101 So. 433 | Miss. | 1924
delivered the opinion of the court.
The two appeals are in companion cases involving the same questions, and will be considered and decided together. The suits were instituted in the chancery court of Perry county by the state land commissioner and the state revenue agent, for the state, against Knap-p, Stout
We shall state so much of the record only as is necessary to understand the opinion on the main and decisive question in the case. The bill attacking the title to the lands, patented by the state to the appellees on February 9,1900, is mainly grounded upon the theory that the sale, in pursuance of the act of the legislature (chapter 46, Laws of 1898), was void, because it was in violation of section 96, Constitution of 1890, in that the sale was “to corporations or associations for a less price than that for which it is subject to sale to individuals,” in that the land was sold, in bulk, some twenty-two thousand acres, at a gross price, vis., ninety-five thousand dollars, and was not offered to persons in quantities of one-quarter sections, as required by section 2564, Code of 1892, and for these reasons the sale was void as contravening the Constitution and statute announcing the law and public policy of this state on that subject. The bill also charged fraud and collusion by the trustees in making the sale. The charge of fraud, however, we might as well say now, was wholly unsupported by the proof offered before the chancellor, .and the question of fraud in the case may be dismissed from any further consideration herein.
The appellees, Knapp, Stout & Co. et al., specially demurred to the bill (and denied the charge of fraud), and presented several grounds of demurrer, but, as we shall decide the case upon one ground alone, we will omit considering- the others,- except to merely mention them.
The demurrer urges, first, that the sale by the trustees,
Following the grant by the United States government of the lands to the state, for the use and benefit of' the Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College, the state legislature of 1898 adopted chapter 46:, authorizing the sale of the lands by th eboard of trustees of the college, and in pursuance of that act the trustees sold the land to appellees and others, and a patent from the state was issued the purchasers in 1900, and it is these patents which are now attacked in this suit. The act authorized the trustees of the college to sell the lands or any part thereof for cash, as in their judgment would be for the best interest of the college, and to pay the proceeds of such sale¡ into the state treasury. The sale was made and the proceeds, ninety-five thousand dollars were paid into the treasury and the patents duly issued to the purchasers.
We shall not take the space to set out section 95> of the Constitution of 1890, section 2564, Code of 1892, chapter 46, Laws of 1898, nor the form of the grant from the federal government (chapter 106, U. S. Stat. at Large, vol. 28, p. 673, 53d Congress), nor the patent issued by the state government in accordance with the sale of the lands made by the trustees under the said chapter 46, Laws of 1898, but reference is made thereto. We shall first dispose of the questions presented by the first, second, and fourth grounds of the demurrer as enumerated above, and will then discuss the third ground.
Conceding, for the purposes of discussion, but not deciding, that the lands involved in the case are public lands, in the sense contemplated by section 95 of the Con
There being no fraud or mistake shown in the sale of the land made by the trustees, as authorized by the act of the legislature of 1898 (chapter 46), which controlled the particular sale here involved (section 2564, Code of 1892), not being applicable here because of the later act (chapter, 46, Laws of 1898), which governs solely,'and the'patent conveying the title to the purchasers being regular in form, the courts will not review nor inquire into how the
Therefore whether or not as a matter of fact the trustees offered the land in conformity to the requirements of section 95 of the Constitution, so long' as there was no fraud or mistake, is immaterial and is not a subject of inquiry by the courts; and the testimony in the lower court, in this regard, to invalidate the patent issued by the state was irrelevant and .incompetent, and the decree of the chancellor dismissing the bill should be affirmed.
The judgment of the lower court is affirmed in both of these cases.
Affirmed.