Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/85/255/
Timestamp: 2019-04-26 01:58:47+00:00

Document:
1. In an action of ejectment where both parties claim the premises in controversy under patents of the United States issued upon a confirmation of grants of land in California made by the former Mexican government, both of which patents cover the premises, the inquiry of the court must extend to the character of the original grants, and the controversy can only be settled by determining which of these two gave the better right to the premises.
2. In determining such controversy, a grant of land identified by specific boundaries or having such descriptive features as to render its identification a mattes of absolute certainty gives a better right to the premises than a floating grant although such floating grant be first surveyed and patented.
3. Semble that as between two floating grants of quantity within the same general tract which is sufficiently large to satisfy both, where neither grantee had received official delivery of possession under the former government and where, as a consequence, there was no measurement or severance of the claim of either front the public domain, the party whose claim is first surveyed and patented will hold the better right to the land covered by his patent, and that the other party will be compelled to have his claim located outside of that patent.
4. The present case distinguished from cases in this Court and in the Supreme Court of California in which imperfect or equitable claims or interests arising since the acquisition of the country were set up against the legal title held under patents.
5. A survey under a grant approved by the district court of the United States under the Act of June 14, 1860, is conclusive as against adverse claimants under floating grants.
6. Whilst proceedings are pending before the tribunals of the United States for the confirmation of claims to land under grants of the former Mexican government, the statute of limitations of California does not run against the right of the claimants to the land subsequently confirmed to them. That statute only begins to run against the title perfected under the legislation of Congress from the date of its consummation.
7. For the application of the doctrine of equitable estoppel such as will prevent a party from asserting his legal rights to property, there must be some intended deception in the conduct or declarations of the party to be estopped or such gross negligence on his part as to amount to constructive fraud. Accordingly, when a claimant under a Mexican grant located his claim on land different front that which was finally surveyed and patented to him, and announced to others that his claim covered the land thus selected, but the government interfered and located the claim elsewhere, held that he was not estopped from asserting a right to the premises surveyed and patented to him.
"situated on the western side of Feather River, and stretching along ('sobre') the said river from 39°33'45' northern latitude, to 39°48'45', and forming on this line a square one league in breadth. It is called Boga, as it is rendered manifest by the adjoining sketch."
"consisting of five sitios ganado mayor [square leagues], situate on the westerly side of Feather River, in the center of which there is a piece of land called Boga, the first boundary of the said land beginning at 39°33'45' degrees north latitude, as appears from the corresponding plan."
however, no difficulty in fixing the line intended on the surface of the earth by measurement, from the junction of the two rivers Sacramento and Feather, which was several leagues south, and which junction was marked by a line designated by a degree of latitude containing a similar error.
The natural objects indicated on the map -- Feather River, which was the eastern boundary, and a creek called Honcut, emptying into Feather River, and three conspicuous peaks in the immediate neighborhood called "The Three Buttes" -- rendered the identification of the tract a matter easy to any surveyor. Notwithstanding these natural objects, Larkin, the claimant, who had acquired the interest of the grantee, contended that the parallel of latitude designated should govern the location of the land, and accordingly he selected the land he desired under the grant several leagues farther north than the line actually intended and finally adopted by the government. The Surveyor General of California made a survey of the tract for the information of the land commission before confirmation, and in that survey he committed a similar error. Subsequent to the confirmation, he made another survey following substantially the preliminary one. With both the surveys thus made Larkin was satisfied, and he stated to persons inquiring that his claim under the grant covered the land selected by him and thus surveyed. The grant was confirmed by the board on the 17th of July, 1855, and an appeal from its decree having been taken by the United States, the Attorney General gave notice that the appeal would not be prosecuted, and on the 9th of February, 1857, the appeal was dismissed by the district court and the claimant allowed to proceed upon the decree of the board as upon a final decree.
"That before proceeding to take the testimony or to determine on the validity of any objection so made to the survey and location as aforesaid, the said courts shall cause notice to be given by public advertisement, or in some other form to be prescribed by their rules, to all parties in interest, that objection has been made to such survey and location, and admonishing all parties in interest to intervene for the protection of such interest."
