Source: http://supreme.nolo.com/us/168/589/case.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-18 14:44:04+00:00

Document:
The Act of September 28, 1850, c. 84, granting swamp lands to the several states, was a grant in praesenti, passing title to all lands which at that date were swamp lands, but leaving to the Secretary of the Interior to determine and identify what lands were, and what lands were not, swamp lands.
Whenever the granting act specifically provides for the issue of a patent, the legal title remains in the government until its issue, with power to inquire into the extent and validity of rights claimed against the government.
Although a survey had been made of the lands in controversy which indicated that they were swamp lands, it was within the power of the land office at any time prior to the issue of a patent to order a resurvey and to correct mistakes made in the prior survey.
The facts in this case clearly show an adjustment of the grant upon the basis of the resurveys, and their acceptance by the officer of the state charged by the act of Congress with the duty of so doing, and this makes such adjustment final and conclusive.
The Act of March 3, 1857, c. 117, did not operate to confirm to the Michigan the title to all lands marked on the approved and certified list of January 13, 1854, as swamp and overflowed lands, and direct the issue of a patent or patents therefor, but it simply operated to accept the field notes finally approved as evidence of the lands passing under the grant, leaving to the Land Department to make any needed corrections in the surveys and field notes.
The decision in Martin v. Marks, 97 U. S. 345, does not conflict with this construction of the act of 1857.
here on writ of error. The land in dispute is situated in Clare County, being the S.E. 1/4 of S.E. 1/4 of sec. 20, N.W. 1/4 of S.W. 1/4 of sec. 21, N.W. 1/4 of S.E. 1/4 of S.E. 1/4 of sec. 22, N.W. 1/4 of N.W. 1/4 of sec. 28, N. 1/2 of S.W. 1/4 of sec. 29, N. 1/2 of N.E. 1/4 of sec. 35, township 18, range 3 W., and E. 1/2 of S.W. 1/4 of sec. 1, township 18, range 4 W., and amounting to 400 acres, the undivided half of which only was claimed by plaintiff.
The contention of the plaintiff, generally speaking, is that this was swamp land, and granted to the State of Michigan by the Act of Congress of date September 28, 1850, c. 84, 9 Stat. 519, granting swamp lands to the several states; that it was included in a list of such lands in the Ionia Land District, approved by the Secretary of the Interior, and forwarded to the Governor of Michigan on January 13, 1854; that the Act of March, 3, 1857, c. 117, 11 Stat. 251, confirmed the action of the Secretary of the Interior, and thereby passed the title to the State of Michigan, by which state it was, on October 14, 1887, conveyed to plaintiff's grantor.
The defendant, on the other hand, contends that the original surveys of the public lands in the State of Michigan were erroneous; that at the instance of the state, Congress ordered resurveys, which resurveys were carried on from the years 1842 to 1857; that, while it is true this land was by the original surveys classed as swamp land, and included in the Ionia land district list approved and certified to the State of Michigan, the resurveys showed that it was not land of that description; that a new list for that district, not including this land, was in 1886 made out and certified to the state; that such new list was accepted by the state as correct, and a patent for the lands described therein issued to and received by it; that, after all this had taken place, and in 1870, the land in question was sold by the officers of the United States at auction, after public advertisement, and that patents were duly issued upon such sale, under which patents the defendant claims title.
This case involves questions of the power of the Land Department over the matter of the identification of the particular lands passing under the Swamp Land Act of 1850, of the finality of the action of the Secretary of the Interior in approving and certifying to the governor of the state a list of such lands, and of the effect of the confirmatory act of 1857. There is no testimony showing what was in fact the condition of the land, whether swamp or not at the time of the passage of the act of 1850, and the case turns wholly upon the documentary evidence.
"That it shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Interior, as soon as may be practicable after the passage of this act, to make out an accurate list and plats of the lands described as aforesaid, and transmit the same to the Governor of the State of Arkansas, and at the request of said governor, cause a patent to be issued to the state therefor, and on that patent, the fee simple to said lands shall vest in said State of Arkansas, subject to the disposal of the legislature thereof. "
"That in making out a list and plats of the lands aforesaid, all legal subdivisions, the greater part of which is 'wet and unfit for cultivation' shall be included in said list and plats, but when the greater part of a subdivision is not of that character, the whole of it shall be excluded therefrom."
