Source: https://www.legalcrystal.com/case/84848/slidell-vs-grandjean
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 12:48:37+00:00

Document:
In an order by a Spanish Governor of Louisiana recognizing an Indian grant and directing the issue of "a complete title," these words, as translated, refer to the instruments which constitute the evidence of title, and not to the estate or interest conveyed.
grantee of the riverfront having the preference right to purchase the reservation.
Usages and customs respecting the alienation of lands prevailing in Louisiana previous to its acquisition by the United States have to a great extent the efficacy of law, and are to be respected in considering the rights of grantees of the former government.
When established, such usages and customs control the construction and qualify and limit the force of positive enactments.
The original Houmas grant in Louisiana from the Indians, on the 5th of October, 1774, had a defined length on the River Mississippi, and designated coterminous proprietors to the north and to the south, but no depth to the grant was named. The Spanish Governor executed a formal grant of the tract, describing it as of the common depth of forty arpents. Two years later, on the petition of the grantee, the governor directed his adjutant to give the petitioner the land which might be vacant after forty arpents in depth. This was done by a survey running the northern and southern boundaries on courses from the Mississippi for forty arpents and for two arpents additional. Held that, in view of the Spanish usages and of the action of the Spanish authorities and of the action of Congress and of United States officials, all of which are referred to, the concession extended in the designated courses to the depth of eighty arpents from the river.
In case of doubt, a legislative grant should always be construed most strongly against the grantee.
When a statute authorizes the creation of a commission of three to decide upon land grants, a majority of whom "shall have power to decide," "which decisions shall be laid before Congress, . . . and be subject to their determination," their decisions have no binding force until acted upon by Congress.
An act confirming "the decisions in favor of land claimants made by" A, B, and C, reciting their names, does not confirm a decision made by A and B and dissented from by C, although the act under which the commission was created provided that a majority of the commissioners should have power to decide.
A legislative confirmation of a grant of land of which no quantity is given, no boundary stated, and no rule for its ascertainment furnished is void for uncertainty. The distinction between such a confirmation and that passed upon in Langdeau v. Hanes, 21 Wall. 521, pointed out.
and decisions of courts which go to make up the issues or bear upon them are fully set forth in the opinion of the Court.
On the argument of these cases the contention of the plaintiffs was that the grant of Governor Galvez to Maurice Conway, on the 21st of June, 1777, embraced all the land in the rear of the original grant to him and Latil by Governor Unzaga in November, 1774, included within the boundary lines of that grant extended to the limits of the possessions of the Spanish Crown. In support of that contention, reliance was placed upon the report of the commissioners appointed under the act of Congress of 1805, the plats of the surveyor Lafon and the alleged confirmation by the Act of June 2, 1858. We held that the grant of Galvez derived no aid from these sources, but must depend for its extent upon the language of the concession and the proceedings of the adjutant Andry in establishing its northern and southern boundaries, and that it was therefore limited to two arpents in the rear of the original grant.
cases of grants in the rear of the land of proprietors on the river, thus giving to the two grants an extent of eighty arpents from the river. And the plaintiffs have presented so may considerations in support of this view, that the court will receive arguments from counsel upon this point, to be in writing and filed within two weeks from date. The clerk will give to the counsel of the plaintiffs and to the Attorney General a copy of this memorandum.
claims in that territory; various petitions to the officers of the Land Department, and their reports thereon; the opinion of the Secretary of the Treasury and of the Attorney General upon the nature and extent of the grant, and the proceedings of Congress in passing an act of confirmation and subsequently repealing it. We shall endeavor to condense the history of the grant and of the various proceedings taken with reference to it into as narrow a compass as possible.
complete title" refer, however, only to the instruments which constitute evidence of title, and not to the estate or interest thereby conveyed. De Haro v. United States, 5 Wall. 599.
