33 Minn. 450 | Minn. | 1885
The-case comes here from a second trial in the court below. On that trial, the court, considering the case made to be substantially the same as on the first trial, the merits of which were before this court at the April term, 1884, directed a verdict for the plaintiff. But the case made at the second trial was materially different from that made on the first; for on the first trial the de-fence insisted upon was, in substance, that the certificate of sale upon which plaintiff bases his claim to recover, had become forfeited for non-payment of interest and of the deferred part of the principal. On the second, it was that, pursuant to the certificate and divers alleged assignments of it, and upon the payment of the interest and deferred principal by the assignees, the patent of the state for the land was issued to one Angus, and vested the legal title in him, and that defendant subsequently acquired and has his title.
The facts indicated by the evidence are:
That at the sale of school lands by the state land commissioner (the state auditor) in the county of'Hennepin, in November, 1872, the plaintiff became the purchaser of the land in controversy, he then paying part of the purchase price, and interest to the then next June on the remainder, and received from the commissioner the usual certificate of sale, showing that if the purchaser, his heirs, assigns, or other legal representatives, should pay in advance the interest on the remainder of the purchase price on the first day of June in each year, also all taxes accruing as they should become due, and the remainder of the price at any time within 20 years from the date of the eer-
Plaintiff, with his family, went into possession of the land, built a house on it, paid the interest due June 1,1873, and remained in possession until December, 1873. At that time he indorsed on the certificate an assignment of it to Mary McKinney, who was his wife, (though that fact did not appear in the assignment,) and thereupon he left the land and his wife and family, they remaining in possession, and never afterwards returned to it except as a visitor, and never afterwards lived with, or contributed to the support of his wife orfam-ily, and never afterwards made any payment of interest, taxes, or principal, upon or on account of the certificate or the land, and never gave any further attention to the matter until he commenced this suit in 1883. The wife and family remained on the land until her death, in 1879. After December, 1873, and until November, 1880, her son paid for her, and after her death for her estate, the taxes upon the land and the interest accruing on the certificate. November 15, 1880, the administrator of her estate sold, under a license from the probate court, the certificate, and indorsed on it an assignment of it to Angus, who on that day surrendered it to the land commissioner, paid all arrears due upon it, and the commissioner thereupon issued to him a patent for the land. The defendant subsequently acquired and now has whatever title was thus vested in Angus.
There were certain other facts in evidence pertaining to the issuance of the patent happening prior to its issuance, which plaintiff claims render it invalid, so that no title passed by it; such as that the certificate of the commissioner, which Gen. St. 1878, c. 38, § 12, requires shall be indorsed on the certificate of sale and presented to the governor before he shall cause a patent to issue, was in this case not signed by the commissioner; and that this patent, when signed and acknowledged by the governor and commissioner, was not filled up, but that a form with blanks had been so signed and acknowledged, and left in the office of the commissioner, and, when this patent was
Until the patent issued, the legal title remained in the state. Gen. St. 1866, c. 38, § 12. The certificate gave the purchaser a right to the possession of the land, (section 17,) and by complying with 'its terms be could become entitled to a conveyance of the legal title. In this respect it was in effect similar to an ordinary contract for purchase, with perhaps this difference: that a default in its conditions would absolutely terminate all rights under it. It beeame functus offi-cio on the issuance of the patent. The patent, when regular on its face, — that is, when it is in proper form, is signed by the proper officers, and has the proper seal, — is conclusive evidence of the legal title. Johnson v. Towsley, 13 Wall. 72; Gibson v. Chouteau, Id. 92; Boardman v. Reed, 6 Pet. 328; Green v. Liter, 8 Cranch, 229; U. S. v. Arredondo, 6 Pet. 691, 724; Patterson v. Tatum, 3 Sawy. 164; Pacific Coast Min. & Milling Co. v. Spargo, 8 Sawy. 645; S. C. 16 Fed. Rep. 348; Sherman v. Buick, 93 U. S. 209.
The purchaser is not required to look behind it; all the incipient steps authorizing the officers to issue it are presumed to have been regularly taken. It cannot be avoided (in a collateral action, at any rate) for irregularities in the conduct of those who are appointed by the government to supervise the progressive course of a title from the commencement to its consummation in a patent. Polk’s Lessee v. Wendal, 9 Cranch, 87; Lea v. Polk Co. Copper Co., 21 How. 493; Johnson v. Towsley, supra. It is conclusive proof of the act of granting by the state. U. S. v. Arredondo, supra. But it may be defeated, even in an action at law, by showing want of title in the state, or absolute want of power in the officers to issue it. Polk's Lessee v. Wendal, supra; Sherman v. Buick, supra. It would certainly be contrary to public policy to permit a patent, which is issued by sworn officers, and is deemed of so high a character, as evidence of title, as sometimes to be designated as of “absolute verity,” (U. S. v. Arredondo,) to be assailed by every one, in every kind of proceeding, for irregularities of the officers issuing it, for which the patentee is in no way responsible.
Did this plaintiff show such superior equities ? The bare statement of the foregoing facts indicates the proper answer. Seven years before the patent issued, he abandoned the land, and gave up the design to become himself entitled to a patent; abandoned, in fact if not in
Order reversed.