Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/219/47/
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 00:33:50+00:00

Document:
The general welfare of society is involved in the security and registry of titles to real estate, and those subjects are within the police power of the state.
A state, in the exercise of its inherent power to legislate in regard to title to the soil within its confines, may, without violating the federal Constitution, require parties owning and in possession of land to establish title by judicial proceedings before properly constituted tribunals, and this power extends to nonresident owners of land who may be brought before such tribunals by publication.
A state possesses, and, after such a disaster to a community as befell San Francisco, California, by fire and earthquake in 1906, in which nearly all the public records of registered titles to real estate were destroyed, may exercise, the power to remedy the confusion and uncertainty arising from the catastrophe.
Undisclosed and unknown claimants are as dangerous to the stability of titles to real estate as other classes, and they are not deprived of their property without due process of law if compelled to establish their titles by judicial proceeding before a properly constituted tribunal on adequate published notice, if given an opportunity to be heard and properly protected in case of fraud.
indexed in the recorder's office and served upon all claimants whose names and whereabouts could be ascertained, gives an adequate opportunity to all persons interested in the property to establish their rights, and does not deprive unknown claimants of their property without due process of law.
The Fourteenth Amendment does not operate to deprive the states of their lawful power; the due process clause of that Amendment only restrains such exertions of power as are so unreasonable and unjust as to impair or destroy fundamental rights, and therefore not really within lawful power of the state.
This Court, in determining the constitutionality of a state statute, is bound by the construction given to it by the highest court of the state and will treat it as exacting whatever the state court has declared that it exacts either expressly or by implication.
In determining the constitutionality of a state statute under the due process clause, the criterion is not whether any injury to an individual is possible, but whether the requirements as to notice and opportunity to protect property rights affected are just and reasonable.
It being within the power of the state to determine how title to real estate shall be proved, it is also within the legislative competency of that state to establish the method of procedure.
Due process of law requires that there shall be jurisdiction of, and notice to, the parties, and opportunity to be heard, and, subject to these conditions, the state has power to regulate procedure. Twining v. New Jersey, 211 U. S. 78.
The California statute, c. 59, of June 16, 1906, to establish titles in case of loss of public records, passed after the earthquake and fire of April, 1906, as construed by the highest state court, is within the legislative power of the state, provides adequate notice and protection to unknown claimants, affords opportunity to be heard, and is not unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment as depriving unknown claimants of their property without due process of law.
Court of the City and County of San Francisco, referred to in the recital of facts, the American Land Company "has been deprived of its property without due process of law."
was interposed to the bill in the court below for want of equity, which demurrer was sustained by the court and the bill was dismissed. "
the certificate on its face indicates that the court below was not in a state of mind which required the instruction of this Court, but was merely desirous of provoking a direct decision by this Court, to avoid the delay and the public inconvenience which otherwise might result. Second, because the certificate is so broad as simply to refer the whole case to this Court for decision, instead of presenting definite propositions of law for solution. While it may be that these suggestions find possible support, considering the record in a detached way, we think when the certificate is considered as a whole, and the subject with which it deals is properly weighed, the suggestions are without merit. We therefore pass to a consideration of the questions propounded.
It is apparent that the substantial considerations involved in the questions certified are embraced in the following: (a) the authority of the state to deal with the subject with which the statute is concerned; (b) upon the hypothesis of the existence of power, the sufficiency of the safeguards provided in the statute; (c) upon the like hypothesis the adequacy of the proceedings had in the particular cause with which the certificate deals. We shall consider these subjects separately.
As to power of the state.
defend their possession, but to enjoy and exercise the equally important right of disposition, is clear."
As it is indisputable that the general welfare of society is involved in the security of the titles to real estate and in the public registry of such titles, it is obvious that the power to legislate as to such subjects inheres in the very nature of government. This being true, it follows that government possesses the power to remedy the confusion and uncertainty as to registered titles arising from a disaster like that described by the court below. We might well pursue no further the subject of the power of the state to enact the law in question, and thus leave its authority to depend upon the demonstration necessarily resulting from the obvious considerations just stated. As, however, the question of power is intimately interwoven with the sufficiency of the procedure adopted, and as a clear comprehension of the scope of the power will serve to elucidate the question of procedure, we shall briefly refer to some of the leading cases by which the elementary doctrine of power over the subject of titles to real estate, and the application of that doctrine to a case like the one in hand, is settled beyond question. That a state has the power, generally speaking, to provide for and protect individual rights to the soil within its confines, and declare what shall form a cloud on the title to such soil, was recognized in Clark v. Smith, 13 Pet.195. So, also, it is conclusively established that, when the public interests demand, the law may require even a party in actual possession of land, and claiming a perfect title, to appear before a properly constituted tribunal, and establish that title by a judicial proceeding. Such was the method employed by the United States in settling, as between itself and claimants under Mexican grants, the title to property in California. Barker v. Harvey, 181 U. S. 481; Mitchell v. Furman, 180 U. S. 402; Botiller v. Dominguez, 130 U. S. 238; More v. Steinbach, 127 U. S. 70.
