Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/233/613/
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 02:23:56+00:00

Document:
Under § 237, Judicial Code, this Court has jurisdiction to review a judgment of a state court denying a claim duly set up under a confirmatory patent issued under § 4 of the Land Grant Adjustment Act of 1887 and holding that the patentee was not entitled to the benefit of the provisions of that section.
The decision of the Secretary of the Interior that the grantee of a railroad company was a purchaser in good faith in the sense of the Adjustment Act of 1887, is conclusive so far as it is based on fact and cannot be disturbed except as it may be grounded upon an error of law, there being no charge of fraud.
The practical interpretation of an ambiguous or uncertain statute by the executive department charged with its administration is entitled to the highest respect, and, if acted upon for a number of years, will not be disturbed except for very cogent reasons.
made after the date of the act no less than prior purchases, if made in good faith, and many thousands of acres having been patented to individuals under that interpretation, this Court will not now disturb it. Knepper v. Sands, 194 U. S. 476, distinguished.
A remedial statute is to be construed liberally so as to effectuate the purpose of the legislative body enacting it, and so held as to the Adjustment Act of 1887. United States v. Southern Pacific Railroad Co., 184 U. S. 49.
One is a purchaser in good faith within the sense of § 4 of the Adjustment Act of 1887, if he is in actual ignorance of defects in the railroad company's title and the transaction is an honest one on his part, the ordinary rule respecting constructive notice being inapplicable. United States v. Winona & St. Peter R. Co., 165 U. S. 463.
"The Governor of the State of Iowa is hereby authorized and directed to certify to the Secretary of the Interior all lands which have heretofore been patented to the state, to aid in the construction of said railroad, and which have not been patented by the state to the Sioux City & St. Paul Railroad Company, and the list of land so certified by the Governor shall be presumed to be the lands relinquished and conveyed by § 1 of this act. Provided, that nothing in this section contained shall be construed to apply to lands situated in the Counties of Dickinson and O'Brien."
Iowa Laws 1884, c. 71. The tract in controversy, being in O'Brien County, came within the excepting words of the proviso.
This tract was part of an odd-numbered section of land immediately adjoining the third ten-mile section of constructed road, the completion of which was duly certified by the governor, and was unreserved, unappropriated, and vacant at the date of the granting act and at the time the line of road was definitely located. Thus, it was not only a part of the lands granted, but was earned by actual construction. And, strictly speaking, it was rightly patented to the state for the benefit of the company, the excess in the lands patented being caused by the inclusion in the patents of other lands differently situated and not earned by the completion of the five ten-mile sections of road.
any homestead, preemption, or kindred claim, and while the patent therefor, issued to the state in 1873, for the benefit of the company, was still outstanding, Ellen M. Childs purchased the tract from the company, paying $88.00 in cash and agreeing to pay ten deferred installments, with interest thereon, making the full price $1,270.64, which was the fair value of the land. At the time of her purchase, the tract was in the actual and undisputed possession of the company through a tenant named Fitzgerald, who then became her tenant, and through him she continued in the undisturbed possession until October 8, 1889, when she sold to Logan, the plaintiff in error, who paid her $228 in cash and took the land subject to the payment of the ten deferred installments. Fitzgerald then became the tenant of Logan and remained in possession in that capacity until the spring of 1890, when Davis, the defendant in error, with a gang of men and teams, went upon the land, took possession of it, and began cultivating the larger part of it. In what he did, Davis acted without the consent of Logan, and with knowledge of Mrs. Childs' purchase from the company in 1888, of her sale to Logan in 1889, and of Fitzgerald's possession as tenant of Mrs. Childs and then of Logan. Although subsequently maintaining the possession obtained in the spring of 1890, Davis did not reside upon the tract or erect any buildings upon it.