"On hearing the allegations and proofs, the court shall render judgment thereon, and if in its opinion the location and survey are erroneous, it is hereby authorized to set aside and annul the same, or correct and modify it, and it is hereby made the duty of the surveyor general, on being served with a certified copy of the decree of said court, forthwith to cause a new survey and location to be made or to correct and reform the survey already made so as to conform to the decree of the district court, to which it shall be returned for confirmation and approval."
An appeal is given to the Supreme Court.
Under this act, such proceedings were had that on the 15th of January, 1863, a new survey was approved by decree of the district court, which became final June 26, 1865, by dismissal of an appeal taken therefrom. A patent of the United States was issued for the land, in accordance with this survey, to the claimant October 5, 1865. The plaintiff deraigned by due conveyances from the heirs of the patentee an undivided three-fourths interest in the premises patented, which include the land in controversy.
"a tract of unoccupied land in the vicinity of the River Sacramento bounded on the north by the slopes [faldas] of the Sierra Nevada; on the south by John A. Sutter's lands, and on the east by Feather River,"
consisting of four square leagues, and refers to a plan or map accompanying the petition of the grantees. This map represents the land as lying on Feather River, with its northern boundary resting on the faldas of the Sierra Nevada mountains, but with no other descriptive features to indicate its northern or southern boundary. The grant was subject to the approval of the Departmental Assembly, but never received such approval. The country passed into the possession of the United States in the following month, July 7, 1846. Between the slopes or base of the mountains and the line of Sutter's land many leagues intervened.
The grant was confirmed by the board of land commissioners July 17, 1855, and its decree was affirmed by the district court on appeal March 2, 1857. The Attorney General having given notice that no further appeal would be prosecuted, the district court entered an order, on the ninth of the same month, that the claimants be allowed to proceed under the decree of March 2 as a final decree.
the premises since 1852, claiming title under the Mexican grant, proceedings for confirmation, and patent of the United States.
The statute of limitations of California, passed in 1863, enacted that no action for the recovery of real property or its possession should be maintained, unless the plaintiff, his ancestor, predecessor, or grantor was seized or possessed of the premises within five years before the commencement of the action, with a proviso in substance to the effect that parties claiming real property under title derived from the Spanish or Mexican governments or the authorities thereof which had not been finally confirmed by the United States or its legally constituted authorities should be limited to five years after its passage, within which to bring an action for the recovery of the property or its possession, but if the title had been thus finally confirmed, the parties should be subject to the same limitations as though they derived their title from any other source -- that is, they should have five years from such final confirmation. The statute in another section declared that by final confirmation was meant the patent of the United States or the final determination of the official survey of the land under the Act of Congress of June 14, 1860. The proviso has since then been repealed, but before the repeal, the present action was brought.
The circuit court gave judgment for the plaintiff for the premises, and the defendants brought the case to this Court on writ of error for review.
This is an action of ejectment for the possession of certain real property situated in the County of Butte, in the State of California. Both parties claim the demanded premises under patents of the United States issued upon a confirmation of grants made by the Mexican government. The plaintiff claims under the junior patent issued upon the earlier grant; the defendants claim under the senior patent issued upon the later grant. Both patents cover the premises in controversy, one square league of land, and the main question in the case, as in all cases where patents founded upon previously existing concessions overlap, is which of the two original concessions carried the better right to the premises.
patents issued upon confirmed Mexican grants, has not been heretofore before this Court for consideration, but the principles which must govern its determination are neither new nor difficult.
valid," and the estate granted was not afterwards liable to be divested except by regular proceedings on denouncement. [Footnote 2] The power of the governor over it had ceased. He could neither revoke the grant nor impair the interest of the grantee by any attempted transfer to others.
be determined by the magistrate delivering possession to the grantees. As a grant of quantity, it required, under the Mexican laws, such delivery of possession to attach it to any particular tract, called, in the language of the country, juridical possession, and that proceeding was never had. But it is immaterial for the disposition of the present case whether the grant to the Fernandez be treated as one of specific boundaries or of quantity; it could not interfere with and displace a prior grant of defined boundaries.
