United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Dickson v. Luck Land Co., 242 U.S. 371 (1917)

Dickson v. Luck Land Company

No. 600

Submitted December 6, 1916

Decided January 8, 1917

242 U.S. 371

Syllabus

Issuance of a fee simple patent for an allotment in the White Earth Indian Reservation, Minnesota, under the clause of the Act of March 1, 1907, c. 2285, 34 Stat. 1015, 1034, which declares that

Page 242 U. S. 372

such allotments when held by adult mixed-blood Indians shall be free of restrictions on alienation and patentable in fee, implies an administrative finding that the patentee was of age when the patent issued.

While this finding is decisive of the allottee's age for the purpose of sustaining his right to the title freed from the restrictions which Congress had imposed by the allotting acts, c. 119, 5, 24 Stat. 388; c. 24, § 3, 25 Stat. 642, it does not conclusively establish his majority for the purpose of determining whether a deed of the land which he made after patent was subject, under the state law, to disaffirmance as a deed made in infancy.

The restrictions being removed and the fee simple patent issued, the allottee, pursuant to the Act of May 8, 1906, c. 2348, 34 Stat. 182, becomes subject to, and entitled to the benefit of, the laws of the state governing the transfer of real property, fixing the age of majority, and declaring the disability of minors.

132 Minn. 396 affirmed.

The case is stated in the opinion.