7 Mo. 610 | Mo. | 1842
Opinion of the Court, delivered by
Scott, Judge.
This was a bill in chancery, filed by Nancy Smith against Thomas Stephenson and James Coleman for an injunction and relief. The bill stated that the plaintiff, Nancy Smith, in the year 1829, at the United States land office, in St. Louis, entered a large quarter section of land, situated in the county of St. Charles. She was, at the time of the entry, and ever since has been, in pos
Receiver’s Office, St. Louis, Mó. } October 6, 1829. ^
No. 1891. Received from Samuel Johnson, of-county, Ky.; the sum of one hundred dollars,-cents, being in full for the west -.¿, S. E. ¶ of section No. 17, of township No. 47, range No. 2, E., containing 80 acres, at the rate of $1.25 per acre. $100.
James Coleman,
For the Receiver.
And with his own hand wrote upon the back of the receipt a memorandum, of which the following is a copy :
“The patent for the within W. i, S. E, sec. No. 17, 47, 2 east, containing 80 acres, will issue in the name of Nancy Smith, of St. Charles county, Mo.
James Coleman,
Land Office, 5th Dec. 1829.
Her son received the paper, not suspecting any fraud, and returning home delivered it to her. She being unable to read, did not doubt but that the receipt was regular, and that in due time she would receive a patent for the land which she had thus purchased. The bill then charges that there was no such person as Samuel Johnson, named in the receipt; that it was a mere name assumed by Coleman to effect his fraudulent purpose. In pursuance of that purpose he made out a regular certificate of entry in the name of Samuel Johnson, bearing the same date with the receipt above mentioned, which was
Chr • . ; !y left the State of I Missouri, and w«d, ' • ’ • ' ' . en b.e sold Üio ia-d controversy to T' ' ’ ■ " into of the dde. and delivered r ‘ '';er,.tc of entry, ffi inserting his name : . 1 ■ ' e blank in the ;>;',¡:t":)inent. Ste-libv'.’., . • October, 1884, i.'.f hied a patent fov .• ' :."i name, as rpsdyro of Samuel ■ loh.r”''v, , ■.1 '-.:d ¡inaction of c/.ehacnt against • . prays for an dj’. .of on, and that t’V ''.h ■' h . • Iso decreed to to the plain- ' ' ' *t may be deliver -p, &,c. The nr.1 deities all know!o.f r of the fraud-«íei , i, or of any of •, transactions v/i;n - . •;-f'nsc. Denies V r' Nam y Smith oatt*' ■ • . .frputo, or fch'C y? e fas any title, thou- ■ • No. lio piuvhrr.d ■the. land under the ', . .ronces. Llany 3'■ :s ago he was .-i.C'i'’ • ' -¡, in Kentucky, \ ' me tliey both veri;1' . " 'n hecomiiig iiiscLreri, went to St. C<« • . ' r . d:Cs unpaid in Kent) * by. In the ye 1 " o' ned to Kentucky, u hero lie again nwi; ■ e ’• ; oedrons to mehe ; .••vngements to i::hf ‘ ' • 'doman informed him tlmt he had the . ■ irac/ts of land hi that Slate, and v/or - ' hr. as much as would make a good í’ur'¡ •>,) representation.;'', he agreed to pnvd-uv '■ fV.pnte, together with another tract of c.'g .. , > o sum of one thousand dollars. At the. t ' d r •;•...•• hnse he was informed by Colernan that the vilo v/ /;i not in himself, but in the name of S.
On the hearing of the cause, the original receipt given by Coleman to Aancy Smith, and the original certificate of entry in the name of S. Johnson, and the as.-iigimier.t thereon were produced. Two witnesses were introduced, who being well acquainted with Coleman’s hand writing, from having seen him frequently write, were confident that the said papers were in the hand writing of Coleman. That the sig-
Another witness was produced, the son of the plaintiff; he testified that his mother, some short time before she entered the land, became apprehensive that another would enter it: she had not the money and could not obtain it. It seems then a brother of the plaintiff went to St. Louis and made some arrangement by which her apprehensions were quieted. The witness further testified, that some few weeks after, at the instance of his mother, he went to St, Louis to enter the land. He was informed by his mother’s brother, who had previously been to St. Louis on that business, that hejwould have some interest to pay on the money; and that if he paid the money and interest he would get the certificate. He paid Coleman one hundred and ten dollars for the land and interest. Coleman took the receipt, a copy of which has been set out above, and wrote the memorandum thereon. That he was unable to read writing, as was likewise his mother; and it was some years after that they were apprised of the fraud committed by Coleman, and of the claim of another to the land.
