The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-04-04


Babaconari, made in 1882; area, 49,
900 acres.
San Rafael del Vale, made in 1888,
area, $4,000 acres.
Nogales de, Elias, made in 1874; area,
10000 acres Gin Arizona).
The Nogales grant was rejected
unanimously. This was a sumner to
the counsel for the grant in question,
they having filed a petition for a re-
nearing OF the case on the ground that
the only consideration was seven and a
half leagues, thus getting enough land
in the grant to reach into Arizona and
include the town of Nogales. With the
grant knocked out the application will
hardly prevail.
In the Sonita grant case, the most
important of all the cases tried at this
term the Court held the grant void on
the following ground:
The proceedings were initiated on the
10Th of May, 1921. Various steps were
taken under the alleged customs pre-
vailing at that time down to the 18th
day Of November, 1921, when, it was
claimed, the purchase money was paid,
but that no grant title was found there
on until the 18th day of May, 1925, by
Juan Miguel Riesgo, commissary gen
Ieral of public credit and war of the re-
public of Mexico for the state of the
west.
Justice Sloss, in his opinion, held:
That on March 1, 1921, the plan of
Iguaia was adopted, which was the de-
clarauon of independency; that the
declaration was carried to a successful
termination, and under the revolution
OF september 81, 1921, the City of Mex
leo was evacuated and the provisional
government established, composed of a
regency of five and a legislative body.
He held that no equities vested in the
was paid, which was subsequent to the
date of the independence as well as
subsequent to the establishment of the
new government independent of Spain.
and that the officials could only exer-
else official functions for the purpose Of
preserving peace and good order and
the rights Of property as they existed;
that no subsequent legislation was en-
acted authorizing any one to complete
titles or to reform initiated titles, and
that the acts of all Spanish officers
with reference to the public domain
subsequent to the plan of Iguala, March
l, 1921, and the establishment of the
provisional government in September,
1921, were void.
The substance of this branch of the
case is that no act of the Spanish Of
ficials with reference to the public do
main subsequent to March l, 1921, could
bind the Mexican government, and
therefore did not bind this government.
Upon the proposition that Reisgo was
Mexican official who is alleged to have
issued the title, and that therefore his
authority must be presumed, he holds
that he was a creature of the law, and
that an examination of the act under
which his office was created defined
his powers and duties, and did not
authorize him to grant lands complete
titles, or confirm the same in any way
that being a creature of the statutes
his powersm ust be measured thereby,
and the principal of presumption did
not apply.
The decision met with the approval
of nearly every one here, for this prac-
tically settles the question of the va
lidity of grants in the southern portion
| Of Arizona. 1t is the general opinion
that any appeal to the United States
Supreme Court must result in a verdict
in favor of the settlers, thus emphasiz-
ing in a more marked degree the JUS
tice Of the position they have always
maintained, and setting forth clearly
the pretext3 upon which the claims of
| the grantee rested.