"measuring upwards of half a league at the distance of twenty-two leagues from this city, on this side of the river, joining on the upper side lands belonging to John the Blacksmith, and on the lower side the place where are erected the huts in which the said two nations of Indians now live; but when the said huts will be taken away, to be transported on the other side of the river, the true boundary on the lower side will be the lands belonging to an old Acadian named Peter; so by the measurement which the said purchasers will make of the said tract of land, according to the said boundaries, its exact contents will be ascertained."
pasturage by the front owners, so that, for all practical purposes, they were the beneficial proprietors, subject to the policy of levees and of guarded protection to front owners. We took possession of Lower Louisiana in 1804 [December, 1803]; in 1805, commissioners were appointed, according to an act of Congress, to report on the French and Spanish claims in that section of country, and by the Act of April 21, 1806, it was made a part of their duty"
"to inquire into the nature and extent of the claims which may arise from a right, or supposed right, to a double or additional concession on the back of grants or concessions heretofore made,"
"and to make a special report thereon to the Secretary of the Treasury, which report shall be by him laid before Congress at their next ensuing session. And the lands which may be embraced by such report shall not be otherwise disposed of until a decision of Congress shall have been had thereon."
"The commissioners were engaged nearly six years in the various and complicated duties imposed on them, and then reported that, by the laws and usages of the Spanish government, no front proprietor by his own act could acquire a right to land further back than the ordinary depth of forty arpents, and although that government invariably refused to grant the second depth to any other than the front proprietor, yet nothing short of a grant or warrant of survey from the governor could confer a title or right to the land; wherefore they rejected claims for the second depth, as not having passed as private property to the front proprietor under the stipulations of the treaty by which Louisiana was acquired."
his fences and other uses of his plantation. He therefore prayed the governor to grant him all the depth which might be vacant at the end of his forty arpents, and that Louis Andry, the governor's adjutant, might be appointed to put him in possession of the front and depth "by fixing the needful boundaries" and furnishing him "with copies of the whole transaction" for his "use and guidance." Upon this petition, the governor directed Andry to go upon the land and give the petitioner possession of that which might be vacant after the forty arpents in depth, and to make a report of his proceedings -- a process verbal, as it is termed -- in order that full title papers -- "a complete title" in the translation -- might be issued to the claimant.
In October following, this order was executed by Andry. He went upon the land and first measured its front v. on the river and ascertained it to be ninety-six arpents. Owing to its situation on a bend of the Mississippi, the tract widened as it receded from the river. He then ran the upper line north fifty degrees west to the depth of forty arpents from the river, "opening for that purpose a road through the woods," and placed there a stake of cypress. He then extended the line two arpents more, and placed another similar stake. He then proceeded to draw in the same way the southern line of the grant, running it north seventy degrees east, going for that purpose a part of the distance through woods, and placing a boundary stake of cypress at the depth of forty arpents, and also at the further depth of two arpents more, "in order," as he stated, "to keep the course." Of his proceedings on this survey Andry made a detailed report.
directions (lines extended) of the original concession, and that these conformed to the rules of survey and to the concessions of adjoining proprietors. He thereupon approved of the proceedings of the adjutant and granted to Conway "the aforesaid land behind or at the end of the forty arpents which contain his plantation."
These are all the papers relating to the title to the Houmas grant, executed by the authority of the governor of the province while it belonged to Spain.
"entitled to a preference in becoming the purchaser of any vacant tract of land adjacent to and back of his own tract, not exceeding forty arpents, French measure, in depth, nor in quantity of land that which is contained in his own tract,"
suppose to be undoubted as a general rule, although there may have been exceptions to it."
45 U. S. 4 How. 169, 45 U. S. 182 .
By reason of this usage, it was only deemed essential, in surveying the second concession, to mark the courses of the upper and lower lines of the tract, the other boundaries being readily ascertained, one by the rear line of the original grant and the other by a line drawn at a distance of eighty arpents from the river. This practice of surveyors is abundantly established by the documents accompanying the proceedings of Congress, or of its committees, with respect to the Houmas grant.
"acquires the force of law not only when there is no law to the contrary, but also when its effect is to abrogate any former law which may be opposed to it, as well as to explain that which is doubtful. Hence it is said that there may be a custom without law, in opposition to law, and according to law."
Escriche's Derecho Espanol 23-24; Panaud v. Jones, 1 Cal. 499.
"The court not only may, but are bound to, notice and respect general customs and usage as the law of the land equally with the written law, and, when clearly proved, they will control the general law."