"It [the state] has control over property within its limits, and the condition of ownership of real estate therein, whether the owner be stranger or citizen, is subjection to its rules concerning the holding, the transfer, liability to obligations, private or public, and the modes of establishing titles thereto. It cannot bring the person of a nonresident within its limits -- its process goes not out beyond its borders -- but it may determine the extent of his title to real estate within its limits, and for the purpose of such determination may provide any reasonable methods of imparting notice. The wellbeing of every community requires that the title to real estate therein shall be secured, and that there be convenient and certain methods of determining any unsettled questions respecting it. The duty of accomplishing this is local in its nature; it is not a matter of national concern or vested in the general government; it remains with the state, and as this duty is one of the state, the manner of discharging it must be determined by the state, and no proceeding which it provides can be declared invalid, unless in conflict with some special inhibitions of the Constitution, or against natural justice."
"If such proceedings are had, after actual notice by service of summons to all known claimants, and constructive notice by publication to all possible claimants who are unknown, the final determination of the right of succession, either among private persons, as in the ordinary administration of estates, or between all persons and the state, as by inquest of office or similar process to determine whether the estate has escheated to the public, is due process of law, and a statute providing for such proceedings and determination does not impair the obligation of any contract contained in the grant under which the former owner held, whether that grant was from the state or from a private person."
in a corner, but before the observation of the civilized world. We cannot doubt the power of the general assembly to pass the act."
"Applying the principles which have led the courts in cases like Arndt v. Griggs and Perkins v. Wakeham, 86 Cal. 580, to sustain judgments quieting titles against nonresidents upon substituted service, why should not the legislature have power to give similar effect to such judgments against unknown claimants where the notice is reasonably full and complete? The validity of such judgments against known residents is based upon the grounds that the state has power to provide for the determination of titles to real estate within its borders, and that, as against nonresident defendants or others, who cannot be served in the state, a substituted service is permissible, as being the only service possible. These grounds apply with equal force to unknown claimants. The power of the state as to titles should not be limited to settling them as against persons named. In order to exercise this power to its fullest extent, it is necessary that it should be made to operate on all interests, known and unknown. As was said by Holmes, C.J., in Tyler v. Judges of the Court of Registration, 175 Mass. 71, in speaking of a statute which, in the particular under discussion, was similar to ours:"
"If it does not satisfy the Constitution, a judicial proceeding to clear titles against all the world hardly is possible; for the very meaning of such a proceeding is to get rid of unknown as well as known claimants -- indeed, certainty against the unknown may be said to be its chief end -- and unknown claimants cannot be dealt with by personal service upon the claimant."
The adequacy of the safeguards which the statute provides.
"any person who claims an estate of inheritance or for life in, and who is by himself or his tenant, or other person holding under him, in the actual and peaceable possession of any real property"
"upon a map or plat of the parcels of land, to be kept by him for that purpose, on that part of the map or plat representing the parcel or parcels so described, a reference to the date of the filing of such notice, and, when recorded, to the book and page of the record thereof."
"in any subsequent attack upon the decree, upon the ground that there was extraneous fraud of the plaintiff in making a false affidavit to obtain jurisdiction."
the Fourteenth Amendment does not operate to deprive the states of their lawful power, and of the right, in the exercise of such power, to resort to reasonable methods inherently belonging to the power exerted. On the contrary, the provisions of the due process clause only restrain those arbitrary and unreasonable exertions of power which are not really within lawful state power, since they are so unreasonable and unjust as to impair or destroy fundamental rights.
