THE OKLAHOMA BAR JOURNAL 22 | JUNE 2024 Statements or opinions expressed in the Oklahoma Bar Journal are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Oklahoma Bar Association, its officers, Board of Governors, Board of Editors or staff. O.S. 121 (1971), has escheated to the State of Oklahoma. 5. The word “person” as used in the Oklahoma Constitution, Article XXII, Section 1, and 60 O.S. 121 (1971), includes bodies corporate, and such bodies do not avoid the provisions thereof by obtaining articles of domestication to transact business in the State of Oklahoma.3 In 1979, a scholarly article was published in the Oklahoma Bar Journal4 that outlined the history behind the adoption of the constitutional bar and the statutory bar and discussed the 1979 AG opinion (1979 OK AG 286). In 1981, the Oklahoma Supreme Court issued an opinion that overruled the AG’s position that a foreign corporation, which became domesticated, was barred from acquiring and owning land in Oklahoma.5 In this Cartwright case, the AG initiated a state court proceeding to cause the escheat of Oklahoma land held by a corporation formed in Canada but properly domesticated in Oklahoma. After discussing the terms of the constitutional bar, the court held, “We conclude that the drafters of the Oklahoma Constitution did intend to include corporations within the terms ‘person’ and ‘alien’, as they are used in Section 1 of Article 22 of the Oklahoma Constitution.”6 And further, “For the above stated reasons, we hold that the drafters of the Oklahoma Constitution meant to include corporations within the restrictions on alien ownership provided for at Section 1 of Article 22.”7 However, thereafter, the court held, “After examining the Constitutional and statutory provisions dealing with the treatment of domesticated corporations, we conclude that a foreign corporation, once it has complied with the domestication procedures established under Oklahoma law, is, for the purposes of restrictions on alien land ownership, a resident of the State – and thus no longer subject to the restrictions of Article 22, Section 1, of the Oklahoma Constitution.”8 The court also stated its ruling another way: “For this reason, we believe it was the intent of the drafters of the Constitution that domesticated corporations be considered ‘bona fide residents’, as that term is used in Article 22, Section 1. In short, we hold that although alien corporations are subject to the restrictions on land ownership, such restrictions are no longer applicable once the alien corporation becomes a ‘bona fide resident of the State’, and that such residency is accomplished when the alien corporation becomes a domesticated corporation in Oklahoma.”9 Therefore, the Cartwright decision appears to reject the restriction as stated in the 1979 AG opinion and as stated in 2023 through SB 212 (amending Section 121), which restrictions prohibit an alien from acquiring or holding title to “land in this State either directly or indirectly through a business entity or trust.” The Cartwright decision clearly holds that a domesticated foreign corporation is not subject to such constitutional bar. In addition, shares in a corporation or units in a limited liability company are personal property, not real property, and arguably, such interests do not constitute ownership in real property or land.10 Consequently, it appears an argument can be made that the language in the constitutional bar applying a bar to acquiring and owning “land” but not to acquiring and owning personal property would not bar such stock/unit ownership. In addition, the language of Section 121 in both the pre-SB 212 and post-SB 212 versions does not expressly bar such ownership of personal property. To the contrary, both versions of Section 121 provide, “He or she shall have and enjoy in this state such rights as to personal property as are, or shall be accorded a citizen of the United States under the laws of the nation to which such alien belongs, or by the treaties of such nation with the United States.” Absent evidence that a particular country fails to provide reciprocity to allow U.S. citizens to own personal property in such other country, the Section 121 restriction on an alien owning land “indirectly through a business entity or trust” appears to be problematic when considered alongside the holding in Cartwright. After the Cartwright decision was issued, two more scholarly articles were issued to summarize the rules on alien ownership of land in Oklahoma in light of that case.11 Taken together, 1) the primary holding of the Cartwright decision – which established that any domesticated alien corporation is not subject to the restrictions of Article 22, Section 1 – combined with 2) the constitutional and statutory authority for aliens to acquire and hold personal property (such as corporate shares and LLC units) appear to raise a significant question: How is it possible to reconcile the Cartwright holding (based on the Oklahoma Constitution) with the Legislature’s SB 212,
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