31 U. S. 6 Pet. 691, 31 U. S. 715 .
land thus limited, there would not probably have been much, if any, controversy with the United States.
extended indefinitely whenever, as alleged in the complaint, it might "suit the convenience or interests" of Conway, it was a void act. He possessed no such unlimited authority to alienate the public lands of Spain.
"comprehends every species of title, inchoate or complete. It is supposed to embrace those rights which lie in contract -- those which are executory as well as those which are executed. In this respect, the relation of the inhabitants to their government is not changed. The new government takes the place of that which has passed away."
29 U. S. 4 Pet. 511-512. See also Hornsby v. United States, 10 Wall. 224.
"The proprietors of land adjoining the tract within mentioned are requested to show their respective boundaries, and the commandant of the district, if necessary, will extend to the surveyor his protection."
The petition and order are without date, and it does not appear what was done, if anything, under the order except what may perhaps be inferred from a plat of a survey subsequently prepared by one Lafon in 1806 and filed with the register of the land office with notice of the claims of Conway and others. Of this plat we shall presently speak. It is assumed in the bill of complaint and in the argument of counsel that the survey was made under the authority of the governor by persons appointed by him for that purpose, and that the tract was subdivided by them into three separate parcels, designated after those who at the time had become owners thereof, the first or northern one of which being called the Donaldson and Scott tract, the second or middle one the Daniel Clark tract, and the lower or southern one the William Conway tract.
"by virtue of any legal French or Spanish grant made and completed before October 1, 1800, and during the time the government which made such grant had the actual possession of the territories,"
of them, and to have access to all other records of a public nature relating to the granting, sale, or transfer of land, and to decide in a summary way, according to justice and equity, on all claims filed with the register or recorder, in conformity with the act, and on all complete French or Spanish grants, the evidence of which, though not thus filed, might be found on the public records of such grants, and that their decisions should be laid before Congress and be subject to its determination.
" Notice of the Claim of William Conway, of the County of Acadia, in the Eastern District of the Territory of Orleans. "
"William Conway claims a tract of land situated in the county aforesaid at the place called Houmas, on the left bank of the Mississippi, containing twenty-two and a half arpents in front on said river, with an opening toward the rear of 60 degrees and 45 minutes, the upper line running N. 9° 15 E., three hundred and fifty-one arpents, and the lower line directed N. 70° E., and measuring four hundred and fifty-five arpents; bounded on the upper side by Daniel Clark, and on the lower by Simon Laneau, as more fully described in the annexed plat, executed by Bartholomew Lafon, deputy surveyor, dated February 20, 1806."
conveyed to the claimant by the grantee aforesaid on the 27th day of October, 1786, as per document No. 2."
"And the five and a half arpents remaining to the complement of the 22 1/2 aforesaid were transferred to the claimant on the 27th day of March, 1781, by Pierre Part, who had purchased the same at the public sale made before Louis Joudice, commandant of the Parish of La Fourche, of the estate of the late Joachim Mire (alias Belony), on the 7th day of December, 1788, 'as it evidently appears by the authenticated document hereunto annexed, No. 3.'"
"It is to be observed that although the deed of conveyance of Maurice Conway aforesaid contains 27 arpents front, the claimant only possesses seventeen, having disposed of the other ten in favor of Daniel Clark."
