Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1904-08-26
Settled at Last. ...Fina| Decree
Signed Yesterday by Asso.
ciate Justice John R.
McFie,
LAW OF INHERITANCE
The Judge Holds That the Natural Chill.
dren of One Grantee in 1899 Were
Legal Aeirs...Property Very
Valuable.

A final decree was filed yesterda!
forever quieting the title to the Plaza
Colorado Grant in Rio Arriba County
This has been an interesting case anC
has been pending in the District Court
for the County of Rio Arriba since
1900, when suit in partition was
filed to quiet title by Reyes Gonzales
VS.. j. Patricio Chaves, ct al. Ex-Gov.
ernor L. Bradford Prince was the attor-
ney for the plaintiffs and Eugene A.
Fiske appeared for some of the de-
PENDANTS. Hons. T. B. Catron and Ben
M. Read also figured in the case. This
was probably the most complicated
case cf the kind ever tried in this
territory. 1t appeared that in the year
1889 grant was made by Don Gaspar
Domingo de Mendoza, then governor
and captain general Of the Province of
New Mexico, to Rosalia Valdez and her
two brothers, Ignacio and Juan Loren
20 Valdez. The land is situated in Rio
Arriba County, near Abiquiu, and is
known as Plaza Colorado. The grant
was confirmed by the United States
Court of Private Land Claims on the
Sd day of September, 1896, and con-
tains 1878 acres. Several hundred an
cient Spanish deeds were presented
and passed upon by the court and
tied There was long legal fight over
the meaning of many of the Spanish
deeds and great mass of testimony
was taken. Some of the attorneys
claimed that many of the deeds con-
veyed besides parcels of farming lands
undivided interests in the grant A Pc
culiar question was raised in this case.
The principal grantee was Rosalia Val
dez, an unmarried woman. 1t was
shown by the testimony that she had
to be the present owners of the inter
est of said Rosalia Valdez in the said
grant. 1t appears that she lived at one
time with priest, and the Referee.
A. B. Renehan, reported as conclu-
sion of law, that the heirs of the chill
dren of Rosalia Valdez were not enti-
tied to inherit, because under the Span
ish law, the children of the clergy
were declared to have no inheritable
blood. Attorney Fiske, for the heirs
of Rosalia Valdez, filed exceptions to
this finding and the court sustained
him, and decided that the testimony
did not show who was the father OF
the children of Rosalia Valdez and
that it having been proven that they
were her natural children, under the
Spanish law they were entitled to in
herit the mothers property and that
no inference should be indulged In to
disinherit the legitimate heirs OF the
said Rosalia Valdez. Under this de-
cision the heirs of Rosalia Valdez be-
come owners of five-eighths (5-8) Of
said grant. This grant is small in size,
but it is very valuable on account OF
the mineral deposits thereon and be-
cause it contains much excellent farm
ing and grazing land. The tract Is
trave1 ese<i by the Chania River. anil.
while the whole grant lies within the
exterior boundaries of the Juan Jose
Lobato Grant, 1t was exempt from any
conflict by the decree of the Land
Court
The final decree in the case was
signed yesterday by Associate Justice
John R. McFie in chambers in the dis
trict court for Rio Arriba County, and
this long drawn out litigation is now
ended. The decree is lengthy but very |
interesting to lawyers and all those in |
terested in Spanish land laws.