Source: https://openjurist.org/183/us/602/midway-company-v-frank-w-eaton-m-h
Timestamp: 2019-04-26 07:42:30+00:00

Document:
FRANK W. EATON, Leonidas Merritt, Merrill M. Clark, Richard H. Fagan, and Margaretha Lonstorf.
Argued December 4, 5, 1901.
The plaintiff in error claims title under a United States patent issued to its grantor, one Frank Hicks, upon a homestead settlement. The defendants in error claim under locations of what is commonly known as 'Sioux half-breed scrip,' issued under the act of July 17, 1854. 10 Stat. at L. 304, chap. 83. These locations, it is alleged, were prior in time and right to the claim of Hicks, and therefore the patent was illegally issued to Hicks. It was prayed that the title represented by the patent be adjudged to be held in trust for the defendants in error, and that the plaintiff in error be required to convey such title to them in proportion to their interests set forth in their cross bill.
The controversy turns upon the validity of the scrip locations. Their validity was adjudged by the district court, and by the supreme court of the state. 79 Minn. 442, 82 N. W. 861. This writ of error was then sued out.
On the 20th of July, 1885, the lands having been duly surveyed, a plat and survey of the township in which the lands were situated were 'duly filed in the local land office at the city of Duluth, Minnesota, and thereupon, and on the 21st day of July, 1885, upon application of the said Orillie Stram, acting by and through her said attorney in fact, said certificate of Sioux half-breed scrip number 19D was adjusted to and upon the lands in controversy' (they were specifically described), and the scrip was then and there duly located upon said lands as surveyed lands, and the locations were allowed by the officers of the local land office at Duluth, there not being at that time, nor at the time the scrip was located upon the lands when unsurveyed, nor at any other time, any valid adverse claim to said lands; and on the 21st of July, 1885, receiver's final receipts and certificates of entry were duly and regularly issued to said Orillie Stram, and duly and regularly recorded in the counties of Lake and St. Louis, Minnesota, within a few days thereafter.
That on the 20th of July, 1885, one Thomas Hyde and one Angus McDonald respectively made application to make preemption filings on portions of the lands in controversy, which applications were denied both on the ground of the prior locations of the scrip and that the applications were not made in good faith, but in fraud, and in violation of the pre-emption laws. And it was determined by the local land office and sustained by the Commissioner of the General Land Office, and by the Secretary of the Interior, that neither Hyde nor McDonald ever had or obtained any rights whatsoever by reason of their application or any subsequent proceedings, but, notwithstanding, said Hyde and said McDonald 'made an attack upon the said decisions of the Land Department some time in November, 1885, and upon the location of the said certificates of scrip and the entry of lands thereunder.' A hearing was had on the 6th of April, 1886, and the local land officers sustained the scrip locations. An appeal was taken to the Commissioner of the General Land Office, and he held 'adversely to the scrip locations.' An appeal was then taken to the Secretary of the Interior. A hearing was had before the Secretary February 18, 1889, and he held and determined that neither Hyde nor McDonald had any interest or valid claim to the lands, but notwithstanding, also held that the scrip locations were illegal and invalid, and that neither Orillie Stram nor those claiming under her were entitled to the lands for the following reasons: (1) that the improvements made upon the land when it was unsurveyed were not made under the personal supervision of Orillie Stram, and that she had not had personal contact with the land; (2) that the power of attorney to Eaton to locate the scrip, and the power of attorney executed at the same time to Leonidas Merritt to sell the lands which should be located, operated as an assignment of the scrip, and were in violation of the act of July 17, 1854, and the entry of the lands therefore was not for the benefit of said Orillie Stram; (3) that the subsequent location and adjustment of the scrip to the lands after the latter were surveyed were ineffectual in view of the previous attempt to locate the scrip, and in view of his (the Secretary's) decision relative to the question of improvements; (4) that Orillie Stram had no power to alienate the lands before location of the scrip, or to contract for the sale of them, or to grant a power of attorney to sell the same for her after they should be located, but held that she had the right to sell immediately after location of the scrip. As a deduction from these conclusions, the Secretary held that the lands were still public lands, and open to entry. The decision of the Secretary was attached to the findings as an exhibit.
The deed recited the location of the scrip in the land office at Duluth, June 16, 1883, by Eaton, as the constituted and appointed attorney in fact of the Strams, and that the title thereby vested in Orillie Stram. It also recited the survey of the lands and the adjustment of the scrip and entry to such lands, and 'thereby the aforesaid scrip and entry were adjusted July 21, A. D. 1885, thereby specifically and perfectly describing the land filed upon for me, the said Orillie Stram, by the said Frank W. Eaton, and intended to be entered on June 15, A. D. 1883, in the name of the said Orillie Stram, by our attorney in fact, the said Frank W. Eaton.' It also recited the power of attorney given to Leonidas Merritt, acknowledged it, and ratified and confirmed the conveyance by him to Eaton.
