Opinion ID: 1718612
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Patentees

Text: Both the United States District Court and the Henderson Circuit Court concluded that the patentees' claims had to be denied, the latter court adopting the detailed opinion of the Federal Court on this issue, a course which we too shall follow in part. In its detailed opinion (Walker v. Felmont, 136 F.Supp. 584), the Federal Court declared: In their complaint the Patentees allege complete compliance with the laws of Kentucky providing for the appropriation of vacant and unappropriated lands and assert the validity of certain patents issued in 1938 to portions of the Ohio River bed north of the thread of the stream. These patents, signed by the Governor and Secretary of State and bearing the Seal of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, are filed with the record. The attack on the validity of these patents centers on the contention that the patent statutes as construed by the Court of Appeals of Kentucky apply only to uplands and do not permit the acquisition of the northern half of the bed of the Ohio River by patent proceedings. The question of whether or not the northern bed of the Ohio River is subject to patent was directly considered by the Court of Appeals of Kentucky in 1907 in the case of Ware v. Hager, 126 Ky. 324, [326] 103 S.W. 283. Chapter 136 of the Act of 1893 of the Kentucky Legislature, being Sections 4702-4705 of the Kentucky Statutes, Carroll's First Edition, 1903, was the law then in effect dealing with vacant and unappropriated land. The court construed this Act of 1893 as not authorizing the acquisition of the northern bed of the river by patent. In so holding the court said: `While the state owns the land to the northern shore of the river, we do not think it has ever provided for the taking up of the river bed between the thread of the stream and the northern shore as vacant land. The proceeding in question was instituted under chapter 127, Ky.St.1903. Section 4702, which is the first section of that chapter, provides that each county in the state shall have the right to dispose of the unappropriated lands lying therein not otherwise provided for in the manner thereinafter directed. Section 4703 provides that an actual settler on any vacant or unappropriated land shall have a pre-emption right to any number of acres, not exceeding 100. It also provides that any person who wishes to appropriate any vacant or unappropriated land may obtain an order of court authorizing him to enter and survey any number of acres, not more than 200. Section 4704 provides that the surveyor shall survey the entries in the order of time in which they are made, bounding the same by plainly marked trees, stones, or stakes, and noting where they bind on a water course or a marked line of another survey. In enacting these provisions, we cannot believe that the Legislature had in mind the taking up of the bed of the Ohio river between the thread of the stream and the northern shore. Such a survey could not be marked by stones or stakes or plainly marked trees. There could be no actual settlers on such land. While we do not doubt the power of the Legislature to provide for the issuing of patents for the bed of the Ohio river north of the thread of the stream, so that the sand or minerals which may be on or under this land may be appropriated, we do not think it has yet done so'. This opinion has not been overruled or modified, but in 1926 the patent statutes interpreted by it were amended. However, the 1926 Amendment did not disturb Sections 4703 and 4704 which were the basis of the court's decision. Section 4703 providing that an actual settler on vacant and unappropriated land shall have a pre-emption right to 100 acres and that any person may enter and survey up to 200 acres of vacant land was re-enacted. Section 4704 providing the survey shall be marked `by plainly marked trees, stones or stakes, noting where it binds on a watercourse, or the marked line of another survey, giving names', was also re-enacted. The re-enactment by a legislature of a statute interpreted by the highest court of the State constitutes an adoption of the statute as construed. Chatterson v. City of Louisville, 145 Ky. 485, 140 S.W. 647; Rose v. Turner, 301 Ky. 272, 191 S.W.2d 397; Button v. Hikes, 296 Ky. 163, 176 S.W.2d 112, 150 A.L.R. 779. The Patentees advance the further argument that Section I, Sec. 4702, of the 1926 Amendment repudiates the Ware case by declaring for the first time that the bed of the river north of the thread of the stream was `vacant and unappropriated property', and that because of this declaration this property became subject to patent.    