On the hearing the court decreed for the plaintiff, from which an appeal has been taken to this court.
The first point made by Stephenson’s counsel is, that Nancy Smith does not show any title or claim, legal or equitable, such as wi'l enable her to contest the right of Stephenson ; or, in other words, there is no evidence that she ever entered the land in dispute, 'This objection will make
If then tl<;; o is in cqyitv .' / phetln;*! a •: i: . o o : dues:: ,v, o smother • • siderador ’• -it‘C he bobo ref bo , acquire.\ >' ■ owner" ■" / - Colo:::- no-,- -p Void, 0 id i ■: i resulting trust to the plaintiff; if she ’• -s the real owner of the land, did Ste-ff undor such eireumsíí.'toe.s, as will in- . to refuse its aid ognrjrt him? or, in ■ .■u\ fide purchaser for a valuable con- . -feel Stephenson in hi:! answer says, Uiy purchasing from Johnson. He - 1 Johnson, admitting .ho was the real •iffhority would not have warranted ;. is name as assigns.o. The act was ■ o title whatever on Ciopbenson.
Tito mu'" signes, -... ; ■ it wan i:'i■■ ;. son iuv hj c - •’■ j ment, ,~ ■ - Paley o--.p . as a dff/h rtn p- • ' Colcmmg , ; ■ circlin' r : , r.1 ractor of o i . i ation without lieved the ■ fer the land, wan pi from bis creditors. . "'h a blank for the name of the as- . City; it acquired no validity until ' that must have been done by John- . ■ lc person, as it was a sealed instru-ov/ered by authority under s'eal- ■ t But if Johnson is to he regarded : i, and Stephenson as the vendee of X, stand before the court under such d induce it to strip him of the cha- : purchaser, for a valuable consider-,Stephenson admits, that he be- :: mode adopted by Coleman to trans-•ompted by a desire to shield the land The principle is well established,
That part of the answer which speaks of the consideration paid for the land, is well calculated to excite mistrust as to i,s truth. In the body of the answer he avers he gave one thousand dollars for the land in dispute, and another tract of eighty acres. In the answer to the interrogatory, What was paid for the land ? there is a blank for the consideration. He does not tell us what kind of land the other tract of eighty acres was, whether it was improved or unimproved we are left to conjecture; and ho. never saw the eighty in dispute, until after the purchase was made. Is it hot strange he should give one thousand dollars for two tracts of eighty acres each, of which he knew nothing. When the certificate of entry informed him that one of the tracts, a
The next point is, that the patent issued by the government of the United States for the land in dispute, cannot ke cancelled or set aside in this mode; but it must ... , be by scire facias, or bill m equity, in the name of the United States.
Uhis objection cannot find a ground for its existence in the record. The bill does not seek to avoid the pa-nor decree of the court below that it shallbe avoided or cancelled, It may be conceded that a patent cannot be avoided in a collateral proceeding; nor, unless ^ *s ^soRRely void, can a party in any action or proceeding in which the patent maybe used for evidence, ,-¶ *i i * ij? j? p n , , ¶ any other purpose, avail nimselt oí any iraud, mistake, or circumstance by which it may be rendered void in a # J •' mode of proceedure. It can only be avoided at the instance of the government issuing it, by a direct proceeding for that purpose ; a scire facias or bill in equity in the name of the authority from whom it emanated.
This is not an attempt to cancel a patent The party who really paid the government for the land, and who is in equity entitled to it, asks that the legal title may be taken from him who has inequitably acquired it, and bestow it on the real owner. Nothing is more, frequently done by courts of equity than to take the legal title from one who has improperly obtained it, and annex it to the equitable title of another. If a party should entrust an agent with, money to purchase a tract of our saline lands, or a sixteenth section, and he should make the purchase, and take a patent in his own name, would our courts of equity hesitate to strip- him of the legal title, although acquired by patent, and
If this is the principle by which our courts would be governed in relation to a patent under our own laws, we must inquire if there is any thing in the constitution or laws of the United States, which should prevent its application by the State courts to patents emanating from the general government.
