13 Tex. 553 | Tex. | 1855
There are but two grounds of error relied on which require notice. These are, 1st, as to the validity of the plaintiff’s title ; 2d, as to the right of the defendants to claim compensation for their improvements.
There can be no question that the land in controversy is within the territorial limits of De Witt’s contract of colonization. Of this the grant itself was prima fade evidence (Hatch v. Dunn, 11 Tex. R. 708; Robertson v. Teal, 9 Id. 344,) and the fact was fully proved. Under the contract the Empresario was empowered by the Government to make the grant, and the commissioner to issue the title to the land granted. And it is therefore unlike the case of Mason v. Russell’s heirs (1 Tex. R. 721) cited by counsel for the appellant. That was the case of a grant by the commissioner of a colony of lands lying wholly without the limits embraced by the contract to colonize. The contract under which the power to make the grant was claimed and exercised, did not confer the authority, The power was wanting, and the grant was consequently void. Here there can be no question that the power to make the grant was conferred by the Government. But it is contended that the land was also comprised within the contract of De Leon. If it were so, it does not necessarily follow that the title is void. Two persons might be empowered to grant
It is very clear that the defendants were not entitled to claim compensation for their improvements. Their locations evidenced their knowledge of the prior grant; and they had actual notice of the plaintiff’s title and right to the land, and ample warning that they would occupy at their peril, at the time, or shortly after they entered upon it. Yet they went on to make improvements in utter recklessness of the warning and disregard of the rights of the plaintiff; and if they have suffered the loss of their labor expended in improving and ameliorating the condition of the property, it is in consequence of their own recklessness, in the ill advised attempt to appropriate to themselves, without right, the justly acquired property of another. To such a case the maxim applies that 61 He that hath committed inequity, shall not have equity.” (Francis Maxims, II.) A clearer case of actual notice of the prior title, and of the want of good faith towards the proprietor, could not have been made out. The evidence, therefore, by which the defendants proposed to establish their right to compensation for improvements was very properly excluded.
The objection to the admission of the plaintiff’s evidence of title, if well taken,, was removed by the introduction of the copy from the Land Office, admitted without objection. And it is a sufficient answer to the objection that the evidence did not identify the land, that it was described with certainty ia
Judgment affirmed.