But while Congress thus defined what it intended to grant as swamp and overflowed lands, it entrusted, as appears from section 2, the identification of those lands to the Secretary of the Interior.
"When he [that is, the Secretary of the Interior] made such identification, then, and not before, the state was entitled to a patent, and 'on such patent' the fee simple title vested in the state. The state's title was at the outset an inchoate one, and did not become perfect, as of the date of the act, until a patent was issued."
Generally speaking, while the legal title remains in the United States, the grant is in process of administration, and the land is subject to the jurisdiction of the Land Department of the government. It is true a patent is not always necessary for the transfer of the legal title. Sometimes an act of Congress will pass the fee. Strother v. Lucas, 12 Pet. 410, 37 U. S. 454; Grignon's Lessee v. Astor, 2 How. 319; Chouteau v. Eckhart, 2 How. 344, 43 U. S. 372; Glasgow v. Hortiz, 1 Black 595; Langdeau v. Hanes, 21 Wall. 521; Ryan v. Carter, 93 U.S.
78. Sometimes a certification of a list of lands to the grantee is declared to be operative to transfer such title, Rev.Stat. § 2449; Frasher v. O'Connor, 115 U. S. 102; but wherever the granting act specifically provides for the issue of a patent, then the rule is that the legal title remains in the government until the issue of the patent, Bagnell v. Broderick, 13 Pet. 436, 38 U. S. 450, and while so remaining, the grant is in process of administration, and the jurisdiction of the Land Department is not lost.
It is, of course, not pretended that when an equitable title has passed, the Land Department has power to arbitrarily destroy that equitable title. It has jurisdiction, however, after proper notice to the party claiming such equitable title, and, upon a hearing, to determine the question whether or not such title has passed. Cornelius v. Kessel, 128 U. S. 456; Orchard v. Alexander, 157 U. S. 372, 157 U. S. 383; Parsons v. Venzke, 164 U. S. 89. In other words, the power of the department to inquire into the extent and validity of the rights claimed against the government does not cease until the legal title has passed.
"A warrant and survey authorize the proprietor of them to demand the legal title, but do not in themselves constitute a legal title. Until the consummation of the title by a grant, the person who acquires an equity holds a right subject to examination."
Miller v. Kerr, 7 Wheat. 1, 20 U. S. 6. After the issue of the patent, the matter becomes subject to inquiry only in the courts and by judicial proceedings. United States v. Stone, 2 Wall, 525, 69 U. S. 535; Moore v. Robbins, 96 U. S. 530; United States v. Schurz, 102 U. S. 378, 102 U. S. 396; Bicknell v. Comstock, 113 U. S. 149, 113 U. S. 151; Iron Silver Mining Co. v. Campbell, 135 U. S. 286; Williams v. United States, 138 U. S. 514. This jurisdiction of the department has been maintained in cases of preemption where the entire purchase money has been paid and a receiver's final certificate issued. Orchard v. Alexander, 157 U. S. 372, and cases cited in the opinion; Parsons v. Venzke, 164 U. S. 89.
"For example, if, when a patent is about to issue, the secretary should discover a fatal defect in the proceedings, or that, by reason of some newly ascertained fact, the patent, if issued, would have to be annulled, and that it would be his duty to ask the Attorney General to institute proceedings for its annulment, it would hardly be seriously contended that the secretary might not interfere and prevent the execution of the patent. He could not be obliged to sit quietly and allow a proceeding to be consummated which it would be immediately his duty to ask the Attorney General to take measures to annul."
"The secretary is the guardian of the people of the United States over the public lands. The obligations of his oath of office oblige him to see that the law is carried out, and that none of the public domain is wasted or is disposed of to a party not entitled to it. He represents the government, which is a party in interest in every case involving the surveying and disposal of the public lands."