In Willis v. Boyd, 224 Ky. 732, 7 S.W. 2d 216 (1928), a case involving a sand and gravel lease of the north bed of the Ohio River, the 1926 Amendment was considered, and the court stated: `Assuming the act to be valid, it will be observed that Section 4702 does not give the counties unlimited disposition of vacant lands. But such right is to be exercised in a manner hereinafter directed, and while the mainland may be patented and sold in the manner provided, therefor and made applicable thereto, the power of the disposition of the river bed was restricted to the letting or leasing for county purposes upon such terms and conditions as to it may appear beneficial to said county.' Also see Board of Councilmen of City of Frankfort v. Pattie, 227 Ky. 343, 12 S.W.2d 1108. The Patentees also contend that every grant or patent of land is presumed to be valid and to have issued regularly and is prima facie evidence of title. For their authority they rely on Wallace v. Maxwell, 24 Ky. 447, and Popular Mountain Coal Co. v. Dick, 7 Ky. Op. 420. But a study of these cases discloses that the presumption that exists is only that the officers charged with issuing a patent properly perform their duties. As stated in Wallace v. Maxwell (supra), `It is admitted that the legal presumption is, that the surveyor, register, Governor and Secretary of State, have done their duty, in regard to the several Acts necessary to be performed by them, in granting lands; and therefore surveys and patents should always be received as prima facie evidence of correctness, but further we cannot go.' The patents disclose on their face that they cover part of the bed of the Ohio River, and it follows that the physical procedural steps required by the Statutes could not have been taken. The State cannot be bound by the unauthorized acts of its officers in issuing patents to land in disregard of the law declared in Ware v. Hager, supra. `The Commonwealth is never bound by the act of any of its officers beyond the scope of their authority'. Allin v. County Board of Education, 148 Ky. 746, 147 S.W. 920, 922; United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co. v. Commonwealth, 104 S.W. 1029, 31 Ky.Law Rep. 1179; Leslie County v. Keith, 227 Ky. 663, 13 S.W. 2d 1012; Juett v. Town of Williams-town, 248 Ky. 235, 58 S.W.2d 411. On the basis of the holding in Ware v. Hager which has not been overruled or modified and which has been given legislative sanction by the re-enactment of the sections of the law upon which the decision rests, and for the other reasons given herein, the patents involved in this action are invalid. The Legislature could not have contemplated the patenting of the river bed for the river bed had no value except for the extraction of minerals or sand and gravel. The development of the County Leasing Statute supports the Federal Court's opinion and the rule of Ware v. Hager. The statute originated in 1926 (Chapter 184, Acts of 1926) and was much more detailed than the present version (KRS 56.220) which is the product of the general statutory revision of 1942. The first section of the 1926 Act declared that [e]ach county    shall have the right to dispose of the unappropriated lands lying therein   . And all that portion of the bed of the Ohio River, lying north of the thread of the stream, except such portions as may be accretions to islands privately owned, is hereby declared to be vacant and unappropriated property; and same may be held, leased and used for county purposes, as herein provided. After detailing the manner of patenting the vacant and unappropriated mainland within the counties, Section 2 of the Act authorized the use, let or lease (of) said river bed for county purposes, upon such terms and conditions as to it (the county courts) may appear to be beneficial to said county and then went on to validate any contract of leasing that has been made, or that may hereafter be made for sand and gravel rights, and validated the right and title of the lessee to the sand and gravel extracted. In condensing the 1926 Act in the 1942 Revision, the probable explanation of the reference to the sand and gravel leases was removed from the statute when the words validating prior such leases were omitted, and, in addition, the aforequoted first sentence in the 1926 Act giving the counties the right to dispose of the unappropriated lands lying therein were omitted. The 1942 Revision also condensed the 1926 rather lengthy phraseology relative to the river bed into the brief reference to it in KRS 56.220 heretofore quoted in full. This background is pertinent to our discussion of the rights of the counties in the latter part of this opinion. We cannot escape the conclusion that the 1926 General Assembly meant to fill the gap in our statutory law which was made apparent by Ware v. Hager, supra, by giving the counties the right to dispose of the unappropriated lands lying therein and declaring the Ohio River bed north of the thread of the stream to be vacant and unappropriated land. In thus following the theory of Ware v. Hager, supra, the Legislature conceded the nonpatentability of the Ohio River bed north of the thread of the stream, and provided for its disposition by empowering the counties to use or lease it.