Source: https://openjurist.org/228/us/6
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 22:19:28+00:00

Document:
FRANKLIN K. LANE, Secretary of the Interior.
Argued March 5 and 6, 1913.
Retirement of Walter L. Fisher as Secretary of the Interior suggested, and Franklin K. Lane, his successor in office, substituted March 6, 1913, as the party defendant in error herein.
Messrs. Frederic D. McKenney, James M. Givens, James W. Zevely, Richard William Stoutz, John Spalding Flannery, William Hitz, and Edgar Smith for plaintiff in error.
Assistant Attorney General Cobb and Solicitor General Bullitt for defendant in error.
On August 21, 1907, a parcel of allottable land containing 50 acres, in the Cherokee Nation, was selected as an allotment for Eva Waters, a minor Cherokee child belonging to the class whose rights to participate in the distribution and allotment of the tribal funds and lands were sustained in the recent decision in Gritts v. Fisher, 224 U. S. 640, 56 L. ed. 928, 32 Sup. Ct. Rep. 580. A week later William Twist and the relator Herman Knight, enrolled Cherokees, respectively selected the westerly 20 acres and the easterly 30 acres of the same tract as allotments for themselves, and in furtherance of their selections instituted contests against that of Eva Waters. A hearing on Twist's contest resulted in a decision in his favor by the Commissioner to the Five Civilized Tribes. On an appeal to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs that decision was reversed, and a further appeal carried the contest before the Secretary of the Interior. Knight's contest was held in abeyance, before the Commissioner to the Five Civilized Tribes, awaiting the outcome of Twist's. In this situation negotiations were had between representatives of Twist and Knight and the parents of Eva Waters, acting in her behalf, looking to a withdrawal of her selection, subject to the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, in order that there might be no obstacle to the allowance of the later selections of Twist and Knight. The negotiations resulted in an application to the Secretary for permission to effect such an adjustment of the two contests on the payment, for the use of the minor, of an adequate consideration for her potential interest in the land. After a hearing on this application, the Secretary, on May 10, 1909, rendered a decision approving the proposed adjustment on condition that there be paid, for the use of the minor, $10,000 for her claim to the 20 acres in Twist's contest, and $15,000 for her claim to the 30 acres in Knight's. The Secretary then sent to the Commissioner to the Five Civilized Tribes the following telegram: 'Lands in Twist and Knight cases against Waters will be awarded to Twist and Knight, respectively, upon payment of $25,000 for use of minor Waters. Contestants given including 15th to make payment. . . . Prepare deeds to respective contestants and have them executed and forwarded here for approval. Report promptly by wire.' Within the time named the $25,000 was paid to the Commissioner, for the use of the minor, and thereupon patents to Twist and Knight were executed by the principal chief of the Cherokee Nation and were forwarded by the Commissioner to the Secretary for his approval.
Under the regulations governing the institution and disposition of contests over allotments a party was accorded thirty days after a decision by the Secretary within which to apply for a rehearing. Within this period the parents of Eva Waters, acting in her behalf, applied to the Secretary for a rehearing of the matter covered by his decision of May 10, 1909, it being asserted in that connection that her potential interest was worth much more than the sum named in the decision, and that her parents' consent to the adjustment had been grounded on inaccurate and misleading information. The application was entertained, and, after a hearing thereon in which Twist and Knight participated, the Secretary rendered a further decision vacating the former one, and disapproving the proposed adjustment, on the ground that the consideration which the minor was to receive was not at all adequate. The Secretary also ruled that both contests should be considered and disposed of on their merits and that the $25,000 should be returned. The money was not actually repaid, but this may have been because those who paid it were as yet unwilling to take it back. In consequence of his later decision the Secretary declined to approve the patent executed by the principal chief, or to permit them to be recorded or delivered.
On July 16, 1909, Knight's contest was called for hearing before the Commissioner to the Five Civilized Tribes in pursuance of the Secretary's direction that it be considered and disposed of on its merits, and Knight then appeared and protested against any further steps therein, insisting that, in virtue of the matters here recited, he had acquired a fixed and absolute right to the patent, and that the administrative officers were without authority to proceed with the contest. The protest was disregarded, and on the same day he applied to the supreme court of the District of Columbia for a writ of mandamus, as before indicated, to compel the Secretary of the Interior to deliver to him the patent for the 30 acres, and to perform any other acts necessary to clothe him with the full legal title.
'We do not mean to say that cases may not arise in which a party is justified in coming into the courts of the District to assert his rights as against a proceeding in the Land Department, or when the Department refuses to act at all. United States v. Schurz, supra, and Noble v. Union River Logging R. Co. 147 U. S. 165, 37 L. ed. 123, 13 Sup. Ct. Rep. 271, are illustrative of these exceptional cases.
'Neither do we affirm that the administrative right of the Departments in reference to proceedings before them justifies action without notice to parties interested, any more than the power of a court to determine legal and equitable rights permits action without notice to parties interested.
Inasmuch as the decision of the Secretary, revoking his prior approval of the proposed adjustment, was not arbitrary or capricious, but was given after a hearing, and in the exercise of a judgment and discretion confided to him by law, it cannot be reviewed, or he be compelled to retract it, by mandamus. United States ex rel. Ness v. Fisher, 223 U. S. 683, 56 L. ed. 610, 32 Sup. Ct. Rep. 356.
The decisions in Garfield v. United States, 211 U. S. 249, 53 L. ed. 168, 29 Sup. Ct. Rep. 62, and Ballinger v. United States, 216 U. S. 240, 54 L. ed. 464, 30 Sup. Ct. Rep. 338, are not in conflict with the views here expressed. In the former the writ was awarded to compel the respondent to erase and disregard an entry which he arbitrarily and without notice had caused to be made upon a public record, thereby beclouding the relator's right to an Indian allotment. In the latter the writ was awarded to compel the delivery of a patent which was withheld solely through the unauthorized action of the Secretary in entertaining and sustaining a proceeding in the nature of a contest after the expiration of the time limited by statute for instituting such a proceeding.

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