"Our conclusion, then, is that the Sioux City Company, having failed to complete the entire road for the construction of which Congress made the grant in question, was not entitled to the whole of the lands granted, but at most, only to one hundred odd-numbered sections -- as those sections were surveyed, whatever their quantity -- for each section of ten consecutive miles constructed and certified by the governor of the state, and that, according to the measurement of 1887, which is accepted as the basis of calculation, the railroad company had, prior to the institution of this suit, received more lands, on account of the fifty miles of constructed road, certified by the governor, than it was entitled to receive. Under this view, it is unnecessary to inquire whether the particular lands here in dispute should not have been assigned to the company, rather than other lands, containing a like number of acres, that were, in fact transferred to it, and which cannot now be recovered by the United States by reason of their having been disposed of by the company. If the company has received as much in quantity as should have been awarded to it, a court of equity will not recognize its claim to more, in whatever shape the claim is presented."
from it the amount already paid, with interest, in full satisfaction of all demands against the company on account of the failure of the title.
Shortly following the decision of this Court in that suit, the lands recovered by the United States, including this tract, were regularly restored to public entry in conformity with the provisions of the adjustment act, and a contest at once ensued in the Land Department over this tract. Logan, claiming to be a purchaser in good faith, applied for a confirmatory patent under § 4, and Davis, claiming to be a bona fide occupant, sought to obtain title under the homestead law. A hearing before the local land office at which the parties presented such evidence as they had in support of their respective claims resulted in a decision by the local officers in favor of Davis. This was affirmed by the Commissioner of the General Land Office on the theory that the agreement of March 13, 1894, was fatal to Logan's claim as a purchaser, and upon an appeal to the Secretary of the Interior, the decisions below were reversed, it being found and held by the Secretary that Logan was a purchaser in good faith within the meaning of § 4 of the adjustment act; that the agreement of March 13, 1894, did not alter his status as a purchaser, and that Davis' possession, acquired after the purchase by Logan, and with knowledge of it, did not eliminate the element of good faith from the latter's purchase or otherwise defeat his claim. As a result of this decision, Logan made the requisite payment to the government (see amendatory act of February 12, 1896, supra), and was given a confirmatory patent.
tract. The present record, however, does not purport to contain all the evidence produced in that contest.
known the character of the company's title, and (b) that § 4 was not applicable to a purchase made after the date of the act. To reverse that decision, Logan prosecutes this writ of error.
MR. JUSTICE VAN DEVANTER, after making the foregoing statement, delivered the opinion of the Court.
As Logan claimed as a purchaser in good faith within the meaning of § 4 of the adjustment Act of 1887, under which a confirmatory patent had been issued to him, and the supreme court of the state denied that claim, and held that he was not entitled to the benefit of the provisions of that section, the judgment is so plainly subject to review by this Court under section 237 of the Judicial Code that a contention to the contrary, found in one of the briefs, is dismissed as not justifying further comment. Gauthier v. Morrison, 232 U. S. 452.
And as the Secretary of the Interior found, from the evidence submitted in the contest before the Land Department, that Logan was a purchaser in good faith in the sense of the adjustment act, and no basis was laid in the pleadings or agreed statement of facts for rejecting or disturbing that decision save as it was said to be grounded upon error of law and misconstruction of the statute, it is manifest that, unless some of the objections urged against it on that score are well taken, Logan's title should be sustained. Vance v. Burbank, 101 U. S. 514, 101 U. S. 519; Lee v. Johnson, 116 U. S. 48; Gertgens v. O'Connor, 191 U. S. 237, 191 U. S. 240; Ross v. Day, 232 U. S. 110.
the grant made by the Act of 1864, unless already adjusted. That it had not been adjusted by the Land Department is conceded, but it is insisted that it had been adjusted by the legislation and action of the state in 1882 and 1884, and so was not within the operation of the adjustment Act of 1887. To this we cannot assent. The United States had not committed the adjustment to the state, and neither had the state assumed to make an adjustment for the United States. Prior to the Act of 1887, the administration of the several railroad land grants rested with the Land Department, of which the Secretary of the Interior is the head, Catholic Bishop of Nesqually v. Gibbon, 158 U. S. 155, 158 U. S. 166-167,, and some of the lessor grants had progressed to a final adjustment in regular course of administration. It was because of this that the restrictive words "and heretofore unadjusted" were inserted in the act. They meant only that adjustments theretofore effected by the Land Department in regular course were not to be disturbed. The facts before recited amply illustrate that this grant had not proceeded to such an adjustment. The Secretary of the Interior treated it as unadjusted, Sioux City & St. P. R. Co., 6 L.D. 54, 71, and this Court impliedly, if not expressly, approved his action. Sioux City & St. Paul Railroad Co. v. United States, 159 U. S. 349, 159 U. S. 40 L. ed. 177.
an entry for the same, or as a waiver of any rights that the United States may have on account of any breach of said conditions."
