67 Mo. 694 | Mo. | 1878
— This was an action of ejectment brought on the 21st day of April, 1874, in the circuit court of Jefferson county, for the recovery of 282 65-100 acres of land, being a part of United States survey No. 1219. The defendants denied the plaintiffs’ title, and pleaded the statute of limitations in the ordinary form as a legal bar. The cause was tried by the court without the aid of a jury, and judgment was rendered for the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs’ title was as follows: A patent from the United States, dated April 13th, 1874, to Thomas E. Riddick, or his legal representatives, for the land in controversy. This patent recites that the board of commissioners appointed and acting under the act of Congress, approved March 2d,
Plaintiffs also read in evidence a copy of the claim of Thomas F. Riddick, filed with the recorder of laud titles at St. Louis in 1807, accompanied by a sheriff’s deed, conveying all the right of John Dowling in the premises to said Riddick, together with the proof produced by said, Riddick before the board at that time. This claim and record showed that Dowling claimed 1,000 arpents on the river Plattin, in the district of St. Louis, and that said Riddick produced before said board a concession for said land to John Dowling by Don Zenou Trudeau, Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Louisiana, in 1799, and also a plat and certificate of survey of the same dated October 21st, 1799. The proof showed that Dowling settled on this land in 1799, and had cultivated and inhabitated it from 1799 to 1808; had forty acres in cultivation ; had many horses and cattle, and at least ten children. Plaintiffs also read in evidence the decision of the commissioners in 1811, confirming the said land to Thomas F. Riddick, under John Dowling, and ordering the land to be surveyed at the expense of the Government.
Plaintiffs then read in evidence a certified copy of a warranty deed from Thomas F. Riddick and wife to ¥m.
Defendants then introduced the following evidence: The petition of John Dowling to Francois Valle, commandant of the post of St. Genevieve, for a concession of 1,000 arpents of land on the north side of the river Plattin, about'two miles above its mouth, on which he lived and had his farm and dwelling, dated August 12, 1799; also the written submission of said petition by Valle to the Lieutenant-Governor on the 13th of August, 1799; also an order of survey for the land petitioned for by Don Zenon Trudeau, Lieutenant-Governor, indorsed thereon, which order is as follows:
“ It is ordered that Antoine Soulard establish a survey upon the land which is asked, provided it is vacant land and can be so done without prejudice to any person, and interferes with no rights of others, in pursuance of the petition presented, which is asked from the Lieutenant-Governor of this province, so as to obtain the concession of title which is solicited.
(Signed,) “ Zenon Trudeau.”
Also a survey and plat of the tract of land made by Antoine Soulard for John Dowling, by order of the Lieutenant-Governor, for 1,000 arpents, including all the present survey 1219, dated November 5th, 1799 ; also a copy of the certificate of the commissioners as recorded, dated August 22d, 1811, confirming a portion of said land to Riddick, under Dowling, which certificate is as follows:
*699 “ Louisiana commissioners’ certificate, No. 1219, August 22d, 1811.
“We, the undersigned commissioners for ascertaining and adjusting the titles and claims to lands in the territory of Louisiana, have decided that Thomas F. Riddick, claimng under John Dowling, original claimant, is entitled to a patent under the provisions of the 2d section of an act of the Congress of the United States, entitled “An act for. ascertaining and adjusting the titles and claims to land within the territory of Orleans and the district of Louisiana,” passed the 2d day of March, 1805, for 800 arpents of land, situate in the district' of St. Louis on river Plattin, and order that the same be surveyed as nearly in a square as may be, and so as to include his improvements. By virtue of a permission from the proper Spanish officer, and also of actual inhabitation and cultivation prior to and on the 20th day of December, 1808.
(Signed,) “ Clement B. Penrose,
(Signed,) “Frederick Bates.”