Messrs. Walter Ayers and P. H. Seymour for plaintiff in error.
Messrs. Jed L. Washburn, Luther C. Harris, Charles A. Towne, and William D. Bailey for defendants in error.
The decision of the controversies in this case depends upon the validity or invalidity of the scrip locations, either originally when the land was unsurveyed, or subsequently when the location was adjusted to the land as surveyed.
The act of Congress of July 17, 1854 (10 Stat. at L. 304, chap. 83), authorized the issue of scrip to the half-breeds of the Sioux Nation of Indians in exchange for certain lands, which scrip might be located (1) upon any land within the Sioux half-breed reservation; or (2) 'upon any other unoccupied lands subject to pre-emption or private sale;' or (3) 'upon any other unsurveyed lands not reserved by government, upon which they [the half-breeds] have respectively made improvements. It is provided in said act 'that no transfer or conveyance of any said certificates or scrip shall be valid.' On the latter provision of the act the plaintiff in error bases the contention that the scrip is not assignable, and that the power of location is strictly personal to the Indian, and must be made whether on surveyed or unsurveyed land either by him or for his benefit, and that the improvements on unsurveyed land must be made under his personal supervision and direction; that he must come in personal contact with the land. And it is hence asserted that the powers of attorney given to Eaton and Merritt were virtual assignments of the scrip, and frauds upon the act of Congress; that the improvements were made, not by Orillie Stram, the half-breed, or for her benefit, but by Eaton, and for his benefit; and that the subsequent adjustment of the locations of the land after its survey was made for him, not for her; for his benefit, not for hers. On the other hand, the defendants in error contend that the prohibition against the assignment of the scrip is strictly of the scrip as such, not of the rights or powers conferred by it. That the provision of the statute is not a prohibition upon the alienation of the land, but is intended to protect the government against controversies about the transfer of the scrip, and to require and secure all of the steps and proceedings to be in the name of the Indian, and the title to be issued in his name. It is claimed, therefore that the requirements of the statute have been observed; that the locations were made in the name of the Indian, and for her benefit. And it is also claimed that if there was any defect in the location upon the land when unsurveyed, by reason of the insufficiency of the improvements or by whom erected, that defect was supplied by the location of the scrip after the land was surveyed, and the acceptance of the location of the scrip by the local land office, there being then no adverse rights to the land. And further that the power of Eaton to make the location for the Indian was ratified by her (if it needed ratification), and all rights which inured to her were conveyed by her warranty deed to Eaton.
These contentions exhibit the controversy between the parties, and present the only questions upon which we think it is necessary to pass, and the questions are certainly close ones. The Interior Department has not always given the same answer to them, and the latest decision of that Department is opposed in the case at bar by the courts of Minnesota.
In the circular issued February 22, 1864, those instructions were repeated, and the following added: 'When not located by the reservee in proper person the application to locate must be accompanied by the affidavit of the agent that the reservee is living, and that the location is made for the sole use and benefit of said reservee.' Prior to the issuance of the circular of February 22, 1864, to wit, in 1863, a contest came on appeal to the Land Department, between a location made by Sioux scrip which was issued to one Sophia Felix, and a claim under a pre-emption settlement. The Commissioner of the Land Department decided against the scrip location on two grounds, one of which was: 'That 'the location of the scrip, although made in her name, was not made by her in person, nor by her guardian or duly authorized agent, for her use and benefit, but by an unauthorized person, and for the use and benefit of a person having no legal interest therein."
'As to your second objection, I remark that this kind of scrip is by the law declared to be not assignable. In this case Sophia Felix has signed the application to locate her own scrip. The signature must be treated by us as genuine, when there is no proof to the contrary; and when she has made no complaint against this use of her scrip. The fact that the scrip was carried to the land office and the business transacted by another person, does not affect the validity of her entry of the land.
'As the certificate of location issued in her name, and the patent will issue to her, neither the register's report nor the affidavits of third parties can be admitted to establish the interest of any other person in the location.
'That the application must be accompanied with the affidavit of the Indian, or other evidence that the land contains improvements made by or under the personal supervision or direction of said Indian, giving a detailed description of said improvements, and that they are for his personal use and benefit; in other words, you should be satisfied that the Indian has a direct connection with the land and is claiming the same for his personal use. Unless such evidence is filed, you will reject the application.
Then came the decision of the Secretary of the Interior, Vilas, in Allen v. Merrill, 8 Land Dec. 207, and in Hyde v. Eaton [12 Land Dec. 157]. They were affirmed on review by Secretary Noble. Those cases laid down the propositions upon which plaintiff in error relies in the case at bar. Between the decision in those cases and that in the Felix Case there was an interval of thirty years, and pending that interval there were decisions of the courts which took the same view as Secretary Otto expressed in the Felix Case.
