Steele v. Kelley
| Decision Date | 06 February 1912 |
| Docket Number | Case Number: 1506 |
| Citation | 122 P. 934,1912 OK 148,32 Okla. 547 |
| Parties | STEELE et al. v. KELLEY et al. |
| Court | Oklahoma Supreme Court |
¶0 1. STATUTES -- Construction -- Adoption of Provisions Previously Construed. It will be presumed that Congress, in adopting the statutes of Arkansas for the Indian Territory, adopted them with the construction and interpretation that had been placed on them by the Supreme Court of Arkansas prior to their adoption by Congress.
2. JUDGMENT--Equitable Relief--Power of Court. Under the law in force in the Indian Territory prior to statehood, courts of equity possessed an inherent power to set aside the orders and judgments of probate courts for fraud; or if such state of facts and circumstances was presented as showed the irreparable injury impending, against which the probate court could grant no relief, courts of equity might interpose, but not for mere errors, however gross.
3. SAME--Territorial Courts--Presumptions as to Jurisdiction. The United States Courts in the Indian Territory were courts of superior jurisdiction; all presumptions were in favor of their action; and all irregularities in the exercise of their jurisdiction in probate proceedings, rightfully acquired, were cured by final judgment, and not open to collateral attack.
4. EXECUTORS AND ADMINISTRATORS -- Lands -- Sales Under Order of Court--Validity. A sale of real estate made in the Indian Territory, belonging to the estate of a deceased person, made by a duly appointed administratrix, upon a petition therefor filed, but without notice of the application being given as provided by the statute, and where it further appears that the petition is deficient in form, though in substantial compliance with the statute, and where the sale has been confirmed, is not void, however erroneous.
5. SAME. A sale, made as above set forth, will not be set aside in a direct proceeding instituted for that purpose, unless it be shown that actual fraud was committed, or that there existed some other ground of acknowledged equity jurisdiction. Defective allegations in the petition for an order of sale and failure to publish notice of such application, while they may be gross irregularities, alone will not afford grounds for equitable interference, where a sale made thereunder is free from actual fraud or other grounds of equity jurisdiction, and where the sale has been regularly confirmed.
6. JUDGMENT--Conclusiveness--Persons Concluded. K. and S., pretermitted heirs of S., deceased, having invoked the jurisdiction of the United States Court for the Indian Territory, sitting in probate, against certain orders made in the probate proceedings in which they were interested, and having obtained an order of distribution, though not the character of relief sought, but being such as the court, under sections 6500 and 6501, Mansf. Dig. (sections 3572, 3573, Indian Territory Ann. St. 1899), had, upon proper showing, authority to make, and it not appearing that any exceptions thereto were saved, and it further not appearing what was done in the matter of complying with the order of distribution, held, that such heirs were bound by the decree of distribution.
Error from District Court, Rogers County; T. L. Brown, Judge.
Action by Laura Kelley and another against Julia Scruggs, and against Julia Scruggs, as guardian of Lewis H. Scruggs, Jr., and others. Judgment for plaintiffs, and defendants bring error. Reversed, with instructions to dismiss petition.
John E. Lydecker and C. A. Steele, for plaintiffs in error.
J. H. Wood and Charles Richardson, for defendants in error.
¶1 On September 18, 1908, defendants in error filed in the district court of Rogers county their petition, seeking the cancellation of a certain deed made to plaintiffs in error, S. S. Steele, M. A. Steele, Stephen A. Towers, and Richard M. Gorey, by Julia Scruggs, administratrix of the estate of Lewis H. Scruggs, Sr., deceased, and to require said Julia Scruggs to give bond as required by law, and for other relief. Upon issues joined the case was, by agreement of counsel, tried before the court without the intervention of a jury. At the conclusion of the testimony, plaintiffs obtained leave of court, and over the objection of defendants filed an amended petition, setting up substantially the same facts, and the prayer of which amended petition asked that the deed be surrendered, canceled, set aside, and held for naught; that the title to plaintiffs in the lands therein described be quieted; and that all the orders, acts, and decrees of the United States Court in ordering the sale of said property, the assets of the estate, and confirming such sale, and in directing the execution of a deed thereto, be set aside and held for naught, and for other relief. The judgment of the court was in favor of the plaintiffs, and concluded as follows:
"Wherefore it is ordered, adjudged, and decreed that the deed referred to in plaintiffs' amended petition be surrendered, canceled, set aside, and held for naught, and that the title of the plaintiffs to the lands described in the amended petition be quieted, and that all orders, acts, and decrees of the United States District Court in and for the Northern District of the Indian Territory, in ordering the sale of the property herein described and confirming said sale, are hereby set aside, and held for naught, and that the plaintiffs recover their costs herein."