"Provided further, That where such purchasers, their heirs or assigns, have paid only a portion, of the purchase price to the company, which is less than the government price of similar lands, they shall be required, before the delivery of patent for their lands, to pay to the government a sum equal to the difference between the portion of the purchase price so paid and the government price, and in such case the amount demanded from the company shall be the amount paid to it by such purchaser."
Section five related to lands apparently within such a grant and lying opposite the constructed parts of the road, but excepted from the operation of the grant, and not certified or patented to or for the benefit of the railroad company, and provided that, where any such land was sold by the company to a bona fide purchaser who was a citizen of the United States or had declared his intention to become such, the purchaser, his heirs, or assigns could obtain a patent by paying the ordinary government price, but that this privilege should not exist if, at the time of the sale, by the company, the land was occupied by an adverse claimant under the preemption or homestead laws.
held that the remedial sections embraced purchases after the date of the act, no less than prior purchases, if made in good faith. Sethman v. Clise, 17 L.D. 307; Holton v. Rutledge, 20 L.D. 227; Andrus v. Balch, 22 L.D. 238; Briley v. Beach, 22 L.D. 549; Re Seaver, 23 L.D. 108; Neilsen v. Central Pacific Railroad Co., 26 L.D. 252. Many thousands of acres have been patented to individuals under that interpretation, and to disturb it now would be productive of serious and harmful results. The situation therefore calls for the application of the settled rule that the practical interpretation of an ambiguous or uncertain statute by the executive department charged with its administration is entitled to the highest respect, and, if acted upon for a number of years, will not be disturbed except for very cogent reasons. United States v. Moore, 95 U. S. 760, 95 U. S. 763; Hastings & Dakota Railroad Co. v. Whitney, 132 U. S. 357, 132 U. S. 366; United States v. Alabama Great Southern Railroad Co., 142 U. S. 615, 142 U. S. 621; Kindred v. Union Pacific Railroad Co., 225 U. S. 582, 225 U. S. 596.
alongside of those from which quotations have been made, it is reasonable to hold that the act applies not merely to transactions had before its date, but to any had before the time of final adjustment. In this case, the several grants to the Southern Pacific have not yet been finally adjusted. Further, it must be borne in mind that this is a remedial statute, and is to be construed liberally, and so as to effectuate the purpose of Congress and secure the relief which was designed, and the mere date of the transaction between the purchaser and the railroad company is not of itself vital in determining whether there is or is not an equity in behalf of the purchaser."
or controlling here, for no one was occupying or claiming this tract under the settlement laws at the time it was purchased from the company.
"It will be observed that this protection is not granted to simply bona fide purchasers (using that term in the technical sense), but to those who have one of the elements declared to be essential to a bona fide purchaser -- to-wit, good faith. It matters not what constructive notice may be chargeable to such a purchaser if, in actual ignorance of any defect in the railroad company's title and in reliance upon the action of the government in the apparent transfer of title by certification or patent, he has made an honest purchase of the lands. The plain intent of this section is to secure him the lands and to reinforce his defective title by a direct patent from the United States, and to leave to the government a simple claim for money against the railroad company."
"It is true the term used here is 'bona fide purchaser,' but it is a bona fide purchaser from the company, and the description given of the lands, as not conveyed and 'for any reason excepted from the operation of the grant,' indicates that the fact of notice of defect of title was not to be considered fatal to the right. Congress attempted to protect an honest transaction between a purchaser and a railroad company, even in the absence of a certification or patent."
This view of the purpose and meaning of the act was repeated and applied in Gertgens v. O'Connor, 191 U. S. 237, and United States v. Chicago, Milwaukee & St.Paul Railway Co., 195 U. S. 524.
As it thus appears that the decision of the Secretary of the Interior was right in point of law, and as it was conclusive upon all questions of fact (Gertgens v. O'Connor, supra), it follows that the state court erred in not sustaining Logan's title obtained under that decision.

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