"There can be no doubt but that, under the Act of July 4, 1836, reorganizing the General Land Office, the commissioner has general supervision over all surveys, and that authority is exercised whenever error or fraud is alleged on the part of the surveyor general."
or his successor as are the interlocutory decrees of a court open to review upon the final hearing."
So notwithstanding that a survey had been made, and that such survey indicated that the land in controversy was swamp land, and therefore passing, under the act of 1850, to the State of Michigan, it was within the power of the Land Department at any time prior to the issue of a patent, of its own motion, to order a resurvey, and correct by that any mistakes in the prior survey.
"Whereas it has been satisfactorily made to appear to this legislature that large districts of lands lying within the limits of the State of Michigan have been returned by some of the deputy United States surveyors to the General Land Office as surveyed, where no surveys whatever have been made, or where the surveys have been so imperfectly done as to be utterly valueless, and whereas the United States surveyor general of this land district has caused the lands so represented as surveyed to be offered for sale, to the very great injury of the State of Michigan and the citizens thereof: therefore,"
"Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Michigan, that the President of the United States be requested to cause the subdivisions of the following townships of land, situate within the State of Michigan, and which have been represented to have been surveyed, but which have either not been surveyed or have been so imperfectly surveyed that said work is valueless, to be surveyed at as early a day as may be consistent, viz.:"
"Resolved, that the governor be requested to transmit the foregoing preamble and resolution to the President of the United States."
"Let the matter be referred to the surveyor general, with instructions as indicated, and let the Governor of Michigan be informed of the measures to be adopted."
Thereupon, proceedings for new surveys were taken by the Land Department, of which fact the governor of the state was duly informed. It is true that, in the resolutions of the Michigan Legislature, 81 townships were specifically named, and that the land in controversy was not included within those townships; but it appears that, on the strength of the information thus furnished, the Land Department proceeded to make new surveys of other lands than those specifically mentioned by the legislature, and, the attention of Congress having been called to the matter, it, from 1845 to 1856, inclusive, made appropriations for correcting surveys in the State of Michigan. Act of March 3, 1845, c. 71, 5 Stat. 752, 762; Act of March 3, 1849, c. 100, 9 Stat. 354, 365; Act of September 30, 1850, c. c. 90, 9 Stat. 523, 530; Act of March 3, 1851, c. 32, 9 Stat. 598, 611-612; Act of March 3, 1853, c. 97, 10 Stat. 189, 204; Act of August 4, 1854, c. 242, 10 Stat. 546, 565; Act of March 3, 1855, c. 175, 10 Stat. 643, 660; Act of August 18, 1856, c. 129, 11 Stat. 81, 86. The last three appropriations were made after the sending of the approved list for the Ionia land district to the governor, on January 13, 1854.
It may be noticed here, in passing, that in the adjustment of the swamp land grant for the State of Michigan, the Land Department did not include in one list all the swamp lands within the state, but made out several lists, apparently one at least, for each land district.
"Patents are now received for all these lands in the state except those situate in the Ionia Land District, comprising about 1,200,000 acres, and for these we are assured the patents will soon be forwarded, the making of which have been delayed in consequence of extensive resurveys by the general government, which, in some instances, changes the amount and character of the land."
"no valid sale could be made until after a compliance with the law requiring advertisement of a public offering to be published in each county of the state, and such public sale or offering has not been deemed advisable until after the title of the state to the grant should be wholly confirmed by the issue of the patents, and the numerous corrections and restatements of the lists necessary to be previously made by the department at Washington."
"It is well known that many tracts, and sometimes almost entire sections, are now considered as among the best of farming lands, or extensively covered with pine and other valuable timber."
Secretary of the Interior and forwarded to the Governor of the State of Michigan. The receipt of such lists was acknowledged, and a request made for patents for the lands described therein, and patents were issued and accepted conveying such lands.
"Notwithstanding I have taken all the lands shown to belong to me by this correct survey, I also claim lands which by a prior and erroneous, if not fraudulent, survey, appeared to pass under the grant."
"I also insist upon lands which upon such final survey are shown not to be within the grant, simply because under a prior erroneous survey they appeared to be within its terms."
