Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/167/723/
Timestamp: 2019-04-21 10:58:49+00:00

Document:
The Board of Commissioners appointed under the Act of Congress of March 3, 1801, 9 Stat. 631, c. 41, confirmed to Manuel Dominguez and others, claimants under a Mexican grant, a certain tract of land known as the Rancho San Pedro. Upon appeal to the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of California, the action of the Board was approved, and it was adjudged, February 10, 1807, that the claimants had a valid title to that rancho, the decree giving the boundaries to the lands so confirmed. In execution of the decree, the lands were surveyed under the direction of the United States surveyor general of California. The survey upon its face excepted, reserved and excluded from the claim surveyed the inner bay of San Pedro. Within the exterior lines of that bay is Mormon Island, containing at mean low tide 18.88 acres, and at mean high tide, about one acre. The survey having been filed in the Land Department, a patent was issued February 19, 1858, to the claimants under the decree of confirmation, conveying lands that were outside the exterior lines of the inner bay of San Pedro, and containing eight square leagues more or less. The patent followed the survey, anti did not include that bay or any lands within its exterior lines. The present action was brought by various parties, asserting title under the decree of confirmation, to recover possession of the above 18.88 acres. The defendant claimed under a patent issued to him by the United States in 1881. No application was ever made to the district court of the United States to correct any error in the decree of 1837, nor was any step taken to have a new survey or to obtain a patent conveying all the lands apparently embraced by that decree.
(1) If the surveyor general misinterpreted the decree of confirmation, and made a survey which excluded from the surveyed claim any of the lands within the lines given by that decree, it was within the power of the district court to have its decree properly executed, and to that end to order a new survey.
(2) While it may be true in some cases that an action to recover possession of lands confirmed to a claimant under the act of 1851 can be maintained before a patent is issued, a patent issued avowedly in execution of a decree passed under that act was conclusive between the United States and the claimants, and until cancelled, such patent alone determines, in an action to recover possession, the location of the lands that were confirmed by the decree.
being uncancelled, the plaintiffs in this action, claiming under the patentees, cannot recover lands not embraced by it, even if such lands are embraced by the lines established by the decree of confirmation, the conclusive presumption being that the patent, being uncancelled, correctly locates the lands covered by the confirmed grant.
The court further said it was unnecessary to decide whether the defendant was entitled to a judgment on his cross-complaint or whether the lands under the navigable waters of the inner bay of San Pedro, and those here in controversy or any part thereof, passed to the State of California upon its admission into the Union or after the issuing of the patent of 1858.
This action is, in form, ejectment. It was brought May 17, 1886, in the Superior Court of the County of Los Angeles, California, by Ana J. Dominguez De Guyer and others to recover the possession of a certain island, known as "Mormon Island," in the inner bay of San Pedro, California. At mean high tide, the island has an area of less than one acre; at mean low tide, about 18.88 acres. The area of the bay, including the island, is 1,100.59 acres.
The defendant, Banning, filed an answer in which he denied the allegations of the complaint; also, a cross-complaint asserting title in himself, and asking a judgment declaring him to be the owner, and of right in possession, of the premises in controversy.
Paterson -- were of opinion that the island, as well as the whole of the inner bay within the exterior lines of a grant alleged to have been made by the Mexican government to Christobal Dominguez, belonged to the claimants under that grant, and that the title was vested in the plaintiffs. Mr. Justice Thornton was of opinion that the plaintiffs were entitled to recover the island and such other portion of the land sued for as contained 18.88 acres, and was not covered by the navigable waters of the inner bay. Chief Justice Beatty and Justice McFarland dissented.
Upon a rehearing, the court, then constituted of Chief Justice Beatty and Justices De Hayen, McFarland, Harrison, Garoutte, and Sharpstein, unanimously affirmed the judgment of the inferior court. 91 Cal. 400.