'It was the intention of Congress that the right to acquire public lands by means of this scrip should be a personal right in the one to whom the scrip issued, and not property, in the sense of being assignable; but no restraint is imposed upon the right of property in the land after it is acquired by location of the scrip. In the scrip itself the half-breed had nothing which he could transfer to another; but his title to the land, when perfected under it, was as absolute as though acquired in any other way. It follows that any attempt to transfer the scrip, directly or indirectly, would be of no effect as a transfer. The title to the scrip would remain in him, and the title to the land acquired by it would vest in him, just as though no such attempt had been made. Such attempt to transfer would not involve any moral turpitude nor the breach of any legal duty, as is the case with an attempt to transfer a pre-emptive right. It would be simply ineffectual, because the scrip is not transferable.
'Holders of such certificates or scrip were forbidden to transfer the same, and the defendants contended that the real object of the agreement was to effect a transfer of the same; but the state supreme court overruled the defense, and referred to one of their former decisions, assigning the reasons for their conclusion that the defense was not well founded. Gilbert v. Thompson, 14 Minn. 544, Gil. 414.
We do not think those cases were as confined as represented. It is very evident that the courts did not think that 'parol additions' could unite and make single the documents, or, when thus united, they constituted a violation of the statute. And it is a deduction from the opinions that it was not the manner of proof, but the substance of what was proved or to be proved, that was passed upon. If evidence was excluded in Gilbert v. Thompson, it was admitted and considered in Thompson v. Myrick; and in both cases the delivery of scrip and its location under letters of attorney were decided to be valid, forming in one case a good title, and in the other constituting a ground for a compulsory conveyance from the half-breed. The moral and legal effect of the transfer of scrip was declared by the court in Gilbert v. Thompson. The first involved, the court said, no 'turpitude nor the breach of any legal duty, as in the case of an attempt to transfer a pre-emption right; of the second, it was said, it would be of no effect as a transfer; that 'the title to the scrip would remain in him (the half-breed), and the title to the land covered by it would vest in him (the half-breed) just as though no such attempt had been made.' The power of attorney, however, was given full legal effect as authority to sell the land located. It is true the court excluded parol evidence of an intention to transfer the scrip. But why? Manifestly because the transactions did not constitute a transfer of the scrip as such, and their legal character could not be destroyed by parol proof that they were intended to be something else. In other words, the court decided that the transactions were intended as a conveyance of the land, and represented that intention, and could not be shown to be a transfer of the scrip. And in Thompson v. Myrick the court observed: 'We can conceive of no reason why Myrick was not at liberty, either before or after location was made, to enter into an agreement to secure the title (inuring from the location) to the plaintiff upon the payment of an agreed consideration.' The reasoning and the conclusions of the supreme court of Minnesota were approved by this court, as we have seen.
Felix was a half-breed to whom scrip had been regularly issued. It was obtained from her by some person unknown, 'by wicked devices and fraudulent means;' the power of attorney omitted the name of the attorney, the number of the scrip, and the description of the land. The quitclaim deed also omitted the name of the grantee and the description of the land; otherwise the instruments were in legal form. The transaction was held to be a fraud upon Felix, and Patrick was adjudged to hold the title he obtained by the location of her scrip and the deed to him, as trustee for her. The court made no question of the validity of the location. Indeed it was necessarily assumed, and the half-breed given the benefit of it. It may be said that neither of the litigants was concerned to dispute the location, or to assert the provision of the act of Congress prohibiting the transfer of the scrip. If so, that provision, from the point of view of the case at bar, was not in judgment, and the expression in regard to it must therefore be strictly confined to the facts and the issue which was presented.
This brings us to the consideration of the amount and kind of improvements required by the act of 1854 to be erected upon unsurveyed land. The act is not explicit. It does not define the extent or kind of improvements. It permits a location to be made upon 'unoccupied land . . . upon which they (half-breeds) have respectively made improvements.' Residence is not required, either initial or subsequent, temporary or continuous. The purpose of the provision of the statute would seem, therefore, necessarily to be identification, notice of appropriation, and the kind and extent of improvements only to be necessary for that. But we may concede, as held by Secretary Noble, 'that the requirement of improvements must have some substantial significance,' and 'it is not satisfied by doing something which is a betterment of the land but of too slight a character to mark anything more than a pretext of compliance.' The improvements erected on the land in controversy satisfied the rule whether they were as it is claimed Secretary Vilas found, or were as the trial court found in the present case.
It is further urged that the improvements were not erected for the benefit of the Indian, nor did she have 'a direct connection with the land;' and that those requirements are made conditions precedent to a valid location by the circulars of the land office issued in 1872 and subsequently.
1. It was decided in Thompson v. Myrick, 20 Minn. 205, Gil. 184, that a valid location could be made by an attorney in fact of the Indian, and that he could, 'either before or after the location was made,' enter into an agreement to secure or convey the title. That case was affirmed by this court, and the facts of the case at bar bring it within the ruling.

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