The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1913-06-17
LEGAL VICTORY FOR
TWO OCALl LAWYERS
Hampton and Anderson Won Meta
BILE Case for the CIark-Ray-
Johnson Company
(Times-Union. 1sth)

Without leaving the courtroom the
jury yesterday afternoon in the fed
eral court in the case of the United
States VS.. the Clark-Ray- johnson
Company rendered it's verdict of not
guilty, being so instructed TO do by
the court.
In this timber trespass case a great
many interesting legal propositions
were involved and the decision is
one of great importance in view of
the fact that the commissioner of
general land office has entered a
cancellation of great number of
acres OF land similarly situated and
there are a great number of suits
pending involving similar selections
and cancellations.
The decision is also one of great
Importance to great number of peo-
pie who have purchased such lands
and paid taxes thereon for more than
twenty years without any objection
upon the part of the government and
the reason of it is that in due time
these selections which have been can
celled will properly be restored and
innocent holders under the railroad
will obtain the lands and the damage
suits brought to recover the. value of
the timber or turpentine taken from
the land will necessarily fail.
Selections of Land Involved
The interesting case yesterday in
the United States district court in
volved the selections made by the
Florida Railway and Navigation Co.
in 1884
The suit was brought by the Unit
ed States to recover for alleged tres
passes and for the value of the tur-
pentine gum alleged to have been
taken from the lands by this COM
pany between the years of 1908 and
1908.
The case involved a construction
of the act Of May IT, 1856, commonly
known as the Florida land grant act,
which was an act by Congress grant
ing to the state in trust for the
Florida Railroad Company, subse-
quently known as the Florida Rail-
way and Navigation Company and
what is now the Seaboard Air Line
Railway, every alternate odd-num-
beped section of land lying within
six miles of either side of the rail
road as definitely laid out.
The lands were selected by the
Florida Railway and Navigation Co.
en- March "a. 1884, after it had COM
pleted the construction of the road
as far south as Wildwood, but in
this instance the selection. it is said,
was not approved
Selections Were Cancelled
The railroad company conveyed
the lands and under it the Clark
Ray-Johnson Company is said to
have acquired title and exercises acts
of ownership up until April 20, 1908,
when the commissioner of the gen.
eral land Office cancelled the selec-
tion.
The reason given by the commits
sioner, 1t is said, for cancelling the
selection was that in 1868 one Joel
p. Finley had made homestead en-
try of the lands involved which was
in 1877 cancelled by the land office
for failure to submit proofs. In
1875 and again in 1881 the railroad
company, it is claimed, had made a
REIMBURSEMENT of all lands actually
occupied and as to which bonaffde
improvements had been made, but
there was nothing to show any i'm
proyements made by Finley,
1t was eontended on behalf of the
lark-Ray-Johnson Company that the
grant being one conveying a present
title upon the completion of the road
and the filing of a map of definite
loaction the legal title passed upon
the railroad company complying with
the grant that the commissioner wa:
without power to make the cancella.
tion of the selection and that mere
homestead entry did not fall withiT
the REIMBURSEMENT unless it be showr
that the party was in actual posses
sion when the REIMBURSEMENT wa:
made and that he had made bona
fide improvements.
The case was tried yesterday upoT
an agreed statement of facts, eacl
party moving the court TO direct
verdict in its favor.
Decision of Court
The court held that upon com
pliance with the grant by a construc
ton of road and the filing of tn,
map that such act was a complianc
with the grant and that the Iega
title passed when this was done, 81
as TO take the matter out Of tn
hands of the commissioner and tn
relinquishment fled by the railroa,
company did not embrace a mer,
naked homestead entry where it wa
not shown that the party had mad
valuable improvements and that tn
title passed to the railroad eompan,