The judicial power of the Uuited States, extends to all cases in law and equity, arising under the constitution, .the laws' of the United States, and treaties made, or which shall be made under their authority. Congress has not as yet conferred on the Federal courts as extensive a jurisdiction as was contemplated by the constitution of the United States. The circuit courts of that government have original cognizance, concurrent with the courts of the several States, of all suits of a civil nature at common law or in equity, when the matter in dispute exceeds, exclusive of costs, the sum or value of five hundred dollars, and the United States are plaintiffs or petitioners, or an alien is a party, or the suit is between a citizen of the State where the suit is brought, and a citizen of another State- This is a case of which the Federal courts have not original cognizance, although arising under the laws of th& United States. The general government has not yet deemed it expedient to vest their courts with original cognizance of such causes : it is content to entrust their determination to the State tribunals, satisfied with the control of such-causes as is conferred by the 25th section of the judiciary-act, which gives a writ of error from the supreme court of the United States to the final judgment or decree in any suit, in the highest court of law or equity of a State, in which a decision in the suit can be had, when, amongst other enumerated causes, is drawn in question a title set up, or claimed under the constitution, treaties, or laws of the United States. The cognizance of this cause, then, belongs to the State courts, and thev will determine it according to
It has been shown that this is a case arising under the laws of the United States; and that Congress have not vested in these courts, original cognizance of this controversy. The title to the land has passed from the general government, and we are to determine to whom it should pass according to the laws of the U. States. In forming our judgment we are not influenced by any State law, but the laws of Congress, and those principles of jurisprudence which would control the federal courts, had they cognizance of the suit. Was it intended that all wrongs committed der the laws of the general government for the disposal of the public lands should go unredressed ? Can it be supposed that the general government ever intended, that the terial officers entrusted with the sale of the public lands, should disregard all legal restraints, and dispose of the lands , , , • , , , as they pleased without regard to individual rights secured under the laws; and that those acts should be protected from all judicial control? Here are two citizens of the State of Missouri; she owes them protection; one complains the other has done him an injury; the court inform him, the injury arises under the laws of the United States: we cannot therefore interfere.' The Federal courts have no power to afford redress : they are then without remedy. Is this , , . „, . to be tolerated in a government of laws i
The compact provides that the general assembly of the State, shall never interfere with the primary disposition of the soil, when the State courts assume jurisdiction of such controversies. It will not be pretendqid, that that will constitute an interference by the legislative department of our government. If that department should pass laws interfering with the disposal of the soil, and the State courts should enforce those laws, then a violation of the compact would be produced. Our courts in exercising the jurisdiction, are not influenced by State laws or regulations "hostile to those of the general government. The State has passed no law on the subject; she has merely given her courts jurisdiction of all controversies arising between her own citi
How can an assumption of this jurisdiction be deemed a violation of the compact, when in determining the controversies, whose cognizance we have assumed, we do not look to State laws or regulations for our guide, but to the laws of the United State, and to those principles of jurisprudence which would control the courts of the United States had they jurisdiction? We are in fact discharging a portion of the functions appertaining to the general government. Instead of acting in hostility to its policy and laws, we are humbly endeavoring to carry them into effect, in the spirit in which they are ordained. We connot see any ground for the imputation that in affirming the judgment of the court below we violate our compact with the general government. Could we conceive that such a consequence would be the result of our decree, none would be more ready to abstain from it. We trust Missouri will always wear bright the chain which binds her to her sister States, and seek respect for her own rights in a scrupulous observance of the rights of others. The decree of the court below is affirmed.
Opinion of
Nancy Smith filed her bill in the circuit court of St Charles county against Thomas Stephenson, praying an injunction to stay proceedings in an action of ejectment in that court pending. She obtained a deci’ee, to reverse which this appeal is prosecuted.
The case being of some importance in itself, as it affects the parties, and of infinitely greater importance, as it may, in its consequences, affect the interests of the community. I shall give at large the reasons which have induced me to dissent from the opinion of a majority of this court, affirming the judgment of á circuit court, over which presides one of the most enlightened and most worthy men in the State.
