57 So. 486 | Ala. | 1912
Lead Opinion
The judge of the law and equity court of Mobile, a court exercising jurisdiction in Mobile county only, signed the bill of exceptions in this case while in
Objections taken and elaborately argued against the constitutional validity of the act of February 12, 1879, entitled “An act to further regulate the securing, preservation and sales of the swamp and overfloAved lands of the state” (Acts 1878-79, p. 198), and the act of April 4, 1911, entitled “An act to authorize the introduction in evidence of documents executed prior to February 12th, 1879, by the Governor in person or in his name by his secretary, purporting to convey any of the state’s lands, but ineffective as conveyances, and certified
This case, like those to which we have just referred, involved the title to a. part of what were the swamp •and overflowed lands patented to the state by the government of the United States. The trial was by the court; no jury having been demanded. Evidence was offered by the parties during the 28th and 29th days of March, 1911. Defendant offered as evidence of title a patent of date February 20, 1872, purporting to convey the state’s title to the Mobile & Ohio Railroad Company, as assignee of James Dunbar. This patent purported to have been executed by Robt. B. Lindsay, Governor of Alabama, by W. Y. Chardavoyne, secretary, and recited that there had been deposited in the office of the Secretary of State a certificate of the receiver of the swamp and overflowed lands of Alabama, in and for the district of Mobile, whereby it appeared that lull payment for the land had been made by James Dunbar according to the act of February 8,1861 (Laws 1861, p. 12). To this patent and its recitals, the plaintiff (appellant) objected, on the ground that the patent had not been executed by the Governor; nor was it sealed with the great seal of the state, as required by the Constitution. To the recitals, the objection was taken that there was no authority in law for the Governor’s secretary, by whom the Governor’s name had been signed to the patent, to bind the state, or any one, by
A certified copy of a map on file in the office of the state land agent, the original bearing date in 1871, ivas introduced in evidence for the purpose, perhaps, of locating the land in controversy. In this there was no error. — Barker v. Mobile Electric Co., 173 Ala. 28, 55 South. 364.
Certified copies of entries in the books kept by the State Treasurer, going to show payments for swamp and overflowed, lands, and notations in the map book in the office of the state land agent, made on the page opposite to the map, and going to show a sale of the land in controversy to James Dunbar, were admitted for the purpose, no doubt, of showing a sale to said Dunbar’ and payment of the purchase money into the treasury pf the state. Defendant showed a complete, unbroken chain of title, undenied in fact, though its effect in law was controverted, reaching back to the Mobile & Ohio Railroad Company, assignee of Dunbar. There was no effort on the part of the plaintiff to show that Dunbar had not in fact paid the purchase money. Plaintiff’s reliance was upon the defendant’s inability to prove payment. If, for any reason, there was error in the admission of the certificates and the notations from the map book, it was harmless; for, under the statute of 1911, the patent became prima facie evidence of title in the defendant. There being no attempt to defeat the title thus shown by the production of evidence that the purchase money had not in fact been paid into the state treasury, this patent became conclusive of the case. Defendant’s right and title thereunder was not affected by subsequent grants to the plaintiff. — Bates v. Herron, 35 Ala. 117; Tapia v. Williams, 172 Ala. 18, 54 South. 613.
We find no error in the record; the judgment is affirmed.
Affirmed.
Concurrence Opinion
(concurring).'—On the appeal in Brannon v. Henry, Infra, 57 South. 967,1 have attached my view of an expression therein used, which recurs, in substance, in the above opinion, with respect to the effect of the Acts of 1879 and of 1911. Reference is therefore made to that appeal.