8 Or. 222 | Or. | 1880
By the Court,
The appellant, Brooks, on the sixteenth day of January, 1872, filed his application to purchase the land in controversy as swamp lands of the state, under the act of October 26, 1870. He afterwards paid twenty per cent, of the purchase price at one dollar per acre, to wit, twenty cents per acre, and on the fourth day of April, 1872, received of the board of commissioners a certificate of purchase for the lands which are lots 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 15, and 16, in section 16, T. 40 S., R. 8 E., and are in Lake county. Said
On the twenty-sixth of September, 1876, Corpe, the respondent, filed an application with said board to purchase these same lots of land as school lands, claiming that these lands are school lands and not subject to be sold as swamp lands. This application the board rejected, on the ground that the land was in fact swamp, and that the state had already sold it as such to Brooks. On the fourteenth of December, 1877, the attorneys of Corpe instituted a contest before the board to obtain a deed for this land as school land. At the hearing of the contest on the fifteenth of January, 1878, tbe parties were heard by their attorneys, and the matter taken under advisement by the board, who on the sixth of March, 1878, rendered their decision in favor of Brooks.
Afterwards, upon the petition of Corpe to the circuit court of Marion county, a writ of review was granted to said board, and the decision of said board brought before said circuit court to be reviewed for alleged errors. And said court entertained the proceedings under said writ and reviewed said decision and reversed the same, and ordered that said board, upon payment by said Corpe of the appraised value of said land in controversy, execute a patent for said land to said Corpe. From this decision of the circuit court the appellant, Brooks, appeals to this court. Several questions have been presented by the counsel in the argument, which it will not be necessary to notice in this opinion, for the reason that we think a writ of review does not lie from the circuit court to bring before it for review the proceedings of the board of commissioners for the sale of school and university lands, etc.
This board was created by the state constitution and by it invested with the power to dispose of these state lands, and its powers and duties are such as are provided by law. It is composed of the governor, secretary of state, and state treasurer, and is a part of the administrative department of the government, and exercises its powers independent of the judiciary department, and its decisions are not subject
Tbe decision of tbe circuit court will be reversed and tbe writ of review dismissed with costs.