Source: https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Connoyer_v._Schaeffer
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 13:14:45+00:00

Document:
By a subsequent act, one of 21st April, 1806,  the time for filing the 'notices in writing and written evidences of claims' was extended, but with a similar provision, as to all claims not so presented being barred, and the evidence of them not admitted in evidence if not so filed. The act enacts that oral testimony may be heard in support of or opposition to such claims.
Under these acts many old French and Spanish tiles in Missouri were examined and confirmed. But the acts expired before all that were filed could be disposed of. Accordingly new acts were passed; one July 9th, 1832, and one March 2d, 1833,  providing 'for the final adjustment of land claims in Missouri.' These acts provided for a board of commissioners to 'examine all unconfirmed claims to lands in that State heretofore filed in the office of said recorder according to law;' and enacted that in examining these claims heretofore filed, they 'shall proceed in the examination in a summary manner, with or without any new application of claimants.' Under these acts, therefore, no new claim could be filed before the board; the commissioners were only to pass upon the claims already filed.
These statutes being on the statute-book, Louis Labeaume, on the 27th of June, 1808, gave notice to the old board of commissioners-that is to say, the board proceeding under the acts of 1805 and 1807-of his claim to a lot of land-a common field lot in the city of St. Louis. The tract had been conceded in 1772 by the acting lieutenant-governor of the Spanish government to a certain Francoise, widow Dodier; Labeaume, of course, claiming by conveyances under her.
The conveyance to Labeaume, as filed before the boards as evidence of his title, showed two different conveyances on the same paper. One conveyance was from eight persons named, who purported to be the right heirs of the widow Dodier, and was dated 18th August, 1806; one of the eight persons being a certain Joseph Hortez, who signed the conveyance in behalf of Margaret Bequette, his wife, as one of the heirs of the said widow. The other conveyance was from the same Hortez, and in this conveyance he conveys the tract as having been acquired by him, at a judicial sale, as the property of the said widow, made and ordered by the lieutenant-governor; but the proces verbal (or record, to use the English term) of which sale and adjudication, the deed recites had been lost in the secretary's office. This deed was dated the 23d August, 1806, was acknowledged, and with the acknowledgments appended thereto was recorded in the recorder's office of St. Louis County.
The board before which Labeaume appeared and presented the concession and his derivative title-papers-that is to say, the board acting under the acts of 1805 and 1807-did not confirm his title.
Labeaume himself died in 1821, having made a will by which he devised all his estate to his widow.
After the passage of the acts authorizing the appointment of a board to examine claims previously filed according to law, but not confirmed, a son of Labeaume appeared before the new board and presented in behalf of his mother as now representing the original claimant, the claim originally filed by Labeaume. And in June, 1835, this board reported 'that this claim ought to be confirmed to the said widow Dodier or her legal representatives,' and it was so confirmed accordingly, by act of Congress of July 4th, 1836.
In this state of things, a certain Schaeffer (A.D. 1860) being in possession and now confessedly vested with whatever title was vested by these proceedings in Labeaume, Connoyer, and others (who it was equally admitted was, as to a part of the premises in controversy, vested with whatever title passed to the heirs of the widow Dodier by virtue of the confirmation) sued him in ejectment.
On the trial, the plaintiffs, already mentioned as heirs of the widow Dodier, relied on the confirmation as being to her, and to her legal representatives, contending that from defective execution the deeds upon which Labeaume founded his derivative title could pass no title, and therefore that there could have been no confirmation to him made upon them.
1st. Where the claimant exhibited only the original concession and did not attempt to show any title out of the person to whom the concession had been made originally.
2d. Where, with the original concession, there were exhibited mesne conveyances, which the claimant relied on as bringing the title down to himself.
And that while in the former class of cases nothing was established on a confirmation to the original grantee and his representatives but the title of that grantee, in the second, under the decision of this court in Bissell v. Penrose  both the title of the original grantee and the derivative title to the claimant were established.
The defendant therefore insisted that the regularity of the papers accompanying Labeaume's claim could not be inquired into, as the confirmation when made inured to Labeaume, if living, and if dead, to his legal representatives.
The court in which the ejectment was brought held that the confirmation of the lot sued for inured to Labeaume, and those claiming under him, and not to the widow Dodier and her heirs. As the plaintiffs claimed as such heirs, that ruling of the court decided the whole case. The holding being affirmed in the Supreme Court of the State of Missouri, the plaintiffs brought the case here.
