Stewart v. Keyes

• Decision Date: 20 May 1935
• Docket Number: No. 142,142
• Citation: 79 L.Ed. 1507,55 S.Ct. 807,295 U.S. 403
• Parties: STEWART v. KEYES et al
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

295 U.S. 403

55 S.Ct. 807

79 L.Ed. 1507

STEWART

v KEYES et al.

No. 142.

Argued Dec. 6, 1934.

Decided May 20, 1935.

Mr. William Neff, of Tulsa, Okl., for appellant.

Mr. Richard H. Wills, of Tulsa, Okl., for appellees.

Mr. Justice VAN DEVANTER delivered the opinion of the Court.

This was a suit brought in a court of Seminole county, Okl., by a full-blood Creek Indian to recover an interest in land inherited from his grandmother, also a full-blood Creek Indian, and afterward sold by his guardian. The asserted grounds for a recovery were (1) that the proceedings whereby the plaintiff was adjudged an incompetent and subjected to guardianship on that basis, and also the proceedings leading to the sale, were invalid, because in some particulars irregular or not in accord with the laws of Oklahoma; (2) that the sale was in contravention of a controlling federal restriction on alienation; and (3) that an Act of Congress of April 12, 1926, c. 115, § 2, 44 Stat. 239, permitted the suit to be brought within two years after the act's approval, notwithstanding any bar which may have arisen under the state statutes of limitation before such approval.

The defendants answered and a trial was had at which judgment was given for them on a demurrer to the plaintiff's evidence. The Supreme Court of the state affirmed the judgment, 167 Okl. 531, 30 P.(2d) 875, and put its decision on the grounds (a) that the suit was barred by the state statutes of limitation, and (b) that the Act of Congress of April 12, 1926, relied on by the plaintiff as avoiding such a bar, could not be applied, because, if applied, if would deprive the defendants, who are holding under the guardian's sale, of vested rights without due process of law. The court's opinion did not mention the federal restriction on alienation set up by the plaintiff; but, of course, the judgment necessarily meant that the court regarded the asserted restriction as not requiring a different result.

The plaintiff brings the case here by appeal, and complains that the Supreme Court of the state erred (1) in applying the state statutes of limitation over his objection that they could not be applied without bringing them into conflict with the federal statute restricting alienation, and (2) in holding the Act of Congress of April 12, 1926, invalid as applied to the situation disclosed.

The facts in the light of which these complaints are to be considered are as follows:

The plaintiff and his grandmother were full-blood Indians of the Creek Tribe, enrolled as such, and entitled to share in the allotment of the tribal lands among the members. She died before receiving her allotment, and after her death the land in question, which was part of the tribal lands, was allotted and patented in her right, the patent being issued to her 'heirs' without naming them. Under the applicable statute the heirs received the land as an inheritance from her and not as an allotment in their own right.¹ The plaintiff was one of the heirs. He also received an allotment in his own right; and thus, like many others, he had a personal allotment as well as an interest in inherited land.

Thereafter, in 1907, the county court of Hughes county, Okl., regularly appointed John A. Jacobs guardian of the plaintiff's person and estate, he then being a minor, and that being the county of his residence. In 1914 that court entered an order (1) reciting it was made after a hearing in the plaintiff's presence and at which he was examined; (2) finding he was then over the age of 21 years, but was incompetent to manage his own affairs and still in need of a guardian; (3) also finding Jacobs, the then guardian, was a proper person to be continued as such; (4) declining to accept a resignation tendered by Jacobs; and (5) ordering that the guardianship be continued, and that thereafter Jacobs should act 'as guard- ian for North Stewart, incompetent,' and should 'be governed by the laws relating thereto.'^1a Jacobs assented; and the subsequent proceedings were all entitled 'In the Matter of the Guardianship of Noah Stewart, an Incompetent.'