On the argument, great stress was placed by counsel upon the fact that the claim under the Fernandez grant, though later in date, was first surveyed and patented. But this fact is not a matter of any weight in this case. Both parties holding under patents have a standing in a court of law, and the court is thus compelled to look beyond the patents to the original source of title and to the character of that title as it existed under the former government. The protection which by the treaty the United States promised to the grantees extended to rights which they then held. The confirmation established the validity of the claims of the parties as they then existed -- that is, it determined that their claims were founded upon concessions of the former government which were genuine and entitled to recognition so far as they did not interfere with previously existing rights of others, which the government was also bound to respect. Confirmation established nothing more; it did not change the character of the grant to Flugge as one of specific boundaries, nor that to the Fernandez as one of quantity. The surveyor, in surveying the claim upon the first grant, was still under as great obligations to follow the boundaries which it specified, repeated in the decree of confirmation, as though the second grant had never been issued or confirmed.
determine, whenever the question arises, whether prior rights of other parties have been interfered with by the survey of a confirmed claim upon which a patent has issued. They cannot, in the action of ejectment, correct the survey made, but they can determine its inconclusiveness to the extent essential to the protection of the prior rights of other parties. And whenever two surveys covering the same tract are approved by the political department, and a legal controversy arises respecting the land between claimants under the different surveys, the question which of the two surveys appropriates the premises in dispute is necessarily transferred to the judiciary. The fact that two surveys embrace the same land is itself proof that either one of the original concessions was improvidently issued and to the extent of its interference with the other was inoperative, or that error has intervened in one of the surveys.
establishing without other proof the validity of the claim and its rightful location as against all parties asserting, in the action of ejectment, merely imperfect or equitable titles or interests acquired since the country passed under the jurisdiction of the United States. Actions of ejectment are founded upon the legal title, and parties contesting the title of the patentee in a court of law, it is there said, must show a superior legal title.
But in this case, both parties stand upon patents; both have in these instruments the conveyance of the government and a recognition of their respective concessions under the former government. In a controversy founded upon either patent as against imperfect or equitable claims or interests obtained since the acquisition of the country, the same language might be repeated which is used in the cases cited. But in the present controversy between parties claiming under two patents, each of which reserves the rights of other parties, the inquiry must extend to the character of the original concessions. The controversy can only be settled by determining which of these two gave the better right to the demanded premises.
As between two floating grants of quantity within the same general tract, which is sufficiently large to satisfy both, where neither grantee had received official delivery of possession under the former government, and where, as a consequence, there was no measurement or severance of the claim of either from the public domain, it may be that the party whose claim is first surveyed and patented will hold the better right to the land covered by his patent, and that the other party will be compelled to have his claim located outside of that patent. There would be great difficulty in finding any legal reason for invalidating the action of the government in locating the claim of the patentee in such case in any part of the general tract it might deem proper.
"It is true that if any other person within the limits where the quantity granted to Alvarado was to be located had afterwards obtained a grant from the government by specific boundaries before Alvarado had made his survey, the title of the latter grantee could not be impaired by any subsequent survey of Alvarado. As between the individual claimants from the government, the title of the party who had obtained a grant for the specific land would be the superior and better one. For by the general grant to Alvarado, the government did not bind itself to make no other grant within the territory described until after he had made his survey. [Footnote 4]"
But it is unnecessary to decide definitely this point now. The present is not a case of conflicting patents issued upon a confirmation of two floating grants within exterior boundaries embracing land capable of satisfying both. It is a case where one of the grants upon which a patent has issued, and that the earlier one has specific boundaries or such descriptive features as to render its limits easily ascertainable. With the right of the grantee to the land thus designated the claim of the donee of the second and floating grant could not interfere.