It is as follows: — Nancy Smith of the county of St. Charles, widow, humbly complaining, most respectfully shows, that on or about the 6th day of October, 1829, she entered and purchased, with her own money,, of the public lands of the United States, at the United States land office at St. Louis, the west half of the S. E. quarter of section No. 17, of township No. 47 north, in range No. 2 east, containing eighty acres, at the rate of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre : that she took possession of the said lot of land, and has ever since lived upon and cultivated the same, it being in the county of .St. Charles. It is her only home, and except a small quantity of personal goods, her only property. For several years after the making the entry and purchase aforesaid, not doubting of the goodness of the title to her land, all the efforts of herself and several of her children, were devoted to the making of a farm; and she has succeeded in improving the same as much as most persons in her comparatively helpless condition. At the time of making the said entry and purchase, one James Coleman was clerk of both register and receiver of the land office at St. Louis, (which I am informed was irregular and improper, as said offices were designed by law tp be a check upon each other, to prevent fraud and embezzlement,) and as such clerk conducted 'both offices. “I was a poor widow, and did with much exertion raise the sum of one hundred dollars to buy the land. As I lived forty miles from St. Louis, and could not conveniently attend in person to enter the land, I sent my son James Lewis to do it for me. He went to St. Louis, and taking a friend with him to the land office, entered the said tract of land and paid for it in my name. The said James Coleman, acting for the United States receiver of public monies in that land office, received the money. My said son being illiterate and unable to read, the said James Coleman, fraudulently practising upon his ignorance, as a pretended evidence of the payment of the money, and of the entry and purchase of the said lot of land in my name, gave him a receipt of which the following is a copy, to wit:
*624 “Receiver’s Opjice, ' St. Louis, Mo., ) October 6, 1829. )
No. 1891. Received from Samuel Johnson of-county, Kentucky, the sum of one hundred dollars, being in full for the west -g of the S. E. $ of section No. 17, of township No. 47, range No. 2 east, containing 80 acres, at $1 25 cents per acre, one hundred dollars.
James Coleman, for the receiver.”
And with his own hand wrote upon the back of the receipt a memorandum of which the following is a copy, viz : “The patent for the within west half of the S. E. quarter of section No. 17, 47, 2 E., containing 80 acres, will issue, in the name of Nancy Smith of St. Charles county, Missouri, James Coleman, Land Officer, 5th December, 1829.” My son being unable to read the receipt and memorandum, received the paper from the said Coleman and brought it home tome; and I also being illiterate and unable to read, received the same as satisfactory evidence of the purchase of the said land. And it was not until a considerable time thereafter, that I discovered the fraud that had been prac-tised upon me, with this endorsement on the receipt. I, in my ignorance, remained satisfied, not doubting that I should get a patent for the land in due time. I am advised, and therefore state the fact to be, that the common and accustomed method of getting a final title for lands entered at the public Land Office, is to take a receipt from the receiver, for the money paid to him, a duplicate of which is sent by the register to the commissioner of this general land office at Washington City, who sends the¡patent to the purchaser, through the land office at which the entry was made. I am also informed and believe that it is lawful for the purchaser to present the receipt of the receiver to the register of the land office, and obtain, from him a certificate of purchase, which being presented to the commissioners of the genera] land office at Washington City, entitles the purchaser to a patent.. The said Coleman being clerk of both the register and receiver of the land office at St. Louis ; and as I am informed and believe, and therefore charge to be true, also a public notary, relying upon my ignorance and helplessness,
The complainant puts many questions, and amongst them asks what price Stephenson paid for the land. Coleman was not found, and a decree was entered against him for want of an answer: Stephenson answered, denying all knowledge of the situation and circumstances of the plaintiff and of her transactions with Coleman : admits that he bought the certificate from Coleman, and that it was endorsed in blank, and that the blank was filled by Coleman. He states that he bought the land in controversy, and another half-quarter section, for one thousand dollars ; and afterwards says, that he did purchase the said certificate from Coleman for the price of-■, as above stated, and he had only stated the price of that land and of another half-quarter section, as had been above stated.
Many other statements are made in the answer, and as irrelevant and impertinent as some of those in the bill of
Land Office at St, Louis, Mo. '6th Oct. 1829.
No. 1891.
It is hereby certified that in pursuance of law, Samuel Johnson, of Kentucky, on this day purchased of the Register of this office, the lot or west half of the S. E. quarter of section No. 17, of township No. 47, north, in range No. 2, east, containing eighty acres, at the rate of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, amounting to one hundred dollars, for which said Samuel Johnson has made payment m full, as required by law. Now, therefore, be it known, that on presentation of.this certificate to the Commissioner of the General Land Office, the said Samuel Johnson shall be entitled to receive a patent for the lot above described.