The present appeal was prosecuted by the Los Angeles Terminal Land Company and George Carson, trustee, they having, after the final decision in the state court, become vested with all the right, title, and interest of the original plaintiffs.
The case has been twice orally argued in this Court, and we have, in addition, the benefit of a brief, filed by leave of court, on behalf of the United States, in support of the judgment below; the Solicitor General having stated that the government has a deep interest in the result of the litigation by reason of the fact that it has heretofore expended vast sums of money in improving the navigation of the inner bay of San Pedro and the entrance thereto, and that this bay is regarded as one of the most important points on the Pacific coast as a harbor of refuge.
By the Act of Congress of March 3, 1851, 9 Stat. 631, c. 41, provision was made for the appointment of a board of commissioners to ascertain and settle private land claims in California.
or Mexican government should present the same to that board, together with such documentary evidence and testimony of witnesses as the claimant relied upon in support of his claim; the decision, when rendered, to be certified, with the reasons on which it was founded, to the district attorney of the United States for the district in which it was rendered. § 8. In case of the rejection or confirmation of a claim, provision was made for a review of the decision by the district court of the district in which the land was situated, and an appeal was allowed from the judgment of that court to the Supreme Court of the United States. §§ 9, 10. When deciding on the validity of any claim, the board, as well as the courts, were to be governed by the treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo, the law of nations, the laws, usages, and customs of the government from which the claim was derived, the principles of equity, and the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States, as far as they were applicable. § 11.
approved third March, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-one. . . ."
"a perfect grant or concession of the said tract, but at what particular date or from what precise governor cannot now be discovered, owing to the fact that during his lifetime, the papers issued and granted, it is believed, by Jose Dario Arguello, governor of the peninsula, in pursuance of the power duly vested in him, were burnt or lost, which said papers, it is averred, contained a complete or perfect grant to the said Juan Jose;"
approved, ratified, and confirmed by it in numberless instances; that the lines and boundaries of the tract were, and had always been, well known, defined, and respected, and that, about the year 1817, the judicial possession thereof was given by competent authority, and its lines and boundaries marked out and clearly defined.
"in fee the said Rancho of San Pedro as tenants in common in the shares and proportions as aforesaid in virtue of the aforesaid grants, of their long pacific possession, and of the ratification, approval, and acknowledgment of their title by the Mexican government."
The prayer of the claimants was that their title to the Rancho San Pedro be confirmed.
"It is ordered, adjudged, and decreed that the decision of the said board of land commissioners be, and the same hereby is, affirmed. And it is further adjudged and decreed that the claim of the appellees to the lands claimed in this case is good and valid, and the same are hereby confirmed to them, as follows: the lands of which confirmation is hereby made are those known as the 'Rancho of San Pedro,' situate in Los Angeles County, and bounded as follows:"
by and confirmed by said commissioner to the Sepulvedas; thence following said line in an easterly direction to some sand hills for about twelve thousand varas; thence southerly to a point called 'La Goleta,' on the sea coast; thence following the sea coast easterly to the River San Gabriel; thence up said river to a point where a line drawn from the stone first mentioned through said sycamore tree would strike said river; thence along such line to the place of beginning -- containing eight and a half (8 1/2) square leagues, a little more or less."
The United States asked and was allowed an appeal from this decision. But, the Attorney General of the United States having given notice that the government would not prosecute the appeal, the parties stipulated in writing that the order granting the appeal be vacated, and that the claimants might proceed under the decree as under a final decree. That stipulation was filed in the cause on the 4th day of June, 1857, and on the same day an order was made vacating the allowance of the appeal and giving the claimants leave to proceed as under a final decree.
