Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/524bv.pdf
Page Number: 85

524US1

Unit: $U73

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UNITED STATES v. BEGGERLY

Opinion of the Court

court’s ancillary jurisdiction, relating back to the Adams
28 U. S. C.
litigation, and on the Quiet Title Act (QTA).
§ 2409a. We hold that respondents were not entitled to
relief on either of these grounds.

The land in dispute between the United States and re-
spondents is located on Horn Island. Situated in the Gulf
of Mexico approximately 13 miles southwest of Pascagoula,
Horn Island is currently within the State of Mississippi.
It
was, at various times during the late 18th and early 19th
centuries, controlled by France, Britain, and Spain.
It is
part of the territory that came under the control of the
United States as a result of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803.
respondents’ predecessor-in-
In 1950, Clark Beggerly,
interest, purchased color of title to two tracts of land on Horn
Island at a tax sale in Jackson County. Beggerly paid $51.20
for one 626-acre tract. He and a friend also purchased a
second tract for $31.25. Beggerly retained 103 acres upon a
later division of this second tract.

In 1971, Congress enacted legislation authorizing the De-
partment of the Interior to create the Gulf Islands National
Seashore, a federal park on lands that include Horn Island.
16 U. S. C. § 459h. The legislation authorized the Secretary
of the Interior to acquire privately owned lands within the
proposed park’s boundaries.
§ 459h–1. The National Park
Service (NPS) began negotiating with respondents to pur-
chase the land. Before any deal could be completed, how-
ever, the NPS learned that the United States Government
had never patented the property. Believing that this meant
that respondents could not have had clear title, the NPS
backed out of the proposed deal.

During discovery in the Adams litigation, respondents
sought proof of their title to the land. Government ofﬁcials
searched public land records and told respondents that they
had found nothing proving that any part of Horn Island had
ever been granted to a private landowner. Even after the
settlement in the Adams litigation, however, respondents