United States v. Mott

• Decision Date: 04 May 1929
• Docket Number: No. 343.,343.
• Citation: 33 F.2d 340
• Parties: UNITED STATES v. MOTT.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Oklahoma

33 F.2d 340 (1929)

UNITED STATES v. MOTT.

No. 343.

District Court, N. D. Oklahoma.

May 4, 1929.

John M. Goldesberry, U. S. Atty., of Tulsa, Okl., and Chas. B. Selby, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., for the United States.

C. B. Rogers, of Tulsa, Okl., for defendant.

POLLOCK, District Judge.

By this suit the government, as guardian of a full-blood Creek incompetent Indian, one Jackson Barnett, seeks the recovery of $15,000 of government bonds heretofore held by the honorable Secretary of the Interior in trust for said Barnett under the provisions of sections 1 and 2 of the Act of Congress May 27, 1908 (35 Stat. 312), said bonds having been by the Secretary purchased for the account of said incompetent Indian Barnett, out of accumulated royalties coming into his hands from oil and gas leases made by the Indian on his restricted allotment in the Creek Nation, said oil and gas leases having been made with the consent and approval of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs and the Secretary of the Interior representing the government.

The fact is, out of a very large amount of cash and bonds in the hands of the honorable Secretary of the Interior derived from royalties in oil and gas found and produced on the restricted lands of the Indian Jackson Barnett, being thereto so requested, and after being fully advised, the honorable Secretary turned over to the use and possession of the wife of said Indian, Jackson Barnett, one Anna Laura Barnett, a large amount of bonds theretofore held in trust in his possession for the use and benefit of said Jackson Barnett, and at the same time caused to be pledged in the Equitable Trust Company of New York the further sum of $500,000, face value, of bonds to be by that institution held in trust and a portion of the proceeds paid to said Jackson Barnett. Of the bonds of Jackson Barnett so held in trust by the honorable Secretary of the Interior and so distributed to Anna Laura Barnett, she paid over and delivered to one Harold C. McGugin, her attorney, the sum or amount face value of $150,000. Thereafter he, the said McGugin, paid over and delivered to defendant herein the sum or amount, face value, of $15,000 of said bonds. This sum or amount of said bonds, or their value, the government seeks to recover from defendant by decree in this present suit.

In a suit in the Kansas District, a bill was filed by the government to recover against said McGugin the bonds so distributed to the wife of Barnett and turned over to said McGugin. This bill on motion of defendant was dismissed. The original bill of complaint in this suit, in form and averments like that in the McGugin case, was on motion of defendant dismissed. Thereupon the government was granted leave to file an amended bill of complaint, to which amended bill of complaint, when filed, defendant again filed a motion to dismiss. The government, virtually confessing said motion to dismiss the amended bill of complaint, again came into court, and requested leave of court to file a second amended bill of complaint. On this application for leave to file the second amended bill of complaint and on objections to the granting of such leave, the parties have been heard in oral argument and on printed and written briefs, and the matter comes now on for decision.

The government in this second amended bill of complaint bottoms its right to a...