" No. 125. W. CONWAY"
"William Conway, aforesaid, claims a tract of land situated in the County of Acadia, aforesaid at a place called Houmas, on the left bank of the Mississippi, containing twenty-two and a half arpents in front, with an opening toward the rear of sixty degrees, forty-five minutes, the upper line running N. 9° 15' E., three hundred and fifty-one arpents, and the lower line directed N. 70° E., and measuring four hundred and fifty-five arpents; bounded on the upper side by Daniel Clark's land, and on the lower side by land of Simon Laneau; it appearing to the board from a patent or complete title exhibited that seventeen arpents of front were, together with a greater quantity, granted by the Spanish government to Maurice Conway, June 21, 1777, and it appearing that the five and a half arpents of front remaining of the land aforesaid were purchased by Pierre Part at the public sale of the estate of the late Joachim Mire (alias Belony), on the 7th day of December, 1788, and it further appearing to the board from two several instruments of conveyance offered in testimony that the two tracts of land aforesaid have been conveyed to the present claimant, the board do hereby confirm his claim aforesaid. "
The confirmation of the claims of Donaldson and Scott and of Daniel Clark was substantially in the same form, differing only as to the lines within which it was alleged the lands lay. The claims were respectively designated as No. 133 and No. 127. The decisions were made before one of the commissioners had become a member of the board, and as soon as he qualified, he dissented from them. This fact will be important in considering the effect of legislative confirmation in 1858. As required by the act of 1805, a transcript of the favorable decisions rendered by the commissioners, including these three, was duly forwarded to the Secretary, who, in January, 1812, transmitted the same to Congress. The decisions themselves were merely an expression of opinion by the commissioners. They had no effect upon the title of the claimants until approved by Congress. Until then, they amounted only to a recommendation of their favorable consideration by the government. No recognition of them by Congress was made until the passage of the Act of June 2, 1858, of which we shall hereafter speak. In the meantime, efforts were constantly made to procure a recognition of their validity by the officers of the Land Department, but without success except in one instance -- that by Secretary Bibb in 1844. With that exception and the decision of the two land commissioners, no officer of the government has ever recognized the validity of the grant by Governor Galvez to the extent claimed by Conway and parties deducing their interest from him.
not be open to entry, and gave instructions accordingly. Lands beyond that depth were therefore treated as public lands, and numerous entries of them were made at the district land office.
memorial was presented and referred to the committee on private land claims, but nothing came from it. In the following year (1838), another effort was made to obtain the action of Congress on the subject, which also failed.
And from year to year afterwards, communications were made by the claimants, or persons acting for them, to the Land Department to secure favorable action and a recognition of the validity of their claims, but always without success until 1844. It would serve no useful purpose to state with particularity the nature and contents of these communications. They are referred to now merely to show the general notoriety given to the pretensions of the claimants, and the princely domain which, under a grant of less than 4,000 acres on the river, was claimed by the grantee to enable him to obtain timber for his fences and fuel, and for other uses of his plantation. The general knowledge of the extravagant character of the claims, which may be inferred from these proceedings, may have had something to do with the phraseology used in the attempted confirmation in 1858, which we shall hereafter consider.
claims under the Houmas grant were included in the transcript of favorable decisions transmitted to the Secretary of the Treasury and by him laid before Congress, it was contended that they were thereby confirmed. Mr. Bibb, the Secretary of the Treasury and head of the Land Department under the then existing law, concurred in this view, and his opinion was presented in a communication to the Commissioner of the General Land Office under date of August 12, 1844. In accordance with his opinion, patents were issued to the heirs of Hampton for the claims presented by Donaldson and Scott and by Daniel Clark. This action of the secretary and the issue of the patents gave rise to much unpleasant comment, and soon after the meeting of Congress in December following, a resolution was passed by the Senate calling upon the Secretary to communicate a copy of his opinion directing such issue, and of opinions by other officers connected with the General Land Office in relation to the claims, and of the surveys and transcripts of confirmation.
him, if they were against the legality of the patent issued or to be issued, to bring suits to have the same judicially determined. In response to this resolution, the Attorney General made an extended examination of the title, stating in his report all the various proceedings that had been taken in respect to it, and giving as his conclusion that the Houmas grant passed a title only to a tract 42 arpents deep from the river, and that the claimants had no legal or equitable right to any land beyond that depth, and that the Act of April 18, 1814, under which patents had been issued for two of the claims, authorized patents only in cases of confirmation under the act of 1807, which did not embrace more than one league square. In thus construing the terms of the grant and limiting its extent, it is evident that the Attorney General was governed by the rules of the common law, rather than by the usages of the Spanish government applicable to the case. Upon this report, the President directed that suits in equity be brought in the circuit court of the United States to cancel the patents. In one of them, a decree was rendered in 1856 declaring the patent upon the claim to David Clark void on the ground that the case was not within the act of 1814, the court avoiding the expression of any opinion as to the validity or extent of the claim. By a decree rendered within the last few years, the patent upon the claim of Donaldson and Scott was also adjudged invalid.
