83 So. 206 | La. | 1919
Defendants appeal from a judgment making absolute a writ of mandamus, commanding the register of the land office and the State Auditor to cancel a land patent held by the codefendant Mrs. Judith Hyams Douglas, and to issue a certificate of conveyance to the board of commissioners of the Caddo levee district.
The land in contest, having an area of 80 acres, was conveyed to the state as swamp land, by the acts of Congress of March 2, 1849 (9 Stat. 352, c. 87) and of September 28, 1850 (9 Stat. 519, c. 84 [U. S. Comp. St. §§ 4958-4960]). And it was selected and approved to the state in 1854; that is, many years before the creation of the Caddo levee district, in which the land is located.
By section 9 of the statute creating the levee district, the Act No. 74. of 1892 (page 98), all lands then belonging or that might thereafter belong to the state and embraced within the limits of the district were granted to the board of commissioners. And, by the same section of the statute, it was declared the duty of the State Auditor and of the register of the state land office, on behalf and in the name of the state, to convey to the board of commissioners, by proper instruments of conveyance, all lands thereby granted or intended to be granted and conveyed to the board, whenever from time to time either the auditor or register should be requested to do so by the board of commissioners or by the president of the board. Sections 1 and 9 of the Act No. 74 of 1892 were amended and re-enacted by Act No. 160 of 1900 (page 242), but not so as to affect the title or status of the land in contest.
No certificate or instrument of conveyance of the land in question was issued by the State Auditor or register of the land office to the board of commissioners of the levee district, nor was a certificate or instrument of conveyance requested by the board or by any officer of the board, until the defendant Mrs. Douglas had obtained and recorded a patent from the state purporting to convey the land to her.
Assuming ownership of the land, the board of commissioners sold it to one James L. Gilliam, in January, 1901, by warranty deed which was promptly recorded in the conveyance office of the parish where the land is situated. H. H. Huckaby, who, with the board of commissioners, is coplaintiff or relator in this suit, holds title through mesne conveyances from James L. Gilliam.
Mrs. Douglas obtained her patent on the 18th of April, 1918. Nine days later, the board of commissioners of the levee district requested the register of the state land office to issue a deed of conveyance of the land to the board. The register replied that the land was not subject to transfer to the levee board, because a patent had been issued to Mrs. Douglas; the records of the land office having shown the land as vacant when she made application for it.
The judgment is affirmed.