"Various prudential regulations are made with respect to these remedies, but it may possibly happen, notwithstanding all these precautions, that a citizen who owes nothing, and has done none of the acts mentioned in the statute may be deprived of his estate without any actual knowledge of the process by which it has been taken from him. If we hold, as we must in order to sustain this legislation, that the Constitution does not positively require personal notice in order to constitute a legal proceeding due process of law, it then belongs to the legislature to determine in the particular instance whether the case calls for this kind of exceptional legislation, and what manner of constructive notice shall be sufficient to reasonably apprise the party proceeded against of the legal steps which are taken against him."
and is published in a newspaper for two months, and a lis pendens containing the same particulars is recorded in the recorder's office and entered upon the recorder's map of the property, we cannot doubt that, so far as concerns the possible claimants who are not known to the plaintiff, the notice prescribed by the act is as complete and full as, from the nature of the case, could reasonably be expected."
"It is said, however, that Josephine Ballard was not made a defendant in the suit, though the records of the county showed that she was an owner thereof. But the statute provided against such an omission. It provided that the proceedings and judgment should be in the nature of proceedings in rem, and that it should be immaterial that the ownership of the lands might be incorrectly alleged in the proceedings. We see no want of due process in that requirement, or what was done under it. It is manifest that any criticism of either is answered by the cases we have cited. The proceedings were appropriate to the nature of the case."
affairs of man. The law cannot give personal notice of its provisions or proceedings to everyone. It charges everyone with knowledge of its provisions; of its proceedings it must at times adopt some form of indirect notice, and indirect notice is usually efficient notice when the proceedings affect real estate. Of what concerns or may concern their real estate men usually keep informed, and on that probability the law may frame its proceedings -- indeed, must frame them -- and assume the care of property to be universal if it would give efficiency to many of its exercises. This was pointed out in Huling v. Kaw Valley Railway & Improvement Company, 130 U. S. 559, where it was declared to be the"
"duty of the owner of real estate who is a nonresident to take measures that in some way he shall be represented when his property is called into requisition, and if he fails to get notice by the ordinary publications which have been usually required in such cases, it is his misfortune, and he must abide the consequences."
"It makes no difference therefore that plaintiffs in error did not have personal notice of the suit to collect the taxes on their lands, or that taxes had been levied, or knowledge of the law under which the taxes had been levied."
apply in such cases. Any person interested in the property, and having no actual notice of the decree, may come in at any time within a year after its rendition, and by showing that he has not been personally served with process, and stating facts constituting a good defense to the proceeding -- that is, facts sufficient to show that he has a valid adverse interest in the property -- he may have the decree vacated as to him, and be allowed to answer to the merits."
The right conferred by § 473 of the code, it is to be observed, is an absolute right, although the section declares that the court may impose "such terms as may be just." Holiness Church v. Metropolitan Church Association, 12 Cal.App. 445; Gray v. Lawlor, 151 Cal. 352.
Under this construction, it might well be held, if it were necessary to do so, as establishing a rule of limitation which it was in the power of the state to prescribe, in view of the circumstances to which the limitation was made applicable. See Tyler v. Judges, 175 Mass. 71, and State v. Westfall, 85 Minn. 437. See also Illinois cases concerning the power to fix a short period of limitation to meet a disaster like the one to which the statute in question relates, collected in Gormley v. Clark, 134 U. S. 346, 134 U. S. 347.
"Due process requires that the court which assumes to determine the rights of parties shall have jurisdiction [citing cases], and that there shall be notice and opportunity for hearing given the parties [citing cases]. Subject to these two fundamental conditions, which seem to be universally prescribed in all systems of law established by civilized countries, this Court has, up to this time, sustained all state laws, statutory or judicially declared, regulating procedure, evidence, and methods of trials, and held them to be consistent with due process of law."
3. The adequacy of the proceedings pursued in the case referred to in the certificate.
As there is no claim that fraud, actual or constructive, was employed by Zeiss in obtaining the judgment complained of, and the proceedings conformed to the California statute, the considerations previously stated entirely dispose of this question.
It follows that both of the questions certified must be answered in the negative.
"An Act to Provide for the Establishment and Quieting of Title to Real Property in case of the Loss or Destruction of Public Records."
