Court Opinion

ID: 9868791
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-26 18:58:02.514199+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:45:55.642409
License: Public Domain

On Appellants’ Motion for Rehearing
Oí the 58 assignments of error in the motion the 25th reads:
“The Court erred in holding that ‘color of law’ was given to the purported sale of Green Lake by the correspondence between the Land Commissioner and the Attorney General in 1913 and 1918, since such correspondence reveals that the Land Commissioner did not ask or want the advice of the Attorney General on the legality of the sale of Green Lake qua lake; and that the Attorney General was careful not to make any statement on such question to the Land Commissioner; and the records of the Attorney General’s office, public in nature, reveal that such office by letter dated July 29, 1918, attached hereto as Exhibit ‘A’, advised the firm of Proctor, Vandenberg, Crain & Mitchell, predecessors to Crain, Vandenberg & Stoffer, attorneys herein, that the purported sale of Green Lake was made without the advice and approval of the Attorney General; and the State’s *465brief in the Welder case, a record of this Court, shows that the Attorney General did not subscribe to the view that lakes could be sold.”
This letter, copied in full in an appendix hereto, was in reply to one dated July 27, 1918, addressed to Judge Smedley, as Assistant Attorney General, in which the sale to Yates was referred to, attention being called to the position’taken by the Attorney General’s Department in the Welder case. We quote the last three paragraphs of the letter:
“Of course we do not mean to intrude upon you any ideas as to what the Attorney General’s Department should take in matter of this sale, but we are quite sure that the sale of this property was not with the sanction or approval of the Attorney General’s Department.
“If you feel that you can, with propriety, write us regarding this matter, we would appreciate any communication from you.
“It is currently stated through this section, that the intention of these people, present claimants of the lake, is to put a levee around the same, and, of course, obstruct and interfere with the riparian rights recognized in the defendants in this case of the State of Texas against Welder et al.”
Judge Smedley’s letter of July 29, 1918, does clarify the point that the Department was not giving any opinion upon the sala-bility of Green Lake. It also makes clear the position of the Department regarding action of the Land-Commissioner in making the sale, that is, that the issue whether there had been such change in the bed of the lake as to make it “permanently dry was one of fact to be determined by him.” This clearly was an assertion in effect that the action of the Commissioner in classifying the area was not reviewable by the Department, and his action in making the sale was conclusive so far ,as the Department was concerned. The statement “Under the circumstances, we do not know of any action that this Department should take with reference to the sale of the bed of Green Lake,” could not mean other than that the Department regarded the action of the Commissioner in making the classification and sale as within the purview of his delegated duties. We do not see how the State can derive any comfort from this letter, in its interpretation of the Welder decision as permanently fixing the status of Green Lake as navigable, and therefore as never thereafter subject to sale, regardless of changes in conditions. There has been no subsequent change in the duties of the Department to protect the interests of the State in the sale of its public lands. It was. the same in 1918 as it was in 1946. Consciousness of this duty is implicit in the July 29, 1918, letter. We do not pass upon the question whether, we are required to-take judicial knowledge of this letter. We-only hold that there is nothing in its contents which (if admissible at this stage of the proceeding) casts any doubt upon our holdings upon the controlling issues in the case. Rather those holdings are strengthened.
We did not- hold (as the motion asserts) that the beds of navigable fresh water lakes were not withdrawn from sale under the Acts of 1905 and 1911.
The motion is overruled.
APPENDIX
“July 29, 1918/
“Proctor, Vendenberge, Crain & Mitchell
“Victoria, Texas.
“Gentlemen :
“I have carefully read yoiir letter of July 27th with reference to Green Lake.
“It is of course true that the suit by the State, in which was involved the title to the bed of Green Lake, was tried on the theory that Green Lake was a permanent lake and that the evidence introduced in the trial of the case showed that it was a permanent lake and had been dry but twice within the memory of living witnesses. If Green Lake is a permanent lake, its bed of course is not unsurveyed school land and is not subject to sale as such.
“The Commissioner of the General Land Office has never requested the Attorney General to advise him whether he had the authority to sell the bed of Green Lake. Some months ago, and before the suit was finally disposed of, in a conversátion with *466the Commissioner, I told him that the case was tried on the theory that Green Lake was a permanent lake, and that the evidence showed that it was. It is my recollection that he told me at the time that certain persons interested in the applications to purchase were taking the position that conditions had changed since the case was tried and that the bed of the lake was permanently dry, and that I told him then that the question whether there had been such change and whether the bed of Green Lake had become permanently dry was one of fact, to be determined by him, I am not entirely sure that I made such statement to the Commissioner, but I have made it to persons who have made inquiry as to Green Lake.
“A short time ago, the Commissioner wrote a letter to the Attorney General referring to an opinion of this Department written July 24, 1913, with reference to the quantity of unsurveyed land that could be purchased by one person in Calhoun County, and desired to know whether recent decisions of the courts had changed the rule announced in that opinion. He was advised that the recent decisions of the courts did not affect that opinion. His letter referred to Green Lake, but the questioh asked was only as above indicated and related to the matter of quantity and the matter of settlement only, and no advice was requested and none was given as to his authority to sell Green Lake. The Commissioner has a rule that he will not follow the opinions of this department unless they are given in direct response to questions asked by him, and on that account we are always careful to confine our opinions to his questions.
“Under the circumstances, we do not know of any action that this Department should take with reference to the sale of the bed of Green Lake. You are correct in your assumption that the sile was made without the advice and without the approval of this department. Neither did this department disapprove the sale. It was not consulted about it.
“With best wishes, I am
“Yours very truly,’’.