27 Cal. 322 | Cal. | 1865
The plaintiff claims title to the premises in controversy through a patent issued to him by the United States, September 1, 1863; and the defendants claim title under a patent issued by the State of California, January 8, 1862, to Terry, the grantor of Ashe. The plaintiff having introduced his • patent rested, and thé defendants then offered in evidence the patent from the State to Terry, and in connection therewith offered to prove by independent evidence that the statement and recitals in the patent were true, which were in substance that the land had been properly selected and located by the State, as a part of the five hundred thousand acres of land granted to the State, by the Act of Congress of September 3, 1841, and that Terry was entitled to receive a patent from the State for the lands described in the patent. The premises described in the two patents were identical. The Court excluded the patent and the evidence offered in connection with it, and the defendants excepted.
In support of the ruling of the Court the plaintiff advances two propositions : “ First, that a United States patent is conclusive evidence of legal title in the patentee in an action at law as against everything except a prior patent from the same source of title; and second, that a patent of the United States cannot be attacked except for fraud or mistake, and for those only in the United States Courts.” If the first proposition cannot be maintained the consideration of the second will be unnecessary, for if the patent is not absolutely conclusive it will be deemed to have been issued without authority of law—
For the purpose of determining the question of the admissibility of the evidence offered by the defendants, it is necessary to ascertain in what manner the title to any particular tract of land passes to the State or her grantee, under the Act of Congress of September 3, 1841, for if the evidence tended to show that the title to the tract in controversy passed to the
The eighth section provides that “there shall be and hereby is granted to each new State that shall be hereafter admitted into the Union, upon such admission, so much land as, including such quantity as may have been granted to such State before its admission and while under a Territorial Government, for purposes of internal improvements, as aforesaid, as shall make five hundred thousand acres of land, to be selected and located as aforesaid.” The language “ hereby is granted ” as has uniformly been held by the Courts, imports a present grant. The title to the amount of land specified in the Act passes upon the admission of the new State, though “wanting identity to make it perfect ”—to attach it to a particular parcel of land. (Lessieur v. Price, 12 How. 59; Rutherford v. Greene’s Heirs, 2 Wheat. 196; Terry v. Megerle, 24 Cal. 609.) The Legislature of a State must thereafter provide by law for the performance by her officers or agents, of the acts that may be requisite to indicate a selection of the tracts of land which, in the aggregate, will constitute the amount of land granted to the State by the Act of Congress. When a particular parcel of land has been “ selected and located” in accordance with the provisions of the Act of Congress—when the selection and location have been made by the proper officers or agents, acting on behalf of the State, in such manner as the Legislature has directed, and on public lands that at the time are subject to such location, and the selection and location have been approved by the proper authorities of the United States, then the identification of the land has made the title perfect and attached it to the particular tract selected. The title, thus perfected and attached to the land, vests in the State, or her grantee, and all the interest the United States had in the particular parcel is held by the State or her grantee, by a title superior to that asserted by the holder of a subsequent patent issued by the General Government.
A person claiming title under the Act of Congress, through the State, would be obliged to show, as against one claiming
The patent from the State was also admissible in connection with proof of the due selection and location of the land. We therefore hold that the decision of the Court in excluding the evidence offered by the defendants was erroneous.
Judgment reversed and the cause remanded for a new trial.