128 Ala. 236 | Ala. | 1900
The plaintiff purchased the land for the recovery of which he brings this suit, in 1877 from the Mobile & Girard Railroad Company. He received no conveyance from [the company, but the evidence shows undisputedly that he paid the purchase money 'and went into possession of it. It was also shown in evidence that this land was within the grant of lands made by Congress in 1856 to the State of Alabama to aid -in the construction of a railroad from Girard, Alabama, to Mobile, Alabama, which road had, at the date of the sale to plaintiff, been completed •through the county of Russell and many miles beyond on the line of said grant.
Under the view we take of this case it is unnecessary to inquire info the state of the title under the act of Congress of June 8, 1856, and the act of February 3, 1858, of the General Assembly of Alabama, for the reason that by act of Congress approved September 29, 1890, (U. S. Stat. at Large, Vol. 26, p. 496), the
It is not material under the facts of this case to determine whether the United States by this confirmatory act made a. grant of the legal title to the plaintiff as a purchaser of the land in controversy, or whether the United States merely confirmed so far as it was concerned, the equitable title of the plaintiff derived by his purchase. Adopting the latter view, the effect of the confirmation was to forever estop the United States to claim title to the lands and to preclude it afterwards in making any valid sale of it. To, permit it to do so, would not only vi oíate the spirit and purpose of the act, but would give effiect to a sale made in violation of law. For the confirmatory act possesses not only an element of a grant or conveyance, but has the force and effect of law as well. Swan v. Miller, 82 Ala. 530. There is an implied
Reversed and remanded.