"And whereas the board of land commissioners aforesaid on the 17th day of October, 1854, rendered a decision that"
"the claim of the said petitioners is valid, and it is therefore decreed that the same be confirmed to them, to hold and possess the same as tenants in common in the respective shares and proportion which they hold in and to the premises thereby confirmed by title deduced from Christobal Dominguez, deceased, by heirship or mesne conveyances, it being the intention to confirm to each of said petitioners the respective title held by him at the time of his becoming a party to this proceeding, derived from the source above mentioned,"
decree or decision was confirmed by the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of California on the tenth day of February, 1857, and whereas it further appears from a certified transcript on file in the General Land Office that, the Attorney General of the United States having given notice that the appeal of the Supreme Court of the United States in this cause would not be prosecuted, the aforesaid district court on the fourth day of June, 1857,"
"ordered that the order of this Court made on the twenty-fourth day of February A.D. 1857, granting an appeal to the supreme court from the decree of confirmation of this Court, filed on the tenth day of February, 1857, be and is hereby vacated, and that the said claimants have leave to proceed under said decree as under a final decree."
"And whereas, under the thirteenth section of the Act of Congress of the third of March, 1851, there have been presented to the Commissioner of the General Land Office a plat and certificate of the survey of the land confirmed as aforesaid, authenticated on the 19th day of February, 1858, by the signature of the surveyor general of public lands in California, which plat and certificate are in the words and figures following, to-wit:"
" U.S. Surveyor General's Office"
decision of the said district court by which it affirmed the decision of the board of commissioners appointed under the provisions of the said act of the third of March, eighteen hundred and fifty-one, to ascertain and settle the private land claims in the State of California, by which they recognized and confirmed the title and claims of Manuel Dominguez et al. to the tract of land designated as the 'Rancho San Pedro,' containing eight and a half square leagues, a little more or less, the said appeal has been vacated by the said district court, and thereby the said decisions in favor of the said Manuel Dominguez et al. have become final. I have caused the said tract to be surveyed in conformity to the boundaries specified in the said confirmatory decree, and do hereby certify the annexed map to be a true and accurate plat of the said tract of land as appears by the field notes of the survey thereof made by Henry Hancock, deputy surveyor, in the month of December, 1857, under the directions of this office, which, having been examined and approved, are now on file therein."
" And I do further certify that, under and by virtue of the said confirmation and survey, the said Manuel Dominguez et al. are entitled to patent from the United States, upon the presentation hereof to the General Land Office, for the said tract of land, the same being described as follows, to-wit: [Here follows a description, by metes and bounds, of the exterior lines of the Rancho San Pedro, within which is Mormon Island, in the inner bay of San Pedro.]"
'Traverse of Inner Bay of San Pedro, to be Excluded from Survey of the Claim,' and showing the metes and bounds of the part so excluded, and immediately below the last table are these words: 'Area within the exterior lines of the confirmed tract, 44,219.72 acres; area within lines 7 to 16, being the lands covered by the navigable waters of the inner bay of San Pedro, connected with the ocean, and therefore to be excluded, 1,100.50 acres; area included in the boundaries specified by the confirmatory decree, exclusive of bay, 43,119.13 acres.']"
" Thence, according to the true meridian (the variation of the magnetic needle being thirteen degrees thirty minutes east), along the high water line of the inner bay of San Pedro, south, eighty degrees forty-five minutes east, ten chains and eighty-four links, to station; . . . thence north, thirty-one degrees thirty minutes west, crossing the channel or entrance to the bay, nineteen chains and forty-four links, to La Goleta, exterior boundary station number twenty-four, and thence north, seven degrees thirty-two minutes west, crossing the said inner bay, one hundred and twenty-five chains and twenty links, to the stake on the high water line of the bay, and commencement of this survey thereof."
" Containing, exclusive of the lands above described as covered by the navigable waters of the inner bay of San Pedro, forty-three thousand one hundred and nineteen acres and thirteen hundredths of an acre, and being designated upon the plats of the public survey as lots numbered thirty-seven, thirty-eight, and thirty-nine in township three south, or range twelve west; lot number thirty-seven in township three south, of range thirteen west; lot number thirty-seven in township three south, of range fourteen west; lot number thirty-seven in township four south, of range thirteen west; lot number thirty-seven in township four south, of range fourteen west; lot number thirty-seven in township four south, of range fifteen west, and lot number thirty-seven of township five south, of range thirteen west of the San Bernardino meridian line."
and affixed the seal of said office this nineteenth day of February, A.D. 1858."
