Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1895-12-12
CUBERO GRANT DECISION
Land Courts Liberal Views Regard
ing Land Grants Sustained BY SUI
preme COurt-ReyieW of a Far
Reaching Opinion.

3
has been received by the New MEXICAN.
1t is of very decided public interest, as 1T
finally disposes of all doubts as to the
soundness of the liberal views entertained
by the court of private land claims touch
ing the proof necessary to establish the
validity of grants, and thus has distinct
bearing upon the status of numerous
other grants that have either been passed
upon by the court of original jurisdic-
ton or are still pending before that
tribunal.
RESTRICTIONS COMMENDED FOR.
In the able presentation of their side of
the case the attorneys Of the United
States CO Intended for a more restricted
view of the Cubero case than that taken
by the court of private land claims, hold
ing that grant claimants must establish
perfect grants with perfect paper titles,
and denying that the alleged testimonio
of said granJ was either lost or destroyed
as represented by the claimants. The SUI
preme court distinctly declined to take
this view of the case. The syllabus of
the opinion is as follows:
SYLLABUS OF OPINION.
l. The United States courts take judi
cial notice of the Mexican laws and regn-
lations pertaining to grants made before
the cession.
2. On an issue rs to whether the Mexi-
can governor of New Mexico made, in
1888, certain grant to number of per-
sons for the establishment of the town of
Cubero, five witnesses, two of whom
claimed to be among the original grant
ees, and the others of whom were alive at
the time of the alleged grant, and claimed
under the original grantees, testified to
the making of the grant and the giving
of possession Hereunder, and two of
them testified to a current report that the
official copy of the grant was stolen.
Documents dated in 1885, 1910 and 1841
we're produced, showing a settlement of
disputes between the town of Cubero and
certain pueblo as to boundaries; and
the people of Cubero, dated in 1855, stat
ing that they were in possession under
Mexican grant dated about 1885, and that
the original papers were lost. To ex-
plain the absence of the original grant
from the Mexican archives, evidence was
given that about 1870 large number of
the archives were lost, and only part
thereof recovered, and it was shown that
the registry of Mexican grants in the
Office of the territorial surveyor general
was fragmentary and defective. 1t also
appeared that the claimants under the
grant had been in undisturbed posses
sion of the land for sixty years. Held,
that the evidence sustained finding that
the grant was made.
TOUCHING POINTS RAISED.
Respecting the nice point raised by the
governments attorneys as to whether the
courts of the United States can take judi
cial notice of the laws and regulations of
Mexico pertaining to grants made prior
to the cession the court holds to the doc
trine that "the laws of those territories,
under which titles were claimed, were
never treated by the court as foreign
laws, to be decided as q question of fact.
It was always held that the court was
bound judicially to notice them, as much
doing this, however, it was undoubtedly
necessary to inquire into official customs
and forms and usages."
Regarding the suggestion that the Sec
ton of the act creating the court of pri-
vate land claims, which provides that "the
decree shall in all cases refer to the treaty,
law or ordinance under which such claim
is confirmed or rejected" implies con-
trary view, the court says: "We do not
SO regard that provision, nor do we per-
ceive in any features of the act an inten-
tion on the part of congress to restrict
the powers of the court recognized by the
previous decisions"
CONCLUSIONS OF THE COURT.
After reviewing the large mass of I'M
contracted evidence, the conclusion is
reached that the court below was plainly
right in finding that the claimants had
satisfactorily sustained the allegations of
their petition. Continuing the court
says:
"Not only was there evidence of the
existence of an original grant by the gov
eminent of New Mexico, and of the loss
of original records sufficient to Justify
the introduction of secondary evidence, but
there is the weiRhty fact that for nearly
sixty years the claimants and their an
cestors have been in the undisturbed
possession and enjoyment of this tract of
land. The counsel for the government,
indeed, contend that the court of private
land claims and this court have no power
to presume grant upon proof of long
continued possession only; that their
power is confined to confirming grants
lawfully and regularly derived from Spain
and Mexico.
at is scarcely necessary for us to con-
slider such question, because, as we
have seen, there is ample evidence from
which to find that these settlers we're put |
in juridical possession under grant
from the governor of New Mexico, who,
under the laws then in force, had authorl-
~ to make the grant. However, We do
not wish to be understood as undervalu-,
ing the fact Of a possession so long and |
uninterrupted a. disclosed in this case.
Without going at length into the sub ject,
II may be safely said that by the weight
Of authority,ss we'll as the preponderance
If opinion, 1t is the general rule of Ameri-
,an law that q grant will be presumed
1pon proof of an adverse, exclusive, and
possession for twenty
years, and that such rule will be applied