Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1919-11-18
GOVERNMENT WINS
FIGHT To CANCEL
OIL LAND PATENTS

10y mo7TlNe JouREa- SPECIAL LEAcEn wlREI
Washington, Nov. 1.-THE govern
ment by an opinion today in the SUI
preme court won its fight to have can
celled patents for 5000 acres of Cali
fornia oil lands valued at $4,000, 900.
alleged to have been obtained through
fraud by the Southern Pacific rail-
road.
The government charged that the
company at the time the patents were
issued in 1904 under a railroad grant
which reserved mineral lands, knew
the lands to be valuable for oil.
The federal district court held that
while there had been no actual dis
covery of oil on the land, surrounding
conditions clearly indicated that it
was valuable for oil and the circuit
court of appeals which reversed this
opinion, is now in turn reversed by the
supreme court.
In rendering the opinion Justice
Van Deventer said the southern Pa
cifiC officials were not acting in good
faith" owing to their efforts to pre-
vent the fact becoming known that
they were seeking to obtain the land,
vent the fact becoming known that they
were seeking to obtain the land, and
that they were attempting to obtain
the patent by representing that the
lands were not mineral when they be-
lieved the fact was otherwise"
after considering all the evidence
he said, I'VE think it is adequately
shown that the lands were known to
be valuable for oil when the patent
was sought and obtained, and by this
we mean that the known conditions at
that time were such as reasonably to
engender the belief that the lands
contained oil of such quality and in
such quantity as would render its ex-
traction profitable and justify eXpen-
ditures to that end"
Regarding the eompany's contention
that general land office agent exam
med the lands and reported them as
non-mineral, the court said the report
was made in another connection and
was not considered by the government
in approving the company's selection
1T did not relieve the company
from showing that the land selected
were not mineral" said the opinion,
nor did the company understand that
1t had any such effect. Besides if the
report could be considered here, it
would be without any real evidential
value, for it appears from testimony
given by the agent at the hearing that
he was not a geologist or familiar with
oil mining and that his examination of
the lands was at best only superficial"
San Francisco. Calf, Nov, 1.-THE
5000 acres Of California oil lands re-
turned to the government from the
Southern Pacific company through
cancellation Of patents by the ssu-
preme court today are in the Elk hills
region of Kern county near McKit-
trick. They are part of a grant made
by the government to the predecessors
in the interest of the Southern Pacific
IN 1866 for the promised development
Of the region. Patents to the lands
were not perfected by the company
until December IL, 1904.
eminent was started in 1910, when it
was determined that they were partly
mineral, whereas the original grant
covered non-mineral lands solely Gov
eminent biologists determined that
the lands should be in the Taft presi-
Dental withdrawal order of 1912, and
hey were thereupon ordered to the
naval reserve.
The United States district court or
dered the dissolution of the patents
but this decision was overturned by
the United States circuit court of APP
peals here. The decision today over
turns the circuit court,