Source: https://www.legalcrystal.com/case/102173/johnson-vs-drew
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 14:49:26+00:00

Document:
The substantial rights of the defendant were not prejudiced by the ruling of the trial court sustaining the demurrer to the first equitable plea and refusing leave to file the second, and such ruling involved merely a question of state practice.
The evidence in the case shows that the particular lots of land described in the declaration were not embraced in the Fort Brooke reservation when the patent was issued.
Land Department, and to disposal in the ordinary way, upon the ground that he was in actual possession of the land at the time of the issue of the patent. The Act of Congress of July 5, 1884, c. 214, 23 Stat. 103, concerning the disposal of abandoned and useless military reservations, has no significance in this case, as the patent had issued and the title passed from the government prior to its enactment.
"Lot eight (8) of section nineteen (19), township twenty-nine (29) south, of range nineteen (19) east, and lot seven (7) of section twenty-four (24), in township twenty-nine (29) south, of range eighteen (18) east, containing about forty and nineteen one-hundredths (40.19) acres."
The defendant (now plaintiff in error) filed a plea of not guilty, and also a plea based on equitable grounds. A demurrer to this latter plea was sustained, and thereupon the defendant asked leave to file an amended equitable plea. This application was denied, the court holding that the grounds of defense set up therein were not sufficient. That plea alleged in substance that the plaintiff's title rested on a patent from the United States, issued on a location of Valentine scrip; that such scrip was, by the terms of the statute under which it was issued, to be located only upon unoccupied and unappropriated lands of the United States; that the land in controversy was at the time of the location of the scrip, a part of Fort Brooke military reservation, and was also in the actual occupancy of the defendant. The case came on for trial in September, 1889, and the defendant offered evidence in support of all of his defenses, including therein the matters set up in the equitable plea which he had been refused leave to file. This testimony was held insufficient by the court, and the trial resulted in a verdict and judgment for the plaintiff, which judgment was thereafter, and in June, 1894, affirmed by the supreme court of the state, whereupon the defendant sued out this writ of error.
"the unoccupied and unappropriated public lands of the United States, not mineral, and in tracts not less than the subdivisions provided for in the United States land laws."
"That all public lands heretofore reserved for military purposes in the State of Florida, which said lands, in the opinion of the Secretary of War, are no longer useful or desired for such purposes, or so much thereof as said Secretary may designate, shall be and are hereby placed under the control of the General Land Office, to be disposed of and sold in the same manner and under the same regulations as other public lands of the United States, provided that said lands shall not be so placed under the control of said General Land Office until said opinion of the Secretary of War, giving his consent, communicated to the Secretary of the Interior in writing, shall be filed and recorded."
"War Department, July 24th, 1860"
"Sir: Referring to the correspondence between the two departments on the subject, I have the honor to enclose to you a report of the Quartermaster General showing that Fort Brooke is now in readiness to be turned over to the Department of the Interior, in pursuance of the arrangements made to that effect."
"Very respectfully, your obedient servant,"
"John B. Floyd, Secretary of War "
"Hon. J. Thompson, Secretary of the Interior."
"War Department, Washington City, April 6, 1870"
"The Honorable Secretary of the Interior"
"Sir: I have the honor to reply to a letter addressed to this department by the Commissioner of the General Land Office on the 26th ultimo relative to the public lands occupied by this department for military purposes at Fort Brooke, Florida, and to inform you that there is no longer any objection to their disposition by the General Land Office under the laws governing the subject."
"Wm. W. Belknap, Secretary of War "
"Washington City, May 29th, 1878"
Town of Tampa on the south with the Hillsborough River, running thence along said line which bounds the Town of Tampa on the south, and in prolongation thereof north, 68 degrees 45 minutes east, 2,976 feet; thence north, 4 degrees 28 minutes west, 2,342 feet; thence north, 38 degrees east, 1,052 feet; thence south, 52 degrees east, 459.2 feet; thence south, 38 degrees west, 1,052 feet; thence south, 4 degrees 28 minutes east, 1,931 feet; thence south, 5 degrees 29 minutes east, 2,007.2 feet, to the Hillsborough Bay; thence westerly, along the shore of Hillsborough bay and the shore of Hillsborough River, to the place of beginning -- containing 155 and one-half acres, more or less. A plat of the reservation and report and notes and survey by Lieutenant James C. Bush, 5th artillery, are enclosed herewith."
"I have the honor to be, sir, with great respect,"
"Geo. W. McCrary, Secretary of War "
"shows the contiguity of the land in question to that portion of the Fort Brooke military reservation last relinquished by the Secretary of War to the Secretary of the Interior."
The diagram is not very definite, and it is difficult to determine therefrom the boundaries of either the earlier or later Fort Brooke military reservation. The defendant also offered evidence tending to show that he entered into occupation of the tract in controversy in 1871, and had continued in occupancy ever since.
The ruling of the trial court in sustaining the demurrer to the first equitable plea and refusing leave to permit the second to be filed presents no question for the consideration of this Court, for it was held by the supreme court of the state that under the plea of not guilty, all the matters of defense set up in these equitable pleas could be offered in evidence and made available, and in fact the defendant on the trial did offer his testimony to establish them. So the substantial rights of the defendant were not prejudiced, and the ruling involved merely a question of state practice.
"There is doubt whether the documentary evidence offered by the defendant shows that the particular lots of land described in the declaration were embraced in the Fort Brooke reservation when the patent was issued."
continued in such possession until after the restoration in 1883, and this is in accord with the averments in the equitable plea. This also indicates that the land was not included in any government reservation. Further and finally, the plat on file in the General Land Office, and a part of the public records, puts the question at rest and locates the land outside the reservation. Hence, as shown by the testimony and by the public records, this land ever since 1870 has been part of the public lands of the United States, and subject to disposal in accordance with the general land laws. It was unappropriated land within the meaning of the act of 1872.
swamp land or not, saline land or not, mineral land or not, presents a question of fact not resting on record, dependent on oral testimony, and it cannot be doubted that the decision of the Land Department, one way or the other, in reference to these questions is conclusive, and not open to relitigation in the courts, except in those cases of fraud, etc., which permit any determination to be reexamined. Johnson v. Towsley, 13 Wall. 72; Smelting Company v. Kemp, 104 U. S. 636 ; Steel v. Smelting Company, 106 U. S. 447 ; Wright v. Roseberry, 121 U. S. 488 ; Heath v. Wallace, 138 U. S. 573 ; McCormick v. Hayes, 159 U. S. 332 ."
"But it is also equally true that when, by act of Congress, a tract of land has been reserved from homestead and preemption or dedicated to any special purpose, proceedings in the Land Department in defiance of such reservation or dedication, although culminating in a patent, transfer no title, and may be challenged in an action at law. In other words, the action of the Land Department cannot override the expressed will of Congress or convey away public lands in disregard or defiance thereof. Smelting Company v. Kemp, 104 U. S. 636 , 104 U. S. 646 ; Wright v. Roseberry, 121 U. S. 488 , 121 U. S. 519 ; Doolan v. Carr, 125 U. S. 618 ; Davis' Adm'r v. Weibbold, 139 U. S. 507 , 139 U. S. 529 ; Knight v. Association, 142 U. S. 161 ."

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