The question, of course, was to whom did the confirmation inure? If to Labeaume, then it was an unimportant inquiry whether the title-papers produced by him were imperfectly executed or not. If to the legal representatives of the widow Dodier, the inquiry was important.
It may be here added, though the thing is scarce worth reporting, that for the purpose of showing that those from whom he sought to deduce title were claimants before the land commissioners, the plaintiff sought to introduce, in connection with the Dodier claim, a certified copy of a request in writing, as found of record in the office of the recorder of land titles in and for the Territory of Missouri, signed by one T. B. Reddick and twelve others, in which these thirteen requested the recorder, 'for the benefit of all parties interested, to record the registered concessions in Livre Terrein, Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, on file' in his office. It did not appear that those under whom the plaintiffs claimed had any agency in giving this notice. No evidence was offered connecting them with the transaction, nor did it appear that any signer was interested in the lands or represented any one who was.
Mr. C. C. Whittelsey, with whom was Mr. H. A. Cunningham, for the plaintiffs in error, asserted the true rule of law to be, that where the board of commissioners omitted all mention of the person presenting the claim as assignee of the original grantee of the former government, and confirmed the claim to the legal representatives of the person who held the claim by grant from the French or Spanish governments, then that the confirmation inured to the benefit of the persons showing themselves to be the legal representatives of such grantee by inheritance as heirs, or by will as devisees, or by conveyance as purchasers, and did not inure to the benefit of the party filing the claim, except so far as he showed himself by plainly good muniments to be the legal representative by descent, devise, or purchase.
The form 'to the original concessionee or his legal representatives' by descent, devise, or purchase, left the question open to inquiry in a court of justice, to whom the certificate, confirmation, or patent should inure, and thus saved the officers of the government the necessity of deciding upon many and difficult questions of derivative title. When, therefore, the board of commissioners in their action, June, 1835, declared that this claim ought to be confirmed to the said 'widow Dodier or her legal representatives,' they plainly showed that they did not intend to confirm the land to Labeaume or his representatives by name, for he was not named in the judgment of confirmation.
The assumption that the judgment of confirmation inured to the benefit of the person who filed the claim in all cases, when the party presenting the claim presented any evidence whatever, to show a derivative title from the original concessionee of the former governments, took from the board of commissioners all authority to pass upon the validity of the derivative title, and rendered their decision nugatory. Must they decide in express words that the derivative title was invalid, and so enter it of record and reject the claim for that reason, although as against the government the original claim was equitably entitled to confirmation, or were they at liberty to put this question by and leave it to be settled by the courts as advised by the attorney-general?
Of course, if the confirmation inured to Labeaume simply because he in person appeared to present the claim, that closed the case; but such a position could not be maintained.
The learned counsel, referring to Bissell v. Penrose,  much relied on by the plaintiff, contended that if it applied to this case at all, it was in reality inconsistent with the well-established rule in regard to the confirmation of land claims previously laid down in Strother v. Lucas,  and moreover could not be reconciled with what of quite late time had been implied in Hogan v. Page;  that, in addition, the case could not be maintained on principle.
The rejection of the copy of the paper signed by Reddick and the twelve others, was not strongly insisted on.
Messrs. Glover and Shepley, contra, contending that the confirmation inured to Labeaume, relied on Bissell v. Penrose, in support of that position, arguing that the cases of Strother v. Lucas and Hogan v. Page were misconceived and misapplied by the learned counsel opposing.
^1 2 Stat. at Large, 326.
^2 2 stat. at Large, 391.
^3 4 Stat. at Large, pp. 565-661.
^5 See 2 Land Claims, pp. 563-603; 3 Id. pp. 275-317; Report of Board of 1832-3, 5 Land Claims; see list of certificates, Nos. 6, 89, 90, 92, 110, 157, 169, 185, 199, 207, 215, 225, 256, 267, 270, 275, 280, 284, 285, 298, 321, 358, 394, 402, 439, 440, 448, 514, 523, 543, 576, 606, 625, 628, 648, 649, 650, 651, 661, 672, 694, 717, 721, 731, 742, 764, 770, 793, 827, 897, 918-legal representatives of Gab. Dodier, Sr.-942, 943, 953, 968, 979, 1015, 1023, 1123, 1127, 1158, 1159, 1194, 1217, 1218, 1230, 1270, 1272, 1288, 1290, 1291, 1299, 1301, 1303, 1304. Nos. 942 and 943 were the lots in controversy in the suit of Strother v. Lucas, 12 Peters, 410.

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