120 Tenn. 180 | Tenn. | 1907
delivered the opinion of the Court.
This is an ejectment bill. The complainant deraigns title to the land in question from a grant to himself and Thomas Voorhees, bearing- date 7th day of January, 1887. This grant contains the recital that it was issued “in consideration of an entry made in the entry taker’s office of Lewis county on the 29th of December, 1886,” and it described the land as being in the Eighth civil district of Lewis county.
From the year 1844, when the county of Lewis was established by legislative act, up to the year 1897, the record shows that there was much confusion in the minds both of the officers of Lewis county and of the citizens of both that county and of Wayne as to the exact location of that part of the line separating these two counties which ran in the immediate neighborhood of the property in controversy. It is evident that many persons living in the immediate community understood that this land and the land surrounding it were within the limits of Lewis county, while others believed that the boundary line between these two counties divided this tract with other tracts in that vicinity. That the entry taker who received the entry upon which the grant of complainant was issued believed that this tract lay across this line and in both these counties is evident,
While we cannot say with absolute certainty .on this record that no part of this tract lay in Lewis county, yet we think we must concede that the weight of the testimony is that it wasi situated altogether within the limits of Wayne county, and therefore that the entry taker of Lewis county was without authority to receive and record the entry in his office. The question then presented is: Can the defendant in this action at law avail himself of this fact to avoid complainant’s grant? In other words, in the face of a grant, issued by officers representing the State, conveying confessedly vacant and unappropriated land, authenticated by the great seal of the State, will the defendant, a junior grantee, be permitted to avoid the older grant upon the ground that the entry with regard to which it purports to be issued was made in the office of an entry taker not empoAvered to receive it?
' The counsel for the defendant — the appellant in this case — maintains that these questions are conclusively answered in favor of his contention by the leading case
Before coming to the consideration of these exceptions, and an answer to the question, this eminent-judge laid down certain general principles which it was assumed would give aid in disposing of these exceptions and making answer to this question. The court said: “The laws for the sale of public lands provide many guards to secure the regularity of grants, to protect the incipient right of individuals, and also to protect the State from impostors. Officers are appointed to superintend the business, and rules are framed prescribing their duty. These rules are, in general, directory; and when all the proceedings are completed by a patent issued by the authority of the State, the compliance with these rules is presupposed. That every prerequisite has been performed-is an inference
There is no contention in the present case that the State was without title to the land in controversy when the grant was issued in 1887 to the complainant and Yoorhees. So it is that their grant is not void by reason of the proposition stated in the first clause of the sentence last above set out. It is insisted, however, that it falls within the letter of that contained in the last clause; that is, that it is void because the entry taker of Lewis county had no authority to make an entry of lands lying in Wayne county, and that the defendant is entitled in this action to impeach the grant upon that ground.