conclusive in favor of the plaintiff. We have thus far treated the survey of the two grants upon which the respective patents were issued, as made and approved under the Act of March 3, 1851. But the survey of the claim under the Flugge grant possesses, with respect to the claim under the Fernandez grant, greater force than any such approval could give. It has received judicial sanction under the Act of June 14, 1860, which makes it conclusive as against all adverse claimants under floating grants. That act provided that the surveyor general, when he had completed and plotted the survey of any confirmed claim, should give public notice of the fact by publication in two newspapers once a week for the period of four weeks; that during this time, the survey and plat should be retained in his office subject to inspection; that upon the application of any party having such an interest in the survey and location of the land as to make it just and proper that he should be allowed to intervene for its protection, or on motion of the United States, the district court should order the survey and plat to be returned into court for examination and adjudication; that when thus returned, notice should be given by public advertisement or in some other form prescribed by rule to all parties interested that objection had been made to the survey and location, and admonishing them to intervene for the protection of their interests; that such parties, having intervened, might take testimony and contest the survey and location; and that, on hearing the allegations and proofs, the court should render its judgment approving the survey, if found to be accurate, and correcting it or ordering a new survey when found to be erroneous. The act also provided for an appeal from the decree of the district court to the Supreme Court.
By the proceedings thus authorized, the approval of the survey brought before the court had, as against claimants under floating grants, the force and conclusiveness of a judicial determination in a suit in rem, and all such claimants were concluded by it.
Nor does it matter that a different survey had been previously approved by the Surveyor General of California. The whole subject of surveys is under the control of Congress, and until the patent issues thereon, any survey may be set aside and a new one ordered by its authority.
But the defendants, to defeat a recovery by the plaintiff, also insist that his right of action is barred by the statute of limitations of California; and also that he is estopped from asserting a claim to the demanded premises by the conduct and declarations of his predecessor, the claimant before the land commission, in claiming land under his grant situated in a different locality.
that by final confirmation was meant the patent of the United States, or the final determination of the official survey of the land under the Act of Congress of June 14, 1860. The provision of the statute relating to actions where the property is claimed under title derived from Spanish or Mexican authorities, has since then been repealed, but before the repeal and within the time designated after final confirmation of the grant, the present action was commenced. The repeal could not, however, have any effect upon the rights of the plaintiff.
Flugge grant for confirmation, had previously located it on land selected farther north than the tract finally surveyed and patented to him, and had announced to others that his claim covered the land thus selected. It was undoubtedly his desire to have his claim located where he had placed it. The survey made by the surveyor general, both preliminary and subsequent to the confirmation, placed the land in the same locality. Both claimant and surveyor seem to have acted on the supposition that the erroneously designated parallels of latitude should govern the location, instead of the natural boundaries indicated on the map. There does not appear to have been any intention on the part of Larkin to mislead anyone as to the nature of his rights. He was satisfied to keep the land originally selected by him; and he contended, and those who succeeded to his interests contended for the correctness of his selection; but the government, through its appropriate officers, interfered and asserted that another and different location was required by the grant.
There is therefore no case for the application of the doctrine of equitable estoppel. For its application there must be some intended deception in the conduct or declarations of the party to be estopped, or such gross negligence on his part as to amount to constructive fraud.
12 Stat. at Large 33.
Hornsby v. United States, 10 Wall. 238.
Beard v. Federy, 3 Wall. 479; Waterman v. Smith, 13 Cal. 407; Moore v. Wilkinson, ib., 488; Stark v. Barrett, 15 id. 366; Teschemacher v. Thompson, 18 id. 26; Leese v. Clark, ib., 537.
58 U. S. 17 How. 558.
Ledoux v. Black, 18 How. 475; Waterman v. Smith, 13 Cal. 416, 417.
Rodrigues v. United States, 1 Wall. 591.
United States v. Halleck, 1 Wall. 453.
Montgomery v. Bevans, 1 Sawyer 680.
Commonwealth v. Moltz, 10 Pa. 531; Copeland v. Copeland, 28 Me. 529; Whitaker v. Williams, 20 Conn. 104; Delaplaine v. Hitchcock, 6 Hill 16; Brewer v. Boston and Worcester Railroad Company, 5 Metcalf 479; Biddle Boggs v. Merced Mining Company, 14 Cal. 368; Davis v. Davis, 26 id. 23.

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