¶2 Motion for a new trial being overruled, the case is brought here for review, numerous errors being assigned, but one of which it is necessary to consider. Did the district court of Rogers county have the right and authority, under the pleadings and proof, to vacate and set aside the action of the United States Court for the Northern District of the Indian Territory, in the particulars set out in its decree?
¶3 Plaintiffs were the heirs at law of Lewis H. Scruggs, deceased. Their names were omitted from, and no provision was made for them in the will of Lewis H. Scruggs, deceased, made December 20, 1903. Under the provisions of section 6500, Mansf. Dig. of Ark., in force in the Indian Territory, as to plaintiffs the said Lewis H. Scruggs, Sr., died intestate. In other words, the will as to them had no binding force or effect. But this is not denied, and we turn to the real controversy--that of the right of said pretermitted heirs after sale, by the administratrix, of the real property of the estate, to come into a court of equity and ask to have vacated and set aside the findings, orders, and judgments of a court of competent and exclusive jurisdiction, on the grounds assigned in their bill, and under the testimony offered in support thereof.
¶4 Chapter 1, Mansf. Dig. of Ark., was extended over and put in force in the Indian Territory by Act of Congress May 2, 1890 (U.S. St. at L., vol. 26, c. 182, p. 81), and which statute deals with the subject of administration. Prior to its adoption, various provisions of said chapter 1 had been judicially construed by the Supreme Court of Arkansas, and we must assume that this rule of construction was adopted by Congress at the time of its adoption of the statute. This is not only a familiar rule of construction, but one that has received express sanction by the United States Court of Appeals for the Indian Territory, the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, and the Supreme Court of the United States, and by this court as well as by the Criminal Court of Appeals. McFadden v. Blocker, 2 Indian Terr. 260, 48 S.W. 1043, 58 L.R.A. 848; Id., 3 Ind. T. 224, 54 S.W. 873, 58 L.R.A. 894; Robinson v. Belt, 2 Indian Terr. 360, 51 S.W. 975; Blaylock v. Incorporated Town of Muskogee, 117 F. 125, 54 C.C.A. 639; Robinson v. Belt, 100 F. 718, 40 C.C.A. 664; Sanger v. Flow, 48 F. 152, 1 C.C.A. 56; Robinson v. Belt, 187 U.S. 41, 23 S. Ct. 16, 47 L. Ed. 65; National Live Stock Commission Co. v. Taliaferro, 20 Okla. 177, 93 P. 983; Hawkins v. U.S., 3 Okla. Crim. 651, 108 P. 561; State ex rel. Sims v. Caruthers, 1 Okla. Crim. 428, 98 P. 474.
¶5 In Robinson v. Belt, 187 U.S. 41, 23 S. Ct. 16, 47 L. Ed. 65, in passing upon this question, it is said in the syllabus:
"The courts of the Indian Territory are bound to respect the decisions of the Supreme Court of Arkansas, interpreting laws of that state, which were adopted and extended over the Indian Territory by the Act of Congress May 2, 1890."
¶6 The sale and other orders complained of were made by the United States Court in the Indian Territory, prior to statehood; hence the rule of construction announced is binding upon this court. National Live Stock Commission Co. v. Taliaferro, 20 Okla. 177, 93 P. 983.
¶7 In Rogers et al. v. Wilson et al., 13 Ark. 507, the complainants, heirs at law of decedent, had no notice of the application for an order to sell certain lands of the estate, and an action to enjoin the sale was instituted and sustained on the ground of actual fraud. The court, however, among other things, said:
"And although it was clearly erroneous to have granted the order for the sale of the real estate without first having given the notice required by the statute, the order was not void, because it was made in a proceeding in rem, for the sale of the estate, which, by our statute, is made assets in the hands of the administrator, and over which by petition the probate court had jurisdiction and further, and although after the sale of the said property shall have been made, the court might not feel at liberty in most instances to disturb the sale, but would leave the heir, if aggrieved, for his recourse over against the administrator, yet before the sale, there can, we apprehend, be no very good reason why the administrator cannot be restrained from perpetrating the wrong complained of."
¶8 In Reinhardt's Adm'r v. Gartrell, 33 Ark. 727, a bill was filed by the devisees and legatees under the will, against the executor and his sureties. Fraud in the settlement was charged,...
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