4 Mo. App. 307 | Mo. Ct. App. | 1877
delivered the opinion of the court.
This is a suit in ejectment, commenced June 13, 1874, for recovery of survey No. 2500, under New Madrid certificate No. 161, located in township 45 of range 1 east, in St. Louis County. Defendants answered, denying generally, and alleging continuous adverse possession, under claim of title, for more than fifty years. The cause was tried before the court sitting as a jury, and judgment was rendered for the defendants.
By an act of Congress, approved June 30, 1864, “ all of the right, title, and interest of the United States in and to ’ ’
In 1808 Joseph Hunot presented his claim before the board of commissioners for adjustment of land titles in the territory of Louisiana for a tract of land in New Madrid County, under a permission to settle granted him in 1802. On May 12, 1810, he conveyed his pending claim to Joseph Yandenbenden, by deed, with special warranty, stipulating that “ should the claim not be held good by government, and the same or any part of the same tract should not be granted, he, the said Joseph Yandenbenden, to lose the same, and he, the said Joseph Hunot, to be in no wise responsible therefor.” The claim was rejected by the board, January 31, 1811; but on November 1, 1815, Recorder Bates included it in his list of confirmations reported to Congress for ratification under the act of March 3, 1813. On November 4, 1815, Yandenbenden conveyed to Rufus Easton, with special warranty, and an authority to use the name of the grantor, if necessary, in obtaining a certificate of new location. The act of Congress approved April 29, 1816, ratified and confirmed the action of Recorder Bates. On August 12, 1816, Recorder Bates issued New Madrid certificate for location No. 161, in favor of Joseph Hunot, or his legal representatives, for 480 acres. Upon notice and request of Rufus Easton, dated June 16, 1818, the surveyor-general caused survey No. 2500, bearing date June 23, 1819, to be made of the land in controversy. On September 29, 1823, Easton and wife conveyed to Samuel
Defendants deny that tbe foregoing facts, if admitted, suffice to constitute plaintiffs the legal representatives of Joseph Iiunot. In support of this denial a number of points were made at the trial. Upon nearly all, however, the finding of the court was in plaintiffs’ favor; and no ground for reversal existing, therefore, as to these, they need be very briefly noticed.
An original sheriff’s deed was introduced by defendants, bearing date November 24, 1823, from which it appeared that certain real estate, supposed to include the land in controversy, was sold to Relfe & Chew, under judgment and execution in their favor against Samuel Hammond. Among other objections to this instrument was one that the certificate of the sheriff’s acknowledgment in open court was not attested by the clerk’s official seal. Testimony of experts-was introduced to establish the absence of a seal, and upon the issue of fact, as it appears, the court found that no seal existed. Upon such a finding, the deed ivas properly excluded from the consideration.
It is urged that the New Madrid location was void, to all intents and purposes, because the survey was not returned to the recorder of land titles within one year after April 22, 1822. The controversy upon this point has some peculiar aspects. One of the counsel for plaintiffs cites authorities showing that no insufficiency resulted from this delay in returning the survey; while his associate maintains the contrary, and deduces therefrom an argument in favor of the plaintiffs. On the other hand, one of the defendants’ counsel submits an able argument to show that the delayed return did not invalidate the location, while another maintains not only that the same fact rendered the location absolutely void, and that this conclusion is indispensable for his-
The act of Congress, approved April 26, 1822, after providing that New Madrid locations previously made, if otherwise conformable with existing laws, should be perfected into grants, although not conformed to the sectional or quarter-sectional lines of the public surveys, required that all future locations should conform to those lines as nearly as practicable, and concluded with the words, “and all such warrants shall be located within one year after the passage of this act, in default whereof the same shall be null and void.”
In Easton v. Salisbury, 21 How. 426, a New Madrid location was surveyed in 1818, and the patent thereon was issued in 1827. McLean, J., in delivering the opinion of the court, declares the location void, and refers to the act of April 26, 1822, as conclusive of the fact. From this it has been inferred that it is not sufficient that the initiative location by the holder of the warrant or certificate appear to have been made prior to the expiration of the time limited in the act, but that his equitable title to the newly-acquired land must, within the year, have been consummated by a return of the survey to the recorder of land titles, and the issuance by that officer of a patent certificate. Several decisions, to the effect that the exchange of property between the United States and the holder of the earthquake land was completed only when the patent certificate was authorized by the return of the survey, are supposed to confirm this view. But both conclusions are erroneous. In Easton v. Salisbury, the location was really void, because made upon a prior reservatkn. In Mackay v. Easton, 19 Wall.
