Opinion ID: 1219144
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Claim Under the Act of June 21, 1860

Text: AWDI asserts a supplemental or alternative claim to ownership of all ground water underlying Baca Grant No. 4 based on the language of the Act of June 21, 1860. As earlier discussed, section 3 of that Act confirmed certain private land claims in the Territory of New Mexico, including the competing claims of the Baca heirs and the Town of Las Vegas to the Vegas Grandes, as recommended for confirmation by the surveyor general. In section 4 of the Act, Congress provided [t]hat the foregoing confirmation shall only be construed as quit-claims or relinquishments, on the part of the United States, and shall not affect the adverse rights of any other person or persons whomsoever. AWDI relies on this language of quit claim or relinquishment as conveying to the Baca heirs all rights of the United States in the lands selected by them in return for waiver of their claim to the Vegas Grandes. Such rights, according to this argument, included all rights to water underlying Baca Grant No. 4. As earlier noted, however, the Act of June 21, 1860, did not confirm a claim of the Baca heirs to Baca Grant No. 4. They had no such claim. Instead, pursuant to section 6 of that Act and the legislation previously discussed, the Baca heirs were authorized to select alternative lands not within the boundary of the Vegas Grandes in return for waiver of their claim to the Vegas Grandes. Section 4 of the Act, quit claiming or relinquishing rights of the United States to confirmed claims, had no application to the substitute lands. AWDI's reliance on Henshaw v. Bissell, 85 U.S. (18 Wall.) 255, 21 L.Ed. 835 (1873), and language in Shaw v. Kellogg, 170 U.S. 312, 331, 18 S.Ct. 632, 640, 42 L.Ed. 1050 (1898), is misplaced. Those cases contain language supporting the proposition that confirmation of claims under the Act of June 21, 1860, effected relinquishment of all rights of the United States to the premises covered by the claims. This proposition, based on section 4 of the Act, has no application to the substitute lands in the public domain, including Baca Grant No. 4, selected by the Baca heirs in return for waiver of their claim to the Vegas Grandes, the tract to which their claim pertained. Principles of construction militate against AWDI's arguments as well. Land grants are construed favorably to the United States government, and nothing passes except what is conveyed in clear and explicit language. Watt v. Western Nuclear, Inc., 462 U.S. 36, 59, 103 S.Ct. 2218, 2231, 76 L.Ed.2d 400 (1983) (lands acquired under Stock Raising Homestead Act of 1916 do not include gravel deposits); Andrus v. Charlestone Stone Prod. Co., 436 U.S. 604, 617, 98 S.Ct. 2002, 2009-10, 56 L.Ed.2d 570 (1978) (water is not a valuable mineral subject to location under Federal Mining Law of 1872); United States v. Union Pac. R.R. Co., 353 U.S. 112, 116, 77 S.Ct. 685, 687, 1 L.Ed.2d 693 (1957) (right of way granted to railroad did not include mineral rights); Caldwell v. United States, 250 U.S. 14, 20-21, 39 S.Ct. 397, 398-99, 63 L.Ed. 816 (1919) (right granted by statute to railroad to take timber necessary for construction did not extend to tie slashtops of trees not usable for making ties). Any doubts are to be resolved in favor of the government and not against it, Western Nuclear, Inc., 462 U.S. at 59, 103 S.Ct. at 2231; Andrus, 436 U.S. at 617, 98 S.Ct. at 2009-10; United States v. Union Pac., 353 U.S. at 116, 77 S.Ct. at 687; Caldwell, 250 U.S. at 20-21, 39 S.Ct. at 398-99, as are any inferences, Caldwell, 250 U.S. at 20, 39 S.Ct. at 398. The rule of narrow construction of federal land grants has been applied with particular vigor with respect to water where determination that a grant carries rights to water would create inconsistencies with the water right system that has been based on local law and custom. See Andrus, 436 U.S. at 615-17, 98 S.Ct. at 2008-10. [21] Nothing in the Act of June 21, 1860, suggests that the land to be received by the Baca heirs by selection from the public domain in exchange for relinquishment of their claim under Spanish or Mexican law to the Vegas Grandes was to have any incidents peculiar to claims derived under the law of those sovereigns. The Act contains no mention whatsoever of rights to water underlying the lands to be selected. [22] There is no basis in the Act of June 21, 1860, to support a construction that the Baca heirs acquired any rights that would have been recognized under Spanish or Mexican law to substituted lands selected by them in return for waiver of their claim to the Vegas Grandes. [23] We hold that AWDI's argument that it acquired rights to water underlying Baca Grant No. 4 based on the terms of the Act of June 21, 1860, is not well founded.