Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1891-04-28
FORNINST A FRAUD.
The Fictitious Beales Land Grant OF
6O,OOO,OOO Acres Goes Glim-
mering Into Everlasting
Darkness.
The Supreme Court Of the United States
Again Sustains the Maxwell
Land Grant Title-A Glorious
Victory for Hon. Frank
Springer.

The Inter State Land Appeal from tho
Company, Appellant, Circuit Court OF
ys. }the United States
The Maxwell Land for the District OF
Grant Company. Colorado.
April 6, 1891
Mr.. Alexander Graves and Mr.. VIM.
Warner, for appellant.
Mr.. Frank Springer, for appellee.
. Mr.. Justice Lamar delivered the opin-
ion of the court.
This is suit in equity, brought by the
Interstate Land company, a Colorado
corporation, against the Maxwell Lana
Grant company, a corporation organized
under the laws of the. Kingdom OF the
Netherlands, and doing business in Colo
RADIO, pursuant to the laws Of that state,
to establish its title to large tract OF land
in Las Animas county, Colo, for which
the defendant has United States patent,
and to restrain the defendant from pro.
scouting certain suits in ejectment against
various parties who are tenants of the
plaintiff. A demurrer to the original bill
was sustained by the court below presided
over by Mr.. Justice Brewer, then circuit
Judge, his opinion being reported in Al
Fed. Rep, 275. The plaintiff then amend
ed it's bill in some particulars, and the
defendant again demurred. The demur-
rer was sustained, and the plaintiff de-
clining to further amend, the bill was dis
missed. From that decree an appeal was
prosecuted to this court.
The case as made by the pleadings on
the demurrer is as follows: The lands in
dispute are part of the tract embraced in
the patent to Charles Beaubien and Qua.
dalupe Miranda, dated May 10, 1879, fol
what is known as the Maxwell Lane
8allalGy or winch was assaneu by The
United States in the Maxwell Land Grant
Case, l21 U. S., 1926, and S. c., on petit
ton for rehearing, 1872 U. S., 365. In
that case it was held, among other things
after elaborate argument of counsel and
upon most thorough and careful exami
nation by the court of all the points in.
volved, that the grant by the Republic Of
Mexico, in 1S41, to Beaubien and Miriam.
da, as confirmed by the act of congress
of June 81, 1860, the title of which had
passed to the Maxwell Land Grant com.
pany (the defendant in this case) by yari.
GUS mesne conveyances, was valid grant
and that the survey and the patent issued
upon it, as well as the original grant
were entirely free from any fraud on the
part of the grantees or those claiming
under them. The decision of the court
in that case is not now assalled; but the
contention is, substantially, that the con.
firmation and patenting Of the grant to
Beaubien and Miranda operated merely
as quit-claim of the United States ia
whatever rights of property the govern.
ment acquired from Mexico by the treaty
of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and did not, in
any manner, affect claims to the same
land derived from the Republic of Mex.
leo, which antedated the original grant tc
Beaubien and Miranda.
The claim of the plaintiff here rests
upon an alleged empresarto grant to John
Charles Beales and Jose Manuel Royuela,
in 1882, by the government of Coahuils
and Texas, then two Mexican states
under one provincial administration
Whatever rights to the lands in dispute
were acquired by the original empresarios,
or colonizing contractors, have passed to
the plaintiff under various mesne convey.
ances. The petition of the empresarios
and the acceptance of their proposition
by the Mexican authorities, which to.
gether constitute the basis of plaintiffs
claim, are as follows:
Petition and grants to Jose Manuel Ro-
yuela and John Charles Beales for the
years 1882 and '33.
To his Excellency the Governor of the State of
| Coahuila and TexPs.
Sir: The citizen, Jose Manuel Royuela,
native of Saltillo, and there married,
and John Charles Beales, native Of
England, settled in Mexico, and there
married to a Mexican subject, having
children, with all due respect represent to
your excellency,
That, being very DESTROYS of augment
ing the population, wealth and power of
the Mexican nation, and at the same time
of affording to a certain number of
virtuols and industrious families the
meas of acquiring an honorable sub.
sistence by cultivating tract OF land in
the ancient province of Texas, and being,