Ward v. Love County

Choctaw allottees (plaintiffs) held federally granted, tax-exempt land under a treaty the Supreme Court had already confirmed as vested and non-taxable in prior litigation; despite knowing of that pending and later-decided litigation, Love County (defendant) continued demanding taxes on the exempt land, threatening an 18 percent penalty and property sale, forcing the plaintiffs to pay under protest. When they sued in state court to recover the coerced payments, the Oklahoma Supreme Court held the payments were voluntary and no statute authorized a refund, and the plaintiffs sought Supreme Court review.