McBride v. Farrington

Citations

• 131 F. 797
• 1904 U.S. App. LEXIS 4317

Syllabus

<p>1. Indian Territory — Indian Lands — Mineral Leases — Validity.</p> <p>By treaty of 1855, 10 Stat. 1116, a certain district within the Indian Territory was set off to the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations, to be held in common, under the control of the tribal organizations in the district of its own jurisdiction. By Act Chickasaw National Legislature, passed 1886 (Laws Chickasaw Nation, p. 188), any resident citizens (not less than three) were authorized to form a corporate company to engage in developing coal mines. This act was amended September 24, 1887 (Laws Chickasaw Nation, p. 190), so as to include petroleum, natural gas, and asphaltum. Reservation of all lands containing deposits of such minerals was made by Act Cong. June 28, 1898, c. 517, § 13, 30 Stat. 498, which required payment of royalties for the benefit of the Indians; and the Chickasaw statute also provided that after the formation of the company, and on compliance with such statute, the corporation was authorized to contract with capitalists to develop and work the mines. Raid, that such acts impliedly authorized the leasing of coal and oil lands allotted to such Indians for a limited period for the tribal or individual benefit of such Indians, and that such leases were not void on their face.</p> <p>2. Same — Cokpokations—Stockholders—Individual Liability — Statutes.</p> <p>Where a corporation was organized under the laws of Wisconsin to develop mining lands in Indian Territory, and its stock was used in payment for an assignment of leases of Chickasaw mineral lands, such leases not being void ab initio, the burden of proof was on the ifiaintift to show actual fraud in the assignment of such leases to the corporation, in an action to enforce a stockholder’s personal liability for corporate debts under the statutes of that state declaring that a stockholder shall be personally liable where stock has been issued, except for money or property estimated at its true value actually received by the corpor