W. Christy, Register.
The complainant then introduced as evidence, a paper purporting to be an assignment of said certificate to said Thomas Stephenson, signed Samuel Johnson. This will not be here set out, as it is but a common assignment. It is further stated that the plaintiff gave in evidence an acknowledgment of said assignment, purporting to have been made by said Samuel Johnson before said James Coleman, Notary-Public. After these three papers follows this certificate: “I hereby certify that the foregoing are true copies of the original on file in the general land office.” To this certificate are subscribed two names, and it is dated the 14th March, 1838.
It is then stated that the complainant introduced - two witnesses, Wm. N. Fulkerson and Edmund Christy, who testified that they were well acquainted with the hand writing of James Coleman ; that they have frequently seen him write, and the writing and filling up of ail said papers they believe confidently to be in the hand writing of said Coleman ; that all the signatures of said papers which purport to be in the hand writing of said James Coleman, are his genuine hand writing ; that as to the signature of Satauel Johnson, they are not so confident, but that they believe it to be in the hand writing of said James Coleman, that it differs from the general hand writing of said Coleman, and is evidently an unnatural hand writing, but that there are points of resemblance betwixt it and the general hand writing which induce them to believe that it was written by him.— Said papers were all then read in evidence. The said Christy also testified that the said Coleman did the business in the office of both register and receiver'of public moneys at St. Louis for many years , but thathe does not recollect whether he was acting in the year 1829 ; that the law does not recognize any deputy for either the register or the receiver, but that said Coleman staid in the office, and transacted the business for them ; that the said officers were in the habit of signing blank receipts and certificates, which were filled by said Coleman, and delivered by him to such persons as came to purchase lands; that the register and receiver being informed that lie had been fraudulent, dismiss, ed him from their employment; but that they had no positive knowledge that he was guilty.
The complainant then introduced James Lewis, her son, as a witness, who stated that in the fall of 1829, his mother had an improvement, and was living on the land in controversy ; that some time during that fall, Mr. Joseph Allen came into the neighborhood, and was entering many tracts of land in the vicinity ; that the complainant was in great trouble for fear that he would enter her improvement; that she had not the money to enter the land at that time, and
The defendant then gave in evidence the patent, which being in the usual form, will be omitted. There was no other evidence. I will first divest this bill of complaint of what, on reference to a master in chancery, where such an officer is found, would have been sticken out as impertinent, at the costs of the complainant, and will then proceed to consider the material part thereof, and the evidence produced by the complainant to support her claim.
She alleges that she is a widow; that she took possession of the land, and has ever since lived on, and cultivated it; that it is her only home, and except a small amount of personal goods, her only property ; that not doubting the goodness of her title, she has for several years after making the entry and purchase, devoted all the e fforts of herself and several of her children to the making of a farm, and the erection of the needful buildings on the land, and that she has succeeded in improving the same as well as most persons in her comparatively helpless condition. Here the complainant, impatient of the restraints imposed by the usual forms of bills in chancery, comes out like an actress, and after giving her opinion on the impropriety of the employment of Coleman to act for both register and receiver, exclaims, “I was a poor widow, and did with much exertion raise the sum of one hundred dollars to buy the said land.' As I lived forty miles from St. Louis,” &c., to the end. The two lectures on the law regulating the offices of the register and receiver, and the manner of obtaining a patent, if really the production of the complainant, shows her not lo be so very ignorant as she pretends, and might retain their place for the novelty of the thing ; but if the work of the solicitor, they and his authorities might more properly have been placed in his brief for the information of the court. Divesting the bill, then, of all this unimportant matter, and likewise of the abusive language so unmeaningly bestowed on Coleman throughout, for she has not pretended to make' Stephenson a participator in the fraud, the material and substantive part of her complaint is this: that on the 5th day
All lands after the 24th of April, 1820, are sold for cash, and by the seventh section of the act of the 10 th May, 1800, it is made the duty of the register of the land office to make entries in books, kept for such purpose, of all lands which persons apply to enter. See p. 460 and 770 of first volume of Land Laws. The complainant’s money, then, did not pay for that land; if it did, either the patent certifi
A part of the complainant’s testimony is documentary, viz: The register’s patent certificate, the assignment thereof purporting to be.made and signed by Samuel Johnson, and acknowledged by him before Coleman a notary public. Stephenson had told us in his answer, that these had been forwarded to the commissioner of the general land office; and unless they had been, we know that the patent would not have been issued; such is the law as will appear in the sequel. The law also requires these certificates to be preserved on file by the commissioner of the general land office. These papers certified to be copies of the originals on file in the general land office, were given in evidence by the complainant ; and we are told on the rocord that the original patent certificate of purchase of the tract of land in question, &c., signed by William Christy, register, &c., was admitted to be genuine. The assignment, acknowledgment, &c., were
I will, however, proceed to treat the subject as if there were no contradictory testimony; for I have no doubt that all the papers purporting to be executed by Coleman were so in reality ; about the signature of the name of Johnson the witnesses spoke of hesitatingly.