"The people of the State of California, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:"
"SEC. 1. Whenever the public records in the office of a county recorder have been, or shall hereafter be, lost or destroyed, in whole or in any material part, by flood, fire, or earthquake, any person who claims an estate of inheritance or for life in, and who is by himself or his tenant or other person holding under him, in the actual and peaceable possession of any real property in such county, may bring and maintain an action in rem against all the world, in the superior court for the county in which such real property is situate, to establish his title to such property, and to determine all adverse claims thereto. Any number of separate parcels of land claimed by the plaintiff may be included in the same action."
"SEC. 2. The action shall be commenced by the filing of a verified complaint, in which the party so commencing the same shall be named as plaintiff, and the defendants shall be described as 'all persons claiming any interest in, or lien upon, the real property herein described, or any part thereof,' and shall contain a statement of the facts enumerated in section one of this act, a particular description of such real property, and a specification of the estate, title, or interest of the plaintiff therein."
"SEC. 3. Upon the filing of the complaint, a summons must be issued under the seal of the court, which shall contain the name of the court and county in which the action is brought, the name of the plaintiff, and a particular description of the real property involved, and shall be directed to 'all persons claiming any interest in, or lien upon the real property herein described, or any part thereof,' as defendants, and shall be substantially in the following form:"
n the Superior Court of the California, in and for the County"
"(or City and County) of _____."
"All Persons Claiming Any Interest in, or Lien upon, the Real Property"
"Herein Described, or Any Part Thereof, Defendants."
" The People of the State of California, to all persons claiming any interest in, or lien upon, the real property herein described, or any part thereof, defendants, Greetings:"
" You are hereby required to appear and answer the complaint of ________ _____, plaintiff, filed with the clerk of the above entitled court and county, within three months after the first publication of this summons, and to set forth what interest or lien, if any, you have in or upon that certain real property or any part thereof, situated in the county (or city and county) of _____, State of California, particularly described as follows: (Here insert description.)"
" And you are hereby notified that, unless you so appear and answer, the plaintiff will apply to the court for the relief demanded in the complaint, to-wit: (Here insert a statement of the relief so demanded.)"
" Witness my hand and the seal of said court, this ___ day of _____, A.D. _____."
"Sec. 4. The summons shall be published in a newspaper of general circulation, published in the county in which the action is brought. The newspaper in which such publication is to be made shall be designated by an order of the court or a judge thereof, to be signed and filed with the clerk. No other order for the publication of the summons shall be necessary, nor shall any affidavit therefor be required, nor need any copy of the complaint be served, except as hereinafter required. The summons shall be published at least once a week for a period of two months, and to each publication thereof shall be appended a memorandum in substance as follows:"
" The first publication of this summons was made in _____ (here insert the name) newspaper on the ___ day of _____ A.D. ____; (inserting the date)."
"And if the affidavit provided for in section five of this act discloses the name of any person claiming an interest in the property, or a lien thereon adverse to the plaintiff, that fact, together with the name and address (if given), of said person, shall be stated in a memorandum to be appended to the summons in substance as follows:"
" The following persons are said to claim an interest in, or lien upon said property adverse to plaintiff (giving their names and addresses as above provided). A copy of the summons, together with a copy of the foregoing memoranda, shall be posted in a conspicuous place on each parcel of the property described in the complaint, within fifteen days after the first publication of the summons."
"SEC. 5. At the time of filing the complaint, the plaintiff shall file with the same his affidavit, fully and explicitly setting forth and showing (1) the character of his estate, right, title, interest, or claim in and possession of the property, during what period the same has existed and from whom obtained; (2) whether or not he has ever made any conveyance of the property, or any part thereof, or any interests therein, and if so, when and to whom; also a statement of any and all subsisting mortgages, deeds of trust, and other liens thereon; (3) that he does not know and has never been informed of any other person who claims or who may claim, any interest in, or lien upon, the property or any part thereof, adversely to him, or, if he does know, or has been informed of any such person, then the name and address of such person. If the plaintiff is unable to state any one or more of the matters herein required, he shall set forth and show, fully and explicitly, the reasons for such inability. Such affidavit shall constitute a part of the judgment roll. If the plaintiff be a corporation, the affidavit shall be made by an officer thereof. If the plaintiff be a person under guardianship, the affidavit shall be made by his guardian."
"SEC. 6. If the said affidavit discloses the name of any person claiming any interest in, or lien upon, the property adverse to the plaintiff, the summons shall also be personally served upon such person if he can be found within the state, together with a copy of the complaint and a copy of said affidavit during the period of the publications of the summons, and to the copy of the summons delivered to any such person there shall be appended a copy of the memoranda provided for in section four hereof."