We are satisfied that the scope of the proposition, relied on as authority for the defendant’s contention, is much narrower than is here insisted upon. Its limitation, we think, is clearly seen by the exceptions of the plaintiff, which the court was then considering and preparing to dispose of. These exceptions, overruled
Considering these exceptions, and the action of the trial judge in overruling them, the court said that “the act of 1777 (Iredell’s Laws N. C., 1804, p. 205, c. 1), which opens the land office and directs the appointment of an officer in each county, denominated an ‘entry taker,’ to receive entries of all vacant lands in his county, directs the entry taker, if the land should not be claimed by some other person within three months, to deliver to the party a copy of the entry, with its proper number, and an order to the county surveyor to survey the same. This order is called a ‘warrant.’ The ninth section of the act (Iredell’s Laws N. C., 1804, p.. 206) then declares ‘that every right, etc., by any person or persons set up or pretended to any of the mentioned lands which shall not be obtained in the manner by this act directed, or by purchase or inheritance from some person or persons becoming proprietors, by virtue thereof, or which shall be obtained in fraud, evasion, or elus-ion of the provisions and instructions thereof, shall be deemed and are hereby declared utterly void.’” The
The testimony Avhich Avas tendered in the trial court, and for its error in rejecting Avhich the judgment of that court was reversed and the cause remanded, tend
When that case a second time went to tbe supreme court upon an error assigned upon tbe action of tbe trial court in rejecting testimony offered to impeach tbe grant, tbe limitation that was to be attached to tbe earlier decision is clearly indicated in tbe opinion delivered by Mr. Justice Johnson. In speaking of that decision the court said: “It will be observed that as to irregularities committed by tbe officers of government prior to tbe grant tbe court does not express a doubt, but that tbe government, and not tbe individual, must bear tbe consequences resulting from them. On tbe contrary, it declares that tbe existence of tbe grant is in itself sufficient ground from which every man may infer that every prerequisite has been performed. All, then, that it decides is that an entry was indispensable as tbe inception to the title of Sevier; that if an original grant bad issued to him after tbe cession, or a title bad been perfected where there was no incipient title before the cession, as in tbe case of a grant on a forged warrant and no entry, that it would be void.” Again it is said: “This court disavows having ever decided more than that an entry, or other legal incipiency of title, was necessary to tbe validity of a grant issued by North Carolina for lands in Tennessee after tbe separation. They have never expressed an inclination to let in inquiries into tbe frauds, irregularities, or acts of negligence of tbe officers of government, prior to tbe
That this was the limit to which the case in 9 Cranch, 87, 3 L. Ed., 665, could be invoked as authority is again pointed out in St. Louis Smelting, etc., Co. v. Kemp, 104 U. S., 636, 26 L. Ed., 875. Here it is said, in speaking of their decision: “The court held that proof that no entry had been made in the office of the entry taker in the county where the lands patented were situate prior to the cession to the United States was admissible under the ninth section [of the act of 1777], for without such entry they would not be within the' reservation mentioned-jn the act of cession. In other words, proof was admissible to show that the State had not retained control over the property, but had .conveyed it to the United States.”
The case last cited was an action at law predicated upon a patent issued by the United States, which the defendant sought to impeach by testimony as to certain irregularities and defects antedating its issuance. In speaking of such a muniment of title and the effort to impeach it in an action at law by extrinsic testimony, the court said:
“The patent of the United States is a conveyance by which the nation passes its title to portions of the public domain. For the transfer of that title the law has made numerous provisions — designated the persons who may acquire it and the terms of its acquisition.*192 That the provisions may be properly carried out a land department, as part of the administrative and executive branch of the government, has been created to supervise all the.various proceedings taken to obtain the title, from their commencement to their close. . . . The execution and record of the patent are the final acts of the officers of the government for the transfer of their title, and, as they can be legally performed only after certain steps have been taken, that instrument, duly signed, countersigned, and sealed, not merely operates to pass the title, but is in the nature of an official declaration by that branch of the government to which the alienation of the public lands under the law is intrusted that all the requirements preliminary to its issue have been complied with. The presumptions thus attended are not open to rebuttal in an action at law. It is this unassailable character which gives to it its chief — indeed, its only — value as a means of quieting its possessor in the enjoyment of the land it embraces. Of course, when we speak of the conclusive presumption attending a patent for lands, we assume that it was issued in a case where the department had jurisdiction to act and execute it; that is to say, in a case where the lands belonged to the United States, and provisions had been made by law for their sale.”