The subject has been adverted to merely to show how their judgments have been influenced by this totally irrelevant and impertinent tale of woe wrought into this bill ofcom-plaint. But it was stated by the complainant’s son that Mr. Biggs might have borrowed the money to pay for this land, and have entered it when he was down, &c. If so, then we must presume Mr. Biggs would have seen that a proper receipt or certificate, as the case might be, was made out; or was he also unable to read? The record does not say so. Where was the friend whom the complainant in her bill stated, that this son, witness and agent took with him to the land office? Could not he read? .Could not he tell the
I have hitherto treated this matter as if the United States, the grantor here, had been a simple individual vendor of this tract of land, and as if the State oí Missouri had the right to declare the force and effect of titles granted by them, and power to enforce the right. To prevent the possibility of a doubt on this subject, the first section of the tenth article of our constitution declares in express terms, that the General Assembly of the State shall never interfere in the primary
1st. That the fraud and -forgery of Coleman, acting for both register and receiver, cannot vest the title, legal or equitable, to any part of the public land in any other person than the purchaser.
2d. That the actual sale of the land to Nancy Smith is the primary disposal of the soil, and all subsequent mesne conveyances are to be judged of by the laws of the State.
The first point, so far as it goes to assert that the legal or equitable title to any part of the public land can vest in none but the purchaser, is a truism which I cannot see any use in stating; but why the fraud and forgery (if any) of Coleman is introduced, I am not able to see. The second point assumes the very thing in controversy, viz., that the land was sold to Nancy Smith, notwithstanding the patent, and we are cautioned against any slavish respect for the name of a patent, because the United States have no common law, and the whole matter of issuing patents being a mere official regulation, a patent cannot in the United States impart the 'sanctity of a grant by patent of a King of England, the President of the United States not being the owner of the soil. Without wasting time in so unprofitable an inquiry as whether a President of the United States has not as much property in their public lands as a King of England in their crown lands, or as any sovereign in Europe has in his crown jewels, which last we are told that the revolutionary leaders in France demanded and obtained, as the property of the nation, from Charles the Tenth, in July, 1730, when he was retreating from the kingdom, it may be safely assumed, that whether there be any common la.w of the United States or not, those States, the real as -well as nominal grantors, are under as strong an obligation to observe good faith towards the purchasers of the public lands, and to protect them in their titles, as the crown of England towards its gran
If Stephenson were to transfer that land to a citizen of Illinois, and his vendee were to commence suit against the complainant in the circuit court of the United States, he might either procure an exemplification of the record from the General Land Office, or she might be commanded to bring into court the very patent which this court have declared shall pass to the complainant, and it is not to be imagined that that court would recognize the authority of the State courts to declare void titles to land granted by the United States. In Wilcox v. Jackson, 13 Peters, 511, Mr. Justice Barbour, delivering the opinion of the court, says, “that the acts of Congress have given to the register and receivers of the land offices the power of deciding upon the claims to the right of preemption j that upon these questions they act judicially; that no appeal having been given from their decision, it follows as a consequence that it is conclusive and inevitable. This proposition is true, he continues, in relation to every tribunal acting judicially, whilst acting within the sphere of their jurisdiction; and even when there is such an appellate power, the judgment is conclusive when it comes collaterally into question, so long as it is understood.” And the grant of the pre-emption in that case Ivas declared void only because the register and receiver had granted it on lands which had been reserved from sale. In that case he cites at the same page, the case of Elliott v. Piersol, et al, 1 Peters, 340. Where a court has jurisdiction, it has a right to decide every question which oecurs in the cause, and whether its decision be correct or otherwise, its judgment, until reversed, is regarded as binding on every court. In the case of the U.