"If such person resides out of this state, a copy of the summons, memoranda, complaint, and affidavit shall be within fifteen days after the first publication of the summons deposited in the United States post office, enclosed in a sealed envelop, postage prepaid, addressed to such person at the address given in the affidavit, or if no address be given therein, then at the county seat at the county in which the action is brought. If such person resides within this state, and could not, with due diligence, be found within the state, within the period of the publication of the summons, then said copies aforesaid shall be mailed to him as above provided forthwith upon the expiration of said period of publication."
"SEC. 7. Upon the completion of the publication and posting of the summons, and its service upon and mailing to the person, if any, upon whom it is hereby directed to be so specially served, the court shall have full and complete jurisdiction over the plaintiff and the said property, and of the person of everyone claiming any estate, right, title, or interest in or to, or lien upon, said property, or any part thereof, and shall be deemed to have obtained the possession and control of said property for the purposes of the action, and shall have full and complete jurisdiction to render the judgment therein which is provided for in this act."
"SEC. 8. At any time within three months from the first publication of the summons, or within such further time, not exceeding thirty days, as the court may, for good cause, grant, any person having or claiming any estate, right, title, or interest, in or to, or lien upon, said property, or any part thereof, may appear and make himself a party to the action by pleading to the complaint. All answers must be verified and must specifically set forth the estate, right, title, interest, or lien so claimed."
"SEC. 9. The plaintiff must at the time of filing the complaint, and every defendant claiming any affirmative relief must at the time of filing his answer, record in the office of the recorder of the county in which the property is situated, a notice of the pendency of the action, containing the object of the action or defense, and a particular description of the property affected thereby, and the recorder shall record the same in a book devoted exclusively to the recordation of such notices and shall enter, upon a map or plat of the parcels of land, to be kept by him for that purpose, on that part of the map or plat representing the parcel or parcels so described, a reference to the date of the filing of such notice and, when recorded, to the book and page of the record thereof."
"SEC. 10. No judgment in any such action shall be given by default, but the court must require proof of the facts alleged in the complaint and other pleadings."
"SEC. 11. The judgment shall ascertain and determine all estates, rights, titles, interests, and claims in and to said property and every part thereof, whether the same be legal or equitable, present or future, vested or contingent, or whether the same consist of mortgages or liens of any description, and shall be binding and conclusive upon every person who at the time of the commencement of the action, had or claimed any estate, right, title, or interest in or to said property, or any part thereof, and upon every person claiming under him by title subsequent to the commencement of the action. A certified copy of the judgment in such action shall be recorded in the office of the recorder of the county in which said action was commenced, and any party or the successor in interest of any party to said action may at his option, file for record in the office of the recorder of such county the entire judgment roll in said action."
"SEC. 12. Except as herein otherwise provided, all the provisions and rules of law relating to evidence, pleading, practice, new trials and appeals, applicable to other civil actions, shall apply to the actions hereby authorized."
"At any time after the issuance of the summons, any party to the action may take depositions therein, in conformity to law, upon notice to the adverse party sought to be bound by such depositions, and who have appeared in the action (if any), and upon notice filed with the clerk. The depositions may be used by any party against any other party giving or receiving the notice (except the clerk), subject to all just exceptions."
"SEC. 13. The clerk shall number consecutively, in a distinct series, all actions hereby authorized, and shall keep an index and register thereof devoted exclusively to such actions."
"SEC. 14. Whenever judgment in an action hereby authorized shall have been entered as to any real property, no other action relative to the same property or any part thereof, maintained under this act, shall be tried until proof shall first have been made to the court that all persons who appeared in the first action, or their successors in interest, have been personally served with the papers mentioned in section six of this act, either within or without this state, more than one month before the time to plead expired."
"SEC. 15. An executor, administrator, or guardian, or other person holding the possession of property in the right of another, may maintain as plaintiff, and may appear and defend in, the action herein provided for."
"SEC. 16. The word 'county,' whenever used in this act, includes and applies to a consolidated city and county."
"SEC. 17. The remedies provided for by this act shall be deemed cumulative, and in addition to any other remedy now or hereafter provided by law for quieting or establishing title to real property."
"SEC. 18. All actions authorized hereby must be commenced before July first, 1909."
"SEC.19. This act shall be in force thirty days after its passage."

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