Also the survey by the Surveyor-General of the United States for Riddick ; also the sheriff’s deed to Riddick made by Conner, and his notice of claim to the recorder of land titles, and the minutes of the board of September 7th, 1808, and the decision of the commissioners on August 22d, 1811, (same as offered,by plaintiffs;) also a deed by the administrator of Thomas F. Riddick, by order of county court of Jefferson county, in which county Riddick died in the year 1830, purporting to convey to William S. Howe all of United States survey No. 1219, sold as the property of the estate of Riddick to pay debts of the estate, deed bearing date June 22d, 1854. This deed was objected to for various reasons, but the court allowed it to be read as a color of title in support of the plea of the statute of limitations. Plaintiffs admitted that William S. Howe took possession of survey 1219 in the year 1855, built a house and cleared a field on it in that year, and paid taxes thereon, and held it adversely till his death in 1870,
That the Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Louisiana had authority to make concessions, direct surveys to be made and cause grantees to be put in possession, is conceded by all the authorities, but it is expressly declared by the Supreme Court of the United States, in Menard v. Massey, 8 How. 293, that such acts on the part of the Lieutenant-Governor did not invest his grantees with a complete title. The recent decision of this court in Harvey v. Rusch, ante p. 551, is to the same effect. On the 17th day of-July, 1799, the In'tendant-General, Morales, acting under the royal order of-the 22d day of Octobér, 1798, making the Inteiidants of New Spain the peculiar judges of all questions relating to the royal lands, and investing them with exclusive authority to-grant lands belonging to the Crown,
In the case just cited these formalities are set forth-as follows : The surveyor was bound to forward to the Intendant a survey, and also a copy of the survey, or rather figurative plat and a certificate called a proces-verbal, signed by the commandant or a syndic and two neighbors, together with the surveyor, declaring that the suryey was made in their presence and corresponded with the facts stated in the proces-verbal; and on the concession, this figurative plat and the proces-verbal the complete title was founded, a copy of the plat and proces-verbal being attached and the whole recorded in several departments. Unless these formalities were observed, the title remained in the Crowu. It is not pretended that they were observed in the present case, and the legal title to the land in controversy, therefore, remained in the Spanish Government, and the United States succeeded thereto under the treaty of cession before mentioned.
Soon after the acquisition of Louisiana the Government of the United Stated devised methods of its own for the completion of the title in those holding inchoate or equitable titles under the Spanish and French Governments. The ucts of March 2d, 1805, and March 3d, 1807, were passed, providing for the appointment of commissioners, for the purpose of ascertaining the rights of persons claiming lands in the territories of Orleans and Louisiana, with
The recent case of Langdeau v. Hanes, 21 Wall. 521, has been cited by defendants’ counsel as being in conflict with the foregoing authorities. A slight examination into the character of the confirmation which was under discussion in that case will plainly show that there is no conflict whatever between that case and the cases cited. The act of March 3d,- 1807, there considered, was “An act confirming claims to land in the' district of Vincennes, and for other purposes.” In the cession by Virginia of the Northwest territory she expressly stipulated for the confirmation of the possessions and titles of its inhabitants held under concessions from French and English authorities. “It was for confirmation,” said the court in Langdeau v. Hanes, “of existing possessions and titles that the deed of cession stipulated; not the transfer of any new title. Virginia had not repudiated the concessions by the French and English authorities to the inhabitants in the territory who had declared themselves her citizens, but had recognized and sustained them. ' There was, therefore, no title in her in the lands covered by the possessions of these people to transfer, and she did not undertake to transfer any.” On March 26th, 1804, Congress passed an act for the purpose of ascertaining the claimants of such titles, and appointed commissioners to examine and decide upon the claims presented. A transcript of their decisions made in favor of claimants and a report of the claims rejected, with the substance of the evidence adduced in their support, were required to be transmitted to the Secretary of the Treasury, and by him to be laid before Congress. Such transcript was made and transmitted to Congress, and by the act of March 3d, 1807, last cited, all decisions in favor of persons claiming lands in the district of Vincennes, contained in said transcript, were confirmed. It will thus be seen that the court in that case held that no title ever vested in the
the judgment of the circuit court will be affirmed.
Affirmed.