After reviewing the many cases in that court bearing upon this question, the general doctrine declared to be settled is thus stated: “A patent in a court at law is conclusive as to all matters properly determined by
So it is, we think, clear from these interpretations of the case in 9 Cranch, 87, 3 L. Ed., 665, that its authority extends no further than to let in evidence in a collateral proceeding to show that the State had no title to the land at the issuance of its grant, or had made no provision for its sale, or had reserved it from sale, or had previously transferred it to another grantee, or for some other like reason the grant was absolutely
The case of Overton’s Lessee v. Campbell & Lackey, 5 Hayw., 165, 9 Am. Dec., 780, is one full of learning on tbe subject of grants and of great authority. Jn that case separate opinions were delivered by Whyte, Roane, and Haywood, JJ., all masters of tbe technical system of land laws which Tennessee inherited from North Carolina. Tbe questions there presented were: First, whether a grant issued by North Carolina, un
“I shall now make an application of the doctrine in Polk v. Wendal to the case under consideration, and in doing this I will admit in effect, as the plaintiff’s counsel contend, that the State had no right in one sense to issue the grant in question to the defendant; that is, that he had no directions to issue a grant on the defendant’s claim for land in John Armstrong’s ground. . . . North Carolina authorized her officer to issue grants upon military claims for the land comprised within the military bounds designated in the seventh section and third chapter of the Acts of 1783, and she authorized her officer to issue grants upon John Armstrong’s claims for land within John Armstrong’s bounds. The officer, however, instead of pursuing his authority strictly, issued the defendant’s grant, being a military claim, for land comprised within John Armstrong’s bounds. Now this was an irregularity in the*196 execution of his authority, or a nonpursuance of its directions; but the lands within both bounds . . . . were grantable by order of the State. The officer had a right to issue a grant passing the State’s title to both; the one to the one claimant, the other to the other. But the officer has granted a part of John Armstrong’s bounds to a different claimant than the law contemplated. The question is, does this make the grant absolutely void? My opinion is that it does not. . . . But it is also said, on argument for the plaintiff, that on this case agreed no entry is stated, and we are not to presume one, when our decisions say a grant may be good without an entry. Besides, it is said, ‘you cannot presume in favor of illegal acts, but you may do so in favor of legal ones.’ . . . This, in fewer words, is saying there was no entry, therefore the grant is illegal, and as the grant is illegal no entry can be presumed. The strength of this objection consists in setting the statement of the case in opposition to the grant and an inference deduced therefrom, to wit, that there is no entry . . . against the presumption of law raised by the evidence of a grant that there is one. . . . What is a State grant? It is a public record (2 Blackstone, Com., 346; 3 Tucker’s Blackstone, 261, note 10; Jackson v. Lawton, 10 Johns. [N. Y.], 26, 6 Am. Dec., 311); a record to evidence in the most solemn manner by the great seal of the State, for it cannot issue before it is recorded — this act of recording being one of the essentials constituting a grant, and that before it*197 issues. ... A State grant or patent is a record of the highest validity and verity, and is conclusive evidence of its contents, to wit, that the State has passed its title to the lands therein conveyed. • It must at the same time be conclusive evidence that all the previous requisites existed that were necessary to authorize and render it a complete and legal act which were material and traversible.” Citing several authorities, Judge Whyte continues: “These authorities prove, first, that the grant is incontrovertible evidence of the entry; and, secondly, that the inference deduced is inadmissible. But if the statement [that is, the agreed statement of the case] had even in express terms negatived the actual existence of an entry, and the parties had put it down as a fact totidem verbis that there was no entry, then I would say that though the parties by their admissions may renounce the benefit of the law, yet they, cannot thereby change it, and that the complexion of the case is not the least varied; that the evidence of its nonexistence, being of an inferior nature to that evidenced by the grant, could not prevail, and, being incompatible with the rules of law, the court would be bound to disregard-it. It is remarked that our decisions have said a grant is good without an entry. Perhaps it would be more correct to say a grant is good without showing the copy of an entry, in the cases where the law requires one which in the general would be unnecessary, superfluous, and even improper. The existence of an entry by copy would be attested by the*198 officer; lie having the legal custody of it. A grant attests the same existence by evidence of a greater dignity* by the great seal of the State, and supersedes all inferior modes of showing the same thing it shows. A grant, being a public record, comprehends within itself ■every requisite for its existence, and, emanating under the sanction of the great seal, possesses the highest evidence of them when it is itself used as evidence.”
In the opinion in