Smith v. Cullough

• Decision Date: 22 March 1926
• Docket Number: No. 22,22
• Citation: 270 U.S. 456,46 S.Ct. 338,70 L.Ed. 682
• Parties: SMITH v. McCULLOUGH et al
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

270 U.S. 456

46 S.Ct. 338

70 L.Ed. 682

SMITH

v McCULLOUGH et al.

No. 22.

Argued Oct. 8, 1925.

Decided March 22, 1926.

Mr. A. Scott Thompson, of Miami, Okl., for appellant.

Messrs. Joseph C. Stone, of Muskogee, Okl., Paul A. Ewert, of Kansas City, Mo., James S. Davenport, of Tulsa, Okl., and Will R. King, of Portland, Or., for appellees.

[Argument of Counsel from page 457 intentionally omitted] Mr. Justice VAN DEVANTER defivered the opinion of the Court.

This appeal brings under review the proceedings in a much-litigated suit in equity brought to determine adverse claims based on conflicting mining leases given by a Quapaw Indian of land which was part of his allotment. The plaintiffs (appellees here) claimed under the first lease, and the defendant (appellant here) under two later leases, which taken together included the same land as the first. The relief sought by the plaintiffs was full recognition of their lease and cancellation of the others. On the original hearing the District Court, following its decisions in earlier cases, held that the plaintiffs' lease contravened restrictions imposed by laws of Congress, in that it was for a longer term than ten years, and therefore was void. Accordingly the bill was dismissed; but the Circuit Court of Appeals disapproved that ruling, reversed the decree and remanded the cause for further proceedings. 243 F. 823, 156 C. C. A. 335. On a subsequent hearing the District Court recognized the plaintiffs' lease as valid for a term of 10 years and canceled the defendant's leases to the extent of the conflict. The Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that decision (285 F. 698), and the present appeal is from the decree of affirmance.

The plaintiffs insist that this appeal cannot be entertained, although taken prior to the Act of February 13, 1925, c. 229, 43 Stat. 936, changing federal appellate jurisdiction. But we think they misapprehend the situation.

The suit was not within any of the classes as to which an appeal was denied by section 128 of the Judicial Code (Comp. St. § 1120), as existing before the change. Either the suit was one arising under the laws of Congress relating to the alienation and leasing of Quapaw allotments, or there was an entire absence of federal jurisdiction. In either event section 241 of the Judicial Code (Comp. St. § 1218), as existing before the change, permitted an appeal to this court from the final decree of the Circuit Court of Appeals. The only difference was that if the suit was one arising under the laws of Congress relating to the alienation and leasing of such allotments the re-examination by this court would extend to the merits, while, if there was an absence of federal jurisdiction, this court could not consider the merits, but would have to reverse the decrees of both courts below, and remand the cause to the District Court, with a direction to dismiss the bill for want of jurisdiction. Shoshone Mining Co. v. Rutter, 20 S. Ct. 726, 177 U. S. 505, 514, 44 L. Ed. 864; Western Union Telegraph Co. v. Ann Arbor R. R. Co., 20 S. Ct. 867, 178 U. S. 239, 244, 44 L. Ed. 1052. The act of 1925 expressly left all appeals which were then pending in this court to be disposed of under the old law.

It therefore is necessary at the outset to determine whether this suit was one arising under the legislation relating to Quapaw allotments, or was one where there was an absence of federal jurisdiction. The established rule is that a plaintiff, suing in a federal court, must show in his pleading, affirmatively and distinctly, the existence of whatever is essential to federal jurisdiction, and, if he does not do so, the court, on having the defect called to its attention or on discovering the same, must dismiss the case, unless the defect be corrected by amendment. Norton v. Larney, 45 S. Ct. 145, 266 U. S. 511, 69 L. Ed. 413.

Here the bill disclosed that the lease under which the plaintiffs were claiming, and which they sought to have recognized, was based on the laws of Congress relating to the right of Quapaw allottees to alienate and lease their lands, and that the defendant was claiming adversely under later leases from the same lessor. It apparently was intended to show that the suit was one arising under those laws; but it fell short of showing that a real dispute over their construction and application was involved. See Shulthis v. McDougal, 32 S. Ct. 704, 225 U. S. 561, 569, 56 L. Ed. 1205; Barnett v. Kunkel, 44 S. Ct. 254, 264 U. S. 16, 19-20, 68 L. Ed. 539. In fact, as appears elsewhere in the record, that was the principal matter in dispute, and the outcome depended on its solution. The defendant's first step in the suit was to challenge the plaintiffs' right to relief by a motion to dismiss on the ground that under those laws, rightly construed and applied, the plaintiffs' lease was invalid. That challenge was sustained by the District Court, but was overruled by the Circuit Court of Appeals on the first appeal. A simple amendment of the bill, conforming its jurisdictional allegations to the fact thus brought into the record, would have corrected the defect and put in affirmative and definite form what apparently was intended in the beginning. Had the defect been called to the court's attention, leave to make the amendment could and doubtless would have been granted. But both parties proceeded as if the jurisdictional showing was sufficient; and both courts below dealt with the suit as one arising under the laws before named and proceeded to its determination accordingly. The suit was begun in 1916; the parties had two hearings in each of the courts below; and the merits were exhaustively presented. In these circumstances to amend the bill now to conform to the jurisdictional fact indisputably shown elsewhere in the record will not subject either party to any prejudice or disadvantage, but will subserve the real interests of both. This court has power to allow amendments of this character (Rev. Stat. § 954 (Comp. St. § 1591); Norton v. Larney, supra; Realty Holding Co. v. Donaldson, 45 S. Ct. 521, 268 U. S. 398, 69 L. Ed. 1014, and the propriety of exercising it in this instance is obvious. We therefore shall treat the bill as amended, by our leave, to show the jurisdictional fact conformably to other parts of the record. With that fact brought into the bill, there can be no doubt that there was federal jurisdiction. Hopkins v. Walker, 37 S. Ct. 711, 244 U. S. 486, 61 L. Ed. 1270; Norton v. Larney, supra.

The plaintiffs insist that, as the defendant did not appeal from the decree of the Circuit Court of Appeals on the first appeal, he is now precluded from questioning what was decided then. But the law and settled practice are otherwise. That decree was not final but only interlocutory, and so was not appealable. Nor did the defendant acquiesce in it. On the contrary, he sought to have it reconsidered by the Circuit Court of Appeals on a timely petition for rehearing, and again on the second appeal to that court. He therefore is entitled to ask, as he does in his assignments of error, that it be re-examined on this appeal. United States v. Beatty, 34 S. Ct. 392, 232 U. S. 463, 466, 58 L. Ed. 686; Hamilton-Brown Shoe Co. v. Wolf Brothers & Co., 36 S. Ct. 269, 240 U. S. 251, 258, 60 L. Ed. 629.

We come, then, to the merits, which center about the validity of the plaintiffs' lease.

The lessor was a Quapaw Indian and under the guardianship of the United States. The land for which the conflicting mining leases were given was part of the allotment made to him in the distribution of the lands of his tribe. His title rested on a patent issued to him in 1896 pursuant to the Act of March 2, 1895, c. 188, 28 Stat. 907, which provided that the allotments should be inalienable for a period of 25 years from the date of the patents. The Act of June 7, 1897, c. 3, 30 Stat. 72, modified that restriction to the extent of...