An attempt was made to show that the land in controversy was covered by a confirmation to John F. Perry, under Angelica Chauvin, made by the board of commissioners. This claim was sustainable, if at all, only by setting aside the approved government surveys, and substituting other testimony to fix the true location of the Chauvin tract. The ■court properly held, in an instruction, that such a course was inadmissible.
Defendants endeavored to prove an outstanding title in ■some unknown person or persons by virtue of inhabitation and cultivation ■ prior to December 20, 1803. This was properly disregarded by the court, no attempt being made to identify the supposed claimants.
Thus far the merits of the controversy deal only with the plaintiffs’ right to be considered the legal representatives of Joseph Hunot. Another line of defence asserts a distinct claim to that representative character in the defendants themselves. They show that so much of the land in dispute as is held by them was allotted to them in a partition •of the estate of Peter Lindell, who died in 1861, having been for more than forty years in continuous possession of the entire survey 2500, under a claim of title derived by conveyance from Joseph Hunot. It is apparent from the record that this claim on the part of defendants that they are the true legal representatives of Joseph Hunot was recognized by the Circuit Court, and formed the basis of its determination in their favor.
The case of Gibson v. Chouteau, 13 Wall. 92, is the authority most definitely relied on for the rule that the statute of limitations cannot be set up against a grantee of
In the present case, the grant being in effect to the legal representatives of Joseph Hunot, the vital enquiry is, Who-are those legal representatives? In other words, What persons may be named as the grantees of the government? In Gibson v. Chouteau there was no need for any such enquiry,, and none was entertained. The government itself named the legal representative of the original claimant, and thus-settled the question which in this case is the only one to-be determined. The patent was to Mary McR-ee, the legal representative of James Y. O’Carroll, original claimant. That the government had the right to so designate its grantee by name is unquestionable, whatever may have been the relation in which she stood to the original claimant. It has-
The right of legal representation in property relations, whether arising from purchase or by operation of law, has always been left by the Federal courts to be determined by the laws of the State wherein the property lies. This •seems to result necessarily from the 34th section of the
Adverse possession for the period of limitation does not
Whatever may have been the state of aifairs prior to the return of the Hunot survey to the recorder of land titles, on January 8, 1833, it is unquestionable that from that day there existed in Joseph Hunot, or in the person whomsoever that had then acquired his rights, a transferable ownership of the land in controversy. The testimony shows that Peter Lindell then had part of it in possession. On November 5, 1834, he obtained an absolute conveyance in fee of the whole survey from Joseph Hunot, the original claimant. This was at least a color of title. It was reinforced on March 20, 1840, by a deed from Relíe and Chew, who were supposed to have acquired Samuel Hammond’s title, if any, through a sheriff’s deed, in 1823. In 1838 Lindell had acquired actual possession of the whole survey, a possession which has been uninterrupted to the present time. We find in these facts a transfer of title to Peter Lindell, and the defendants, claiming under him, from the former owner, who must have been either Joseph Hunot or some one who had acquired his right. This transfer by the law of Missouri we hold to be as effectual to create a legal representative of the party from whom it emanates as if it were made by deed, or by any other known method. Upon this ground we affirm the judgment of the Circuit Court.
We cannot be accused of undertaking, in this decision, to overturn any ruling of our judicial superiors. We give full effect to eveiy utterance of the Supreme Court of the United States, if its words are to be accepted in their common meaning. We do not disregard the decisions of our own Supremo Court in McIlhinney v. Ficke, 61 Mo. 329, and Willer v. Dunn, 62 Mo. 216. The question here determined was not presented for consideration in either of those cases, though the facts may have been such as possibly to involve it.
A number of other questions were here very ably discussed in argument on both .sides. But our views upon the points already considered render it unnecessary to remark upon them further. Judgment affirmed.