Court Opinion

ID: 8140278
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-09-09 20:01:58.626898+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T16:39:31.436947
License: Public Domain

Mr. Chief Justice TANEY
delivered the opinion of the court.
This is an action of ejectment brought by the plaintiff in error to recover a lot of ground in the town of Mobile, in the State of Alabama. . The plaintiff claimed title under an inchoate Spanish grant, dated, December 12, 1809, and'an act of Congress confirming this title, passed July 2, 1836, and a patent from the United States, dated March 15, 1837, which issued in pursuance of the act of Congress.
The validity of this title was disputed by the defendant, upon the ground that the premises were a part of the shore of a navigable tide-water river, lying below high-water mark, when the State of Alabama, was admitted into the Union in 1819; and that therefore, at the time of the passage of the act of Congress, the sovereignty and dominion over the place in ques*478tion were in the State, and not in. the United States. And the court instructed the jury, that, if the land described in the plaintiff’s declaration was below ordinary high-water mark at the time Alabama was admitted into the Union,-the confirming act of Congress and the patent conveyed no title to the patentee.
The question decided in the State court cannot be regarded as an open one. The same question upon the same act of Congress and patent was brought before this court in the case of Pollard v. Hagan, at January term, 1845, reported in 3 Howard, 212. That case was fully and deliberately considered, as will appear by the report, and the court then decided that the act of Congress and patent conveyed no title. The decision of the Supreme Court of Alabama, from which this case has been brought .by writ of error, conforms to the opinion of this court in the case of Pollard v. Hagan. And it must be a very strong case indeed, and one where mistake and error had been evidently committed, to justify this court, after the lapse of five years, in reversing its own decision; thereby destroying rights of property which' may have been purchased and paid for in the mean time, upon the faith and confidence reposed in the judgment ■ of this court. But, upon a review of the case, we see no reason for doubting its correctness, and are entirely satisfied with the judgment then pronounced.
It has been supposed, in the argument for the plaintiff, that the proceedings in. Congress upon the report of the commissioners in relation to the title claimed under the Spanish authorities, which have now been referred to, distinguish this case from that of Pollard v. Hagan. But this Spanish title wgs acquired in 1809, and it has been repeatedly decided that a Spanish grant in this territory, whether inchoate or complete, made after the treaty of St. Ildefonso, in 1800, did not convey any right in the soil to the grantee. And this subject was again considered and decided, after careful research and examination, at the present term, in the case of Reynes v. United States, arid the former decisions reaffirmed. Undoubtedly, Congress might have granted this land to the patentee, or confirmed his Spanish grant, before Alabama became a State. But. this was not done. And the existence of this imperfect and inoperative Spanish' grant could not enlarge the power of the United States over the place in question after Alabama became a State, nor authorize the general government to grant or confirm a title to land when the Sovereignty and dominion over it had become vested in the State.
The. judgment of the Supreme Court of Alabama is therefore affirmed.

*479
Order.

This cause came on to be heard on the transcript of the record from the Supreme Court of the State of Alabama, and was argued by counsel. On consideration whereof, it is now here ordered and adjudged by this court, that the judgment of the said Supreme Court in this cause be, and the same is hereby, affirmed, with costs.