Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1895-11-18
Juan Chavez, ct al.

Appealed from the court of private
land claims, November II, 1895.
In view of this large body of uncontra-
dicted evidence we think that the court
below was plainly right in finding that
the claimants had satisfactorily sustained
the allegations of their petition. Not
only was there evidence of the existence
of an original grant by the government
of New Mexico, and of theloss of original
records sufficient to justify the introduc-
tion of secondary evidence, but there is
the weighty fact that for nearly sixty
years the claimants and their ancestors
have been in the undisturbed possession
and enjoyment of this tract of land. The
counsel for the government, indeed, con-
tend that the court of private land claims
and this court have no power to presume
a grant upon proof of long-continued
possession only; that their power is con-
fined to confirming grants lawfully and
regularly derived from Spain and Mex
leo.
1t 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 were put
in juridical possession under grant
from the governor of New Mexico, who,
under the laws then in force, had author
ity to make the grant. However, we do
not wish to be understood as undervalu-
ing the fact of a possession 30 long and
uninterrupted as disclosed in this case.
Without going at length into the subject,
it may be safely said that by the weight
of authority, as we'll as the preponder-
ance of opinion, it is the general rule Of
American law that grant will be pre-
sumed upon proof of an adverse, exclus-
i've, and uninterrupted possession for
twenty years, and that such a rule will be
applied az presumptio juris ct de jure,
wherever, by possibility, right may be
acquired in any manner known to the
law. Il Greenleaf Ev. 18th ed. sec. II;
Ricard vs.. Williams, Wheat, 1903; Cool
idge vs.. Learned, Pick, 504).
Nothing, it is true, can be claimed by
prescription which owes its origin to,
and can only be had by matter of record;
but lapse of time, accompanied by acts
done or other circumstances, may war
rant the jury in presuming grant or
title by record. Thus, also, though
lapse of time does not, of itself, furnish a
conclusive bar TO the title of the SOW
ereign, agreeable to the maxim, nullum
tempus occurrit regi; yet, If the adverse
claim could have legal commencement,
juries are advised or instructed to pre-
sumo such commencement, after many
years of uninterrupted possession or en-
joyment. Accordingly royal grants have
been thus found by the jury. after an in
definitely long-continued peaceful en-
joyment, accompanied by the usual acts
of ownership, Green, Ev. sec.45).
The principle upon which this doctrine
rests is one of general jurisprudence, and
is recognized in the Roman law and the
codes founded thereon (Best's Principles
of Evidence, Sec. 1861 and was, therefore,
a feature of the Mexican law at the time
of the session.
Finally, the rule of the law of nations,
that private property in territory ceded
by one nation to an other, when held by a
title vested before the act of session,
should be respected; the express provis-
ion to that effect contained in the treaty
between Mexico and the United States;
the evidence of the fact of grant; legal
under the forms of Mexican law, and of a
jurisdicial possession given hereunder,
and the strong presumption growing out
of an exclusive and uninterrupted posses
sion and enjoyment Of more that half a
century, bring us to concur in the decree
of the court below.
The objection of the Atlantic & Pacific
Railroad company, as granted from the
United States, of part of the tract in