Sweet v. Schock

Background

Owners of city lots in Okmulgee trace their title to Sarah Smith, a Creek freedwoman who received a homestead allotment under congressional acts. Her allotment deed said the land would be non‑taxable and inalienable for twenty-one years. Later federal laws allowed townsite surveys and, when approved, the unrestricted sale of such lots. Smith petitioned the federal Commission and the Secretary of the Interior to remove the alienation restriction, sold part of the land, and she and her grantee platted lots that became part of the city. The county put those lots on the tax rolls and the lot owners sued to stop taxation.

Reasoning

The central question was whether Smith’s action in getting permission to remove the sale restriction made the lots taxable. The Court reviewed the sequence of congressional acts and concluded that Congress had provided that land from which restrictions were removed would be subject to taxation. Because Smith voluntarily sought and accepted removal of the restriction and then sold and platted the land, she and her grantees accepted the statutory consequence that the land would be taxable. The Court viewed this as enforcing the bargain created by the federal statutes, not as taking a vested right away.

Real world impact

The decision means that when an allotted owner asks to remove sale restrictions and then plats or sells town lots with the required approvals, those lots may be placed on local tax rolls. Owners who acquire such lots cannot claim the original tax exemption if the restriction was properly removed and the statutory conditions are met.