | RICE v. SIOUX CITY MEMORIAL PARK CEMETERY, Inc., et al. |
Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
Neil R. McCluhan, Winnebago, Neb., and Kindig & Beebe, Sioux City, for appellant.
Shull & Marshall and Harper, Gleysteen & Nelson, Sioux City, for appellees.
Plaintiff commenced her action for damages against the defendants by filing a petition in three counts, which was later twice amended and still later ordered recast. In a case of the same entitlement found in D.C., 102 F.Supp. 658, the petition is set out in full. In this opinion by Judge Graven the case was remanded to the state court for final adjudication on the issues, due to a jurisdictional question. The action against the individual defendants was dismissed below and no appeal is taken from that decision of the court.
Plaintiff in her petition alleges that on or about August 17, 1951, she entered into a written contract 'Exhibit A' for the purchase of three cemetery lots belonging to defendant corporation, one lot to be used for the burial of her deceased husband, Sergeant Rice, whose body was being shipped home from Korea. This contract contains a racial restrictive clause and provides in part as follows:
'Sioux City Memorial Park Cemetery, Inc.
'This contract, made at Sioux City, Iowa, on this 17th day of August, 1951, between the Sioux City Memorial Park Cemetery Inc. (owners and developers of Sioux City Memorial Park, its successors and assigns, Party of the First Part (seller) and Mrs. Evelyn Rice, of Winnebago, Nebr. Party of the Second Part (purchaser), Witnesseth:
'That the said Party of the Second Part agrees to purchase from the said Party of the First Part the following: Right of Sepulture in and to So. 1/2 (spaces 4-5 & 6) Lot 58 in Section Veterans, Sioux City Memorial Park, a burial ground with permanent care as hereinafter provided, a plat of which has been or will be recorded with the Recorder of Deeds in Woodbury County, Iowa, with privilege to exchange said lot before Sepulture for any other unsold lot of the same price and privilege at time of transfer * * *
'This agreement is assignable only with the consent of seller, and burial privileges accrue only to members of the Caucasian race, and before any burial can be made the grave space or spaces so used shall be paid in full.
'No condition, regulation, or agreement other than those printed hereon or contained in Sioux City Memorial Park Cemetery, Inc. rules and regulations shall be binding upon the seller, and this agreement shall not become effective until executed and approved by an executive officer of the Sioux City Memorial Park Cemetery, Inc.'
Plaintiff alleged that her deceased husband, Sergeant John Rice, killed in combat on active duty in Korea, had 11/16 Winnebago Indian blood and 5/16 white blood, and that defendant cemetery refused to permit the body of her deceased husband to be lowered into the ground, after graveside services were held, caused the body to be removed from the grave site and advised her that the refusal was because 'he was not a Caucasian.'
Plaintiff further alleged that defendant cemetery published a pamphlet explaining its action in refusing the burial, which caused her humiliation and suffering. In each count she asked judgment in the sum of $60,000. The pamphlet filed as Exhibit C is in part as follows:
'The Truth about the Sgt Rice Incident.
'In fairness to our Lot Owners and the citizens of Sioux City and vicinity, who are interested in the Memorial Park, we feel that the many false statements that have been published about this incident should be clarified by a frank statement of the truth:
* * *
'We submit the above for your fair and unbiased appraisal.
'The Memorial Park
'Sioux City, Iowa.'
Both defendants and plaintiff moved for an adjudication of substantially the same points of law under Rule 105 R.C.P., 58 I.C.A. and the court ruled:
That the social restriction clause in the contract Exhibit A is not void but is unenforceable as a violation of (a) The Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution; (b) The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, and (c), Sections 1 and 6 of Art. I of the I.C.A. Constitution of the State of Iowa; (d) Public policy of the State of Iowa and of the United States Government;
That the restrictive clause in the contract Exhibit A refers to the race of the person or thing to be buried, rather than to the race of the owner of the lot;
That a person alleged to be of 11/16 Winnebago Indian and 5/16 white blood, is not, as a matter of law, a person of the Caucasian race within the meaning of the term as used in the contract;
That the action of a state or federal court in permitting a defendant to stand upon the terms of its contract and to defend this action in court would not constitute state or federal action contrary to the 5th and 14th amendments to the United States Constitution;
That the acts of the...
To continue reading
Request your trial-
Rice v. Sioux City Memorial Park Cemetery
...the United Nations Charter 'have no bearing on the case' and that none of the grounds based on local law sustained the action. 245 Iowa, 147, 60 N.W.2d 110, 117. We granted certiorari, 347 U.S. 942, 74 S.Ct. 938, 98 L.Ed. The basis for petitioner's resort to this Court was primarily the Fou......
-
Lynch v. Uhlenhopp, 48862
...may be doubted. This is not a case in which the contract is merely used as a defense, as was true in Rice v. Sioux City Memorial Park Cemetery, 245 Iowa 147, 154, 155, 60 N.W.2d 110, 115. In the case before us the court is actively enforcing the provisions of the decree. The Supreme Court o......
-
Amos v. Prom, Inc., Civ. No. 571.
...followed not long after the Sergeant Rice burial controversy. As to the Sergeant Rice burial matter, see Rice v. Sioux City Memorial Park Cemetery, Iowa 1953, 60 N.W.2d 110, and Rice v. Sioux City Memorial Park Cemetery, D.C.Iowa 1952, 102 F.Supp. 658. The Iowa cases up to 1952 which involv......
-
Terry v. Elmwood Cemetery, Civ. A. No. 69-490.
...29, 24 L. Ed.2d 19 (Oct. 29, 1969) ("all deliberate speed" doctrine in school desegregation abrogated). 44 Rice v. Sioux City Memorial Park, 245 Iowa 147, 60 N.W.2d 110 (1953), aff'd mem. 438 U.S. 880, 75 S.Ct. 122, 99 L. Ed. 693 (1954), vacated, petition for cert. dismissed, 349 U.S. 70, 7......
-
ON TIME, (IN)EQUALITY, AND DEATH.
...App. 1955); People ex rel. Gaskill v. Forest Home Cemetery Co., 101 N.E. 219, 220-21 (Ill. 1913); Rice v. Sioux City Mem'l Park Cemetery, 60 N.W.2d 110, 115-16 (Iowa (24.) Throughout this Article, the term "law" is deployed in three ways: law as mandate, law as mirror, and law as method. Wh......