" [L.S.] J. W. Mandeville"
" U.S. Sur. Gen'l, Cal."
"Now, know ye that the United States of America, in consideration of the premises, and pursuant to the provisions of the Act of Congress aforesaid, of 3d March, 1851, have giver and granted, and by these presents do give and grant, unto the said Manuel Dominguez, Conception Roche, Bernardino Roche, Jose Antonio Aguirre, Maria Jesus Cotta de Dominguez, Madalena Dominguez, Andres Dominguez, Feliciana Dominguez, Estaban Dominguez, Maria Dominguez, Pedro Dominguez, Jose Dominguez, Maria, widow of Manuel Roche, and Antonio Jacinto Roche, and to their heirs, the tract of land embraced and described in the foregoing survey in the respective shares and proportions which they hold in the premises"
"by them deduced from Christobal Dominguez, deceased, by heirship or by mesne conveyances, but with the stipulation that in virtue of the fifteenth section of the said act the confirmation of the said claim and this patent shall not affect the interest of third persons,"
"to have and to hold,"
This patent appears to have been recorded December 28, 1869 at the request of Manuel Dominguez.
At the trial, the plaintiffs read in evidence the petition of claimants before the board of land commissioners for the confirmation of the Rancho San Pedro; the decree of the board confirming the same; the decree of the district court confirming the decision of the commissioners, and the orders therein made as above stated, and a copy of the above patent from the United States.
"whatever title vested by said confirmation and patent in said petitioners and confirmees had passed to, and become vested in, the plaintiffs in this action, who are now owners of whatever title passed under said confirmation and patent to the said petitioners and confirmees. "
"the lines of the decree of confirmation and the exterior lines of the patent and the patent map were identical, that the survey was made in conformity to the decree of confirmation, and from that survey the description contained in the patent was made,"
and that the inner bay of San Pedro, within which was Mormon Island, was within the exterior lines called for in that decree, and defined on the patent map.
"a certain tract of land situate in the Bay of Wilmington, County of Los Angeles, State of California, known as 'Mormon Island,' and all the land adjoining thereto, to which I [the grantor] have any title or claim."
descriptive clause in the patent to me extends to mean low water. I think to include eighteen acres would carry it to mean low water. We occupied a portion of it that was covered with water. I have shipways there, and houses on piles. About an acre is covered in that way. Another portion of the island we run lighters on and pile lumber on when the high tide falls. We use in that way sometimes a couple of acres on the west side -- the channel side of the island -- and that kind of occupation would cover about three acres."
There was some evidence as to how certain lands, including Mormon Island, were assessed from 1880 to 1887, inclusive, but, in the view the Court takes of the case, it is not necessary to advert to it.
San Pedro, as shown on the map accompanying the patent, and is not confined simply to such land as is covered by the navigable waters of that bay. That this is the true meaning of the exception is made to appear not only from the fact that the inner bay of San Pedro is marked 'Excepted' upon the map referred to, but is also conclusively shown by the concluding portion of the survey itself, as returned and certified, in which, after giving the boundaries of the land surveyed, by courses and distances, it designates the land surveyed, 'exclusive of the lands above described as covered by the navigable waters of the inner bay of San Pedro,' as being certain numbered lots on the plats of the public survey, neither of which lots includes any portion of the land within the exterior boundaries of the inner bay of San Pedro, as marked on said map."
