16 Or. 479 | Or. | 1888
This case involves the right of the respondent to a deed from the appellant to a tract of State lands, consisting of one hundred and sixty acres in section 15, T. 39 S., B. 9 E. The respondent claimed to be entitled to the deed as assignee of a certificate of sale from one George ~W. Karnes, to whom it was issued by the appellant.
It appears that said Karnes, on the second day of December, 1881, applied to the board of commissioners for the sale of school and university lands for the purchase of said land, under'
The only question presented to this court for its consideration herein is whether the appellant was justified in refusing to execute the deed to the respondent, upon the grounds referred to. Said section 5 of said act limits the quantity of land in such eases that any one person is entitled to purchase to three hundred and twenty acres, in case of a settlor, and to one hundred and sixty acres in case of a non-settler; and the board seems to have been of the opinion that, as the respondent had already purchased under the act three hundred and twenty acres of land, he was not entitled to the deed. This was clearly an erroneous view. If the respondent had been an applicant to purchase the one hundred and sixty acres of land in question, the board would have had an undoubted right to reject his application, for the reason assigned in refusing to execute the
The one hundred and sixty acres had already been sold. It was sold to Karnes on the said second day of December, 1881, and the board would not have sold it again by executing the deed to the respondent any more than it would by executing the deed to Karnes himself. Selling land under the provision of the act to an applicant who applies under said section 5 to purchase it is the only sale provided for in said act, and the only one to which the limitation of quantity to a purchaser is made applicable. According to the view the board must have taken, there would be two sales of land under the act in every case; one when the application to purchase was accepted by the board, and the other- when the deed was executed; while the act itself recognizes the former transaction as the sale, and the latter, as the receiving of the deed.
The certificate which the applicant is entitled to receive from the board, upon payment to the board of one third of the purchase price, and executing the notes for the two thirds, is required by said section 6 of said act to show that he has purchased the land therein described, has paid a certain sum thereon, and has executed the promissory note for a certain other sum, or other sums, and on payment of such notes, principal and interest, will be entitled to a deed therefor. The legislature evidently intended that when the certificate of purchase was issued to the applicant, the purchase was then made, and I do not see how the act can be construed otherwise. The policy of the law, no doubt, was to prevent an applicant from purchasing more of
The language of said section 11 of the act is as plain as words can make it. It unmistakably authorizes an assignment of the certificate of sale, the payment by the assignee of the balance due on the purchase price of the land, and the receipt by him of the deed therefor. Nor does the language of the section require the assignee or purchaser of the certificate to possess any particular qualifications in order to entitle him to become such assignee or purchaser; and the attempt upon the part of the board to prescribe the qualifications he shall possess, or conditions upon which the assignment or purchase shall be made, is a usurpation of legislative functions.
The judgment of the Circuit Court awarding the mandamus will be affirmed.