Opinion

Seminole Nation v. United States

  • 102 Ct. Cl. 565
  • 1944 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 10
  • 1944 WL 3678
Court
United States Court of Claims
Filed
Dec 4, 1944
Status
Published
Author
Whaley
On the bench
Booth, Jfodge, Littleton, Madden, Recalled, Whaley, Whitaker
Cited by
12 cases
Authority
More cited than 12.6%

The opinion

Whaley, Chief Justice,

concurring in part and dissenting in part:

I concur in the result in Case No. L-51.

I dissent to the majority opinion in Case No. L-208.

In my judgment the lands were taken from the Seminole Nation when [1867] the Pottawatomies were placed thereon under the terms of a treaty made with them, 15 Stat. 531 , and not when [1891] the lands were surveyed and alloted after the Pottawatomies had ceded the lands back to the defendant. 26 Stat. 989 , 1016. Shoshone Tribe v. United States, 299 U. S. 476 .

I cannot find anything to justify the price of seven dollars an acre for unimproved western lands in the early nineties, especially so when the Government was selling parcels of this same tract to white settlers for one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre. The prices obtained by allottees and settlers *633 upon resale were for the land after improvement. The value of improved lands should not establish the standard of value of unimproved lands.

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

A word about cookies

We need a few to keep you signed in and the library working. The rest help us see which pages people use and where they get stuck. They stay off unless you say yes.