We entirely concur in that view. The purpose of the surveyor general was to set apart to the claimants, under the decree of confirmation, 43,119.13 acres, and not to include in, but distinctly to exclude from, the surveyed claim, the 1,100.50 acres within the exterior lines of the inner bay. And, that there might be no doubt where and how the confirmed tract was located, the survey describes the 43,119.13 acres as being designated upon the plats of the public survey as certain numbered "lots." Mormon Island is not within any of those lots. The island therefore was not included within, but was excluded from, the surveyed claim, nor patented to the claimants who obtained the decree of confirmation.
The plaintiffs therefore contend that we have a case in which the survey made in execution of the decree of confirmation under the act of 1851, and the patent based on that survey, except and exclude lands which, although within the exterior lines of the bay, are within the exterior lines of the confirmed tract as described in such decree.
that they may go behind both the survey and patent and recover the possession of the lands so excluded precisely as they could do if the lands had been included in both the survey and patent.
In our opinion, if those who obtained the decree of confirmation objected to the survey as not being in conformity with that decree, their objection should have been made known to the district court before the survey was transmitted to the General Land Office, or at least before it was acted upon and made the basis of a patent. The patent was not issued until nearly a year after the survey was made and certified. Under the act of 1851, it was within the power of the district court to have required a survey in exact conformity with its decree. Its jurisdiction over the subject did not end with the decree. The surveyor general was required by the statute (§ 13) to cause an accurate survey to be made of all private claims finally confirmed under the act of 1851, and to furnish plats of the same. If he misinterpreted the decree -- if he made an inaccurate survey and excluded from it lands that were confirmed to the original claimants -- the court had authority to compel the proper execution of its decree.
decree of the court, and the power of the court to enforce the discharge of that duty, are declared and maintained. The duties of the surveyor begin under the same conditions, and are declared in similar language, in the acts of 1824, 1828, and of 1851. The opinion of the Court is that the power of the district court over the cause, under the acts of Congress, does not terminate until the issue of a patent conformably to that decree."
To the same effect was United States v. Berrevesa's Heirs, 23 How. 499.
"the district courts of the United States for the Northern and Southern Districts of California are hereby authorized, upon the application of any party interested, to make an order requiring any survey of a private land claim within their respective districts to be returned into the district court for examination and adjudication, and on the receipt of said order, duly certified by the clerk of either of said courts, it shall be the duty of the surveyor general to transmit said survey and plat forthwith to said court."
of any other judgment or decree rendered by the court. This power has been exercised by the Court ever since the Spanish and French land claims were placed under its jurisdiction, as may be seen by the cases referred to in the opinion of the Court in this case when last before us, and in many others to be found in the reports. The powers of the surveyor general under these acts were as extensive and as well defined as under the act of 1851. The act of 1860 did not enlarge or in any way affect his powers. They remained the same as before."
"upon his presenting to the General Land Office an authentic certificate of the confirmation, and a plat or survey of said land, duly certified and approved by the surveyor general of California."
objection was urged as from the patent issued to and accepted by the claimants under that decree.
We are of opinion that while it may be true in some cases that an action to recover possession of lands confirmed to a claimant under the act of 1851 can be maintained before a patent is issued, yet a patent issued avowedly in execution of such decree was conclusive between the United States and the claimants, and, until cancelled, it alone determines, in an action to recover possession, the location of the lands that passed under the decree. Such is the effect of former decisions of this Court.
decisions of the tribunal, first to the district and then to the supreme court, and designated officers to survey and measure off the land when the validity of the claim is finally determined. When informed by the action of its tribunals and officers that a claim asserted is valid and entitled to recognition, the government acts, and issues its patent to the claimant. This instrument is therefore record evidence of the action of the government upon the title of the claimant. By it, the government declares that the claim asserted was valid under the laws of Mexico; that it was entitled to recognition and protection by the stipulations of the treaty, and might have been located under the former government, and is correctly located now, so as to embrace the premises as they are surveyed and described. As against the government, this record, so long as it remains unvacated, is conclusive. And it is equally conclusive against parties claiming under the government by title subsequent. It is in this effect of the patent as a record of the government that its security and protection chiefly lie. If parties asserting interests in lands acquired since the acquisition of the country could deny and controvert this record, and compel the patentee, in every suit for his land, to establish the validity of his claim, his right to its confirmation, and "
only those who hold superior titles such as will enable them to resist successfully any action of the government in disposing of the property.