This narrative brings us to the act of the 2d of June, 1858, entitled "An act to provide for the location of certain confirmed private land claims in the State of Missouri, and for other purposes."
hundred and sixty-seven, inclusive, be, and the same are hereby, confirmed, saving and reserving, however, to all adverse claimants, the right to assert the validity of their claims in a court or courts of justice, provided, however, that any claim so recommended for confirmation, but which may have been rejected in whole or in part by any subsequent board of commissioners be, and the same is hereby, specially excepted from confirmation."
"That the locations authorized by the preceding section shall be entered with the register of the proper land office, who shall, on application for that purpose, make out for such claimant or his legal representatives (as the case may be) a certificate of location, which shall be transmitted to the Commissioner of the General Land Office, and if it shall appear to the satisfaction of the said Commissioner that said certificate has been fairly obtained, according to the true intent and meaning of this act, then and in that case, patents shall be issued for the land so located, as in other cases."
"The three foregoing decisions were made before I became a member of the board. As far as I am authorized to do so, I dissent from the same."
that they were named, ex industria, to exclude from confirmation the claims under the Houmas grant, which had given rise to so much controversy and litigation and had been so uniformly denounced and repudiated.
The position of the plaintiffs, that Congress must have intended to include all reports made by the board because under the act of 1805 a majority of its members were authorized to act upon and determine the validity of claims presented, does not strike us as a logical conclusion. It would rather seem to strengthen our construction, for by naming decisions made by the three commissioners, the act indicates that Congress intended to refuse a confirmation of decisions made by two of them. If it had intended to confirm all favorable decisions of the board, whether made by a majority of its members or by them all, its intention could have been expressed by simply mentioning the board, without designating its members, as had been usual where the decisions of similar boards were confirmed. The present instance is the only one, it is believed, where, in the legislation of Congress confirming grants, the names of the commissioners whose favorable action was approved have been mentioned. This departure from the ordinary language in such cases was, we think, for a special purpose. We must assume that the members by whose vote the act became a law fully weighed its meaning and intended what it expressed. It is also a familiar rule of construction that where a statute operates as a grant of public property to an individual or the relinquishment of a public interest, and there is a doubt as to the meaning of its terms or as to its general purpose, that construction should be adopted which will support the claim of the government, rather than that of the individual. Nothing can be inferred against the state. As a reason for this rule, it is often stated that such acts are usually drawn by interested parties, and they are presumed to claim all they are entitled to. The rule has been adopted and followed by this Court in many instances in the construction of statutes of this description. Charles River Bridge Co. v. Warren Bridge, 11 Pet. 420, 36 U. S. 536 ; Dubuque & Pacific Railroad Company v. Litchfield, 23 How. 66, 64 U. S. 88 ; Delaware Railroad Tax, 18 Wall. 206.
The rule is a wise one; it serves to defeat any purpose concealed by the skillful use of terms to accomplish something not apparent on the face of the act, and thus sanctions only open dealing with legislative bodies.
If the construction we thus give is sound, there is an end of the plaintiffs' case and their extravagant pretensions are dissipated. The subsequent repeal of the section affected no rights, and was justified by the fact that what was never intended by the section was claimed under it.
usages are disregarded, the claims are for land of which no quantity is given and no boundary stated and for their ascertainment no rule is furnished. The confirmation in that case would be void for uncertainty. No court can treat a claim as conferring a right to a specific tract until its boundaries are capable of identification or have been established by a survey. A mere claim to something without form and shape or means of segregation can have no judicial enforcement.
government would grant them a title. As stated by counsel, the position of the government upon that theory of the grant is like that of a donor who has promised to one a gift of land when he shall make a selection of it. In such case, the gift is executory until the selection is made, and until then, the title remains with the donor, whom the courts cannot compel to make a conveyance. So, upon that theory, the act of 1860, repealing the second section of the act of 1858, is not to be regarded as the revocation of a grant, but as a declaration that the promised donation will not be made.
"In any view, therefore, in which the case of the claimants is examined, we find nothing to sustain their pretensions. They have no title to the lands claimed under the grant in question beyond the depth of eighty arpents from the Mississippi River which the courts can recognize as a basis for action against parties in possession holding under sales from the government. This result renders it unnecessary to notice other questions which would arise for consideration were our conclusions different."

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