United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Grayson v. Harris, 279 U.S. 300 (1929)

Grayson v. Harris

No. 116

Argued January 10, 1929

Decided April 8, 1929

279 U.S. 300

Syllabus

1. The extension to the Indian Territory by Act of Congress (Act of May 2, 1890, § 31, c. 182, 26 Stat. 81, 94) of § 4471 of Mansfield's Digest of the Statutes of Arkansas, a seven-year statute of limitations, operated to make that statute, with the settled construction placed upon it by the Arkansas courts, a law of the United States as though originally enacted by Congress, and its construction and effect present federal questions to be determined on review by this Court in the exercise of its independent judgment. P. 279 U. S. 303.

2. Under § 4471 of Mansfield's Digest of the Statutes of Arkansas (extended to the Indian Territory by the Act of May 2, 1890, § 31, c. 182, 26 Stat. 81, 94), requiring suits for the recovery of land to be brought within seven years "after title or cause of action accrued," the period of limitations does not begin to run against an heir from the date of the acquisition of title by inheritance, where no cause of action had at that time accrued, as where no one was in adverse possession or claiming any title thereby. P. 279 U. S. 304.

129 Okla. 281, 285, reversed.

Certiorari, 278 U.S. 555, to the Supreme Court of Oklahoma to review a decision reversing a judgment which confirmed title of petitioners to certain lands claimed by respondents by adverse possession.