3 Indian Terr. 432 | Ct. App. Ind. Terr. | 1900
Counsel for appellants 'in his brief adopts as his assignments of error the grounds set up in appellants’ motion for new trial in the court below, — 12 in number, — which are in substance as follows: (1) Because the verdict is contrary to the law and the evidence. (2) Because of the refusal of the court below to permit Agnes GHockett to testify that she had prior to the year 1889 been admitted to citizenship in the Cherokee Nation, and in holding that the action of the Dawes commission, subsequently affirmed by the United States court for the Northern district of the Indian Territory, was conclusive of the status of said Agnes G. Hockett as to her citizenship in said nation. (3) Because the court erred in admitting in evidence the purported certificate of purchase'issued to plaintiff by J. C Ward, sheriff, because same did not conform to the provisions of the Cherokee law. (4) Because the court erred in admitting in evidence the printed poster notice of sale of the premises in controversy. (5) Because the court erred in holding that defendants were intruders, and thereby precluded them from asserting their right to the property in controversy, or to payment for improvements placed thereon by them in good faith, and thereby prevented them from availing themselves of the provisions of the act of June 28, 1898 (Ind. T. Ann. St. 1899, c. 3a,) known as the “Curtis Bill.” (6) Because the court erred in charging the jury as to the law, and directing a verdict for
The contention of appellants that they were not permitted to avail themselves of the provisions of the Act of June 28, 1898 (Ind. T. Ann. St. 1899, c. 3a), known as the “Curtis Bill,” cannot be sustained, because it clearly appears from the record that the appellants were not in possession of the premises in controversy with the “consent and acquiescence” of an Indian citizen, and they were therefore mere trespassers and intruders. The judgment of the court below is affirmed.