These principles were recognized in More v. Steinbach, 127 U. S. 70, 127 U. S. 83, and again in Knight v. United States Land Association, 142 U. S. 161, 142 U. S. 187. See also Meader v. Norton, 11 Wall. 442, 78 U. S. 457; Adam v. Norris, 103 U. S. 591, 103 U. S. 593; Stoneroad v. Stoneroad, 158 U. S. 240; Russell v. Maxwell Land Grant Co., 158 U. S. 253.
The decisions of the Supreme Court of California have been to the same effect.
"As the last act in the series of proceedings, a patent is to issue to the claimant. This instrument is not only the deed of the United States, but it is a solemn record of the government of its action and judgment with respect to the title of the claimant existing at the date of the cession. By it, the sovereign power, which alone could determine the matter, declares that the previous grant was genuine; that the claim under it was valid, and entitled to recognition and confirmation by the law of nations and the stipulations of the treaty, and that the grant was located, or might have been located, by the former government, and is correctly located by the new government, so as to embrace the premises as they are surveyed and described. Whilst this declaration remains of record, the government itself cannot question its verity, nor can parties claiming through the government by title subsequent."
"A patent issued under the act of 1851 is, as has often been held by this court, the final act in proceedings instituted for the confirmation of the claim of the patentee to land which had been granted by the former government, and for the segregation of such lands from the public lands of the United States, and it is a record which binds both the government and the claimant, and cannot be attacked by either party except by direct proceedings instituted for that purpose. Leese v. Clark, 18 Cal. 535. While it stands, the claimant, or those deriving title through him, will not be permitted to aver that the claim comprised other or different lands from those mentioned in the patent. . . . It is contended by the plaintiffs that the survey, which is incorporated into the patent, does not accord with the decrees of confirmation, and that they are entitled to rely upon the decree -- which is also incorporated into the patent -- for title to lands within the decree, but not within the survey. This position cannot be maintained consistently with the views already expressed as to the nature and effect of the patent. The patent purports to convey the lands described in the survey, and its scope cannot be extended, nor, on the other hand, can it be limited, by showing that the decree comprised a greater or less area than the survey. Nor can the claimant, after admitting, as he must, the conclusive effect of the patent, make out title to lands not conveyed by the patent by the production of the proceedings which culminated in the patent. The patent, while it remains in force, conclusively determines what lands the claimant was entitled to under his claim and the decree of confirmation. The claimant can neither reform the patent nor show that it is in any respect incorrect in an action of ejectment."
patent shall be conclusive between the United States and the claimants only, and shall not affect the interests of third persons. If conclusive between the United States and the claimants, it must be equally so between persons holding under either of those parties."
In our opinion, the adjudged cases and the evidence in the cause leave no room to doubt the soundness of the conclusions announced by the supreme court of the state, namely: 1. that the lands in controversy are not embraced by the patent issued to the petitioners under the proceedings before the board of land commissioners appointed under the act of 1851; 2. the patent having been accepted by the patentees, and being uncancelled, the plaintiffs in this action, claiming under the patentees, cannot recover lands not embraced by it, even if such lands are embraced by the lines established by the decree of confirmation, the conclusive presumption being that the patent correctly locates the lands covered by the confirmed grant.
It is proper to say that the Court decides nothing more in this case than that the plaintiffs are not entitled to recover possession of the specific lands here in controversy. In this view, it is unnecessary to decide whether the defendant, Banning, was entitled to a judgment on his cross-complaint, nor whether the lands under the navigable waters of the inner bay of San Pedro, and those here in controversy, or any part thereof, passed to the State of California upon its admission into the Union, or after the issuing of the patent of 1858.

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