But this special tribunal is judicial, it is a special judi-. cial tribunal. The register finds the facts, and reports them to the President of the United States, and on the-
I have now proved that the'courtesy shown by courts of different sovereignties to the decisions of each other forbids us to intermeddle with the right of Stephenson. But when we consider that this court has no powers but such as are derived from the constitution and laws, and that our constitution has declared that the General Assembly shall never interfere with the primary disposal of the soil, nor with any regulation Congress may find necessary for securing the title in such soil to bona fide purchasers, and this Assembly has never attempted to make such regulations, it seems to me to be no less than usurpation of power in this court to say that they decree the title to pass out of the United States’ patentee to the complainant, because they believe it to have been fraudulently obtained, when the tribunal for such purpose, appointed by the United States, have decided that it was fairly obtained. For the United States having adjudged this patent to Stephenson, by a tribunal appointed for the
That our State courts have not regulated their decisions according to the principle now contended for, I am ready to admit; and I admit also, that I have heartily concurred in at least one decision made contrary to the principle for which I have contended. For a long time after the transfer of this territory, of which the State is now a part, by France to the United States, we had very few if any complete titles to land. Our legislation was accordingly adapted to the then existing state of that kind of property. As early as'the year 1816 a law was made requiring deeds and bonds for real property to which the vendor held the equitable title only, to be recorded ; and making such deeds and bonds when duly recorded, constructive notice to subsequent purchasers of the same property. About the same time the legislature passed an act giving the action of ejectment to persons claiming such property by deed of conveyance, and ever since a similar act has been in force, and always so modified as to embrace the several new titles that at different periods came into existence. This could cause no conflict of judicial decisions, whilst, as under the territorial government, the chief judicial power was confined to courts created by acts of Congress. The necessities of the community required that many transfers of real property, held by incomplete titles, should be made; many suits were instituted for such property. The first case in this court that occurs to me, is that of Bird v. Ward and Cravens, 1 Mo. Rep. 398. Ward and Cravens made a settlement on lands of the United States, which, under the act of Congress of the 5th of February, 1813, entitled them to a right of pre-emption in the pur-
In support of the jurisdiction of this court, in this case, the counsel for the complainant has cited the case of Rogers v. Doe, on the demise of Barland et al., 1, Peters 656. That case was cited in Bagnel et al. v. Broderick: and also in Wilcox v. Jackson, 13th Peters above referred to: and in each case the Supreme Court of the U. S. said, “That was the case of aconflict betwixt two patentees, both claiming under the United States.” The elder patent was founded on a certificate of the Register of the Land Office west of Pearl river. The junior patent was issued on a certificate of the Board of Commissioners west of Pearl river. The court below instructed the jury that the junior patent of the plaintiff in ejectment, emanating upon a certificate for a donation claim, prior in date to the patent under which the defendant claimed, would overreach the elder patent of the defendant, and in point of law prevail against it. it appears that by the mode of proceedings in Mississippi, they look beyond the grant. This court, remarking upon that case, said, “That in so doing, and in applying their peculiar mode of proceeding to titles, derived, through and under the laws of the U. States, they violated no provisions of any statutes of the U. States;" 13th Peters, Bagnel et al. v. Broderick, 450-1 ; and Wilcox v. Jackson 517, ibidera.
In the case now before us, there was a patent on the side of the defendant, which the complainant on the authority of that case contends, is to be overreached by the testimony of her son : that he paid money to a man found about the Land Office, without authority to give even a receipt for money.
The decree of the circuit court ought then, in my opinion, to be reversed, and the bill dismissed, because, 1st. There is, in my opinion, no evidence that the complainant’s money paid for this land, the Register’s certificate bearing date the 6th day of October, 1829, and by her own evidence her money was not paid to Coleman till 5th December next, after that time: 2nd. If her money did pay for that land, the certificate must have been issued two months before the money was paid, in pursuance of a fraudulent and corrupt agreement betwixt Coleman and her, through Diggs her agent; in such case she can have no claim: 3rd. Because this State courts have no power or authority, to decide on the correctness or incorrectness of the conduct of the officers of the United States who issue patents : 4th. Because, if the State courts will assume such power according to the rules of proceeding in chancery, the United States, the vendor to Stephenson, ought to have been made co-defendant in this suit. '
IOND op VOLUME VII.