In May, 1916, the guardian by a verified petition requested the county court to authorize a sale of the plaintiff's interest in the inherited land for the purpose of securing money needed for his maintenance and support and for the improvement of his personal allotment. A month later the court entered an order reciting a hearing on that petition after lawful notice; finding the proposed sale was necessary for the purposes named; and directing the guardian to make the sale. Under that order the guardian made the sale at public auction to the highest bidder and reported it to the county court. July 11, 1916, the court entered an order (1) finding that due notice of the intended sale was given, that the sale was fairly conducted and legally made, and that the price was not disproportionate to the value of the property; (2) confirming and approving the sale; and (3) directing the guardian to execute a deed to the purchaser. The purchase price was paid to the guardian and he executed and delivered to the purchaser a deed, which was filed for record in the proper office July 12, 1916. The purchaser then entered into possession and he and his grantees remained in possession continuously thereafter. The defendants are the present claimants under the guardian's sale.

As part of the plaintiff's evidence, it was stipulated that the Secretary of the Interior had never removed any restrictions on the alienation of the inherited land, and that the same thing was true of the plaintiff's personal allot- ment. But the defendants, although joining in the stipulation, objected that the facts stipulated were immaterial.

August 4, 1917, the county court after a hearing entered an order adjudging that the plaintiff had become competent and discharging the guardian. The present suit was begun April 11, 1928.

The Supreme Court of the state (167 Okl. 531, 30 P.(2d) 875, 877) in applying the state statutes of limitation said:

'Under the provisions of section 1444, O.S. 1931, no action for the recovery of any estate, sold by a guardian, can be maintained by the ward, unless it is commenced within three years next after the termination of the guardianship, or when a legal disability to sue exists by reason of minority or otherwise, at the time when the cause of action accrues, within three years next after the removal thereof. The plaintiff could have commenced his action at any time within three years after August 4, 1917. Under the provisions of section 100, O.S. 1931, any person entitled to bring an action for the recovery of real property, who may be under any legal disability when the cause of action accrues, may bring his action within two years after the disability is removed. Under that statute the plaintiff could have brought his action within two years after August 4, 1917. Under the provisions of the second subdivision of section 99, O.S. 1931, an action for the recovery of real property sold by a guardian, upon an order or judgment of a court directing such sale, brought by the ward or his guardian, must be brought within five years after the date of the recording of the deed made in pursuance of the sale. Under that statute the plaintiff could have brought his action within five years after the 12th day of July, 1916.'

Under the state statutes thus described, the court held that the plaintiff's asserted right to call in question the guardian's sale was barred before the suit was begun and before the approval of the Act of Congress of April 12, 1926.

1. Was the guardian's sale, as directed and approved by the county court, a forbidden alienation within the meaning of any then existing federal restriction? The plaintiff insists it was and points to the Act of May 27, 1908, c. 199, 35 Stat. 312, as containing the restriction.

As a preliminary to considering that statute, it will be helpful to refer to the conditions and legislation which preceded its enactment.

The Creek Tribe was one of the Five Civilized Tribes, each of which owned and occupied a tribal domain in the Indian Territory. Congress never provided a territorial government for that Territory, but ultimately did establish local courts therein and invested them with probate, as well as civil and criminal, jurisdiction. The laws for the Territory consisted largely of Arkansas statutes put in force therein by Congress; and these statutes included chapters providing comprehensively for the administration of estates of decedents, minors and incompetents, and for the sale of their property. At first the adopted Arkansas statutes were not intended to be fully applicable to Indians, but Congress soon made them applicable to all persons, 'irrespective of race,' ² and later on declared that the courts in the Territory should have 'full and complete jurisdiction' of all 'estates of decedents, the guardianships of minors and incompetents, whether Indians, freedmen, or otherwise.'³

November 16, 1907, the territory of Oklahoma and the Indian Territory were admitted into the Union as the state of Oklahoma under an enabling act passed by Congress June 16, 1906, c. 3335, 34 Stat. 267, and amended March 4, 1907, c. 2911, 34 Stat. 1286. The enabling act and the Constitution of the new state united in declaring that, with exceptions not material here, 'all laws in force in the Territory of Oklahoma' at the time of the state's admission should be 'in force throughout the State' and that the 'courts of original jurisdiction of such State' should be the successors of 'all courts of original jurisdiction of said Territories.'

The laws of the territory of Oklahoma which were thus put in force 'throughout' the new state included comprehensive provisions for the administration of estates of decedents, the appointment of guardians of minors and incompetents, and the management and sale of their property. In the territory of Oklahoma jurisdiction over...