"That the selection of swamp and overflowed lands granted to the several states by the act of Congress . . . heretofore made and reported to the Commissioner of the General Land Office, so far as the same shall remain vacant and unappropriated, and not interfered with by an actual settlement under any existing law of the United States, be and the same are hereby confirmed, and shall be approved and patented to the said several states, in conformity with the provisions of the act aforesaid, as soon as may be practicable after the passage of this law, provided, however, that nothing in this act contained shall interfere with the provisions of the act of Congress entitled 'An act for the relief of purchasers and locators of swamp and overflowed lands,' approved March the second, eighteen hundred and fifty-five, which shall be and is hereby continued in force, and extended to all entries and locations of lands claimed as swamp lands made since its passage."
"In consequence of the delays in certifying the lists, and the inconveniences which followed, the legislatures of several states in which such lands existed undertook to identify the lands and dispose of them, and for that purpose passed various acts for their survey and sale and the issue of patents to purchasers. The conflicts which thus arose between parties claiming under the state and parties claiming directly from the United States led to various acts of Congress for the relief of purchasers and locators of swamp and overflowed lands. Act March 2, 1855, 10 Stat. 634, c. 147; Act March 3, 1857, 11 Stat. 251, c. 117."
This argument is entitled to consideration because the word "selection" applies more naturally to the action of the grantee in reporting to the Land Department the lands which it claims than to the action of the land officers in identifying from the field notes what are and what are not swamp and overflowed lands. The term "selection" is not an apt word to describe the identification of certain lands according to evidence presented of their character. But we need not rest on this. Conceding that the statute applies not merely to those cases in which affirmative action had been taken by the states, but also to those in which, without any such action, the only proceedings had been those in the Land Department of the United States, still we think that it cannot be held that this act is to be construed as expressing a purpose to make the list in this case, approved and certified to the state, a finality as to the lands passing under the grant, and an absolute transfer of the equitable title.
"The only reliable data in your possession from which these lists can be made out are the field notes of the surveys on file in your office, and, if the authorities of the state are willing to adopt these as the basis of those lists, you will so regard them; if not, and those authorities furnish you satisfactory evidence that any lands are of the character embraced by the grant, you will so report them."
as it then appeared on the records of the Land Department, and, forbidding any further inquiry, declare that lands which by such records, through error or fraud, appeared to be swamp and overflowed, should be granted to the state. It was not an act to enlarge the grant of 1850. It was not an act to oust the Land Department of its ordinary jurisdiction to inquire into and ascertain what were swamp and overflowed lands, but was an act confirming and ratifying the methods thus far pursued. Congress must have been aware of the fact that there were charges of fraud or mistake in reference to the surveys in the State of Michigan. It had appropriated large sums for resurveys. They had partially been made, and mistakes, if not frauds, had been found. It does not appear that such charges existed in reference to the surveys in other states. At any rate, it is not to be presumed that all surveys in all the states were fraudulent or erroneous, and it would require very clear and direct language before the intent could be imputed to Congress to ignore the existence of alleged frauds and errors in the one state and to confirm titles to lands in that state based upon such fraudulent or erroneous surveys, and thereby enlarge, perhaps, very materially, the amount of the grant to such state. The language of the act does not compel any such conclusion as to the intent of Congress.
and filed with the Commissioner of the General Land Office. And in view of that fact, and as no question had been made in the Land Department of the correctness of the survey, it was adjudged that the equitable title of the state to the land was perfect. So in this case, if there had been no challenge of the original surveys, no attempt at a resurvey or to correct errors or mistakes, and there had been simply a lack of the formal approval of the list by the Secretary of the Interior, that case would have compelled an adjudication that the full equitable title had passed to the State of Michigan, and would have invalidated the patent subsequently issued by the United States directly to the parties under whom the defendants claim. But that is far from deciding that all power in the Land Department to inquire into frauds or errors in the surveys was taken away, and all frauds upon the government in such surveys condoned. It was merely a decision that, as the identification by the surveyor general of the land as swamp land had not been challenged for fraud or mistake, it was binding on the question of title, and the approval by the Secretary of the Interior and the issue of the patent were simply ministerial acts. See also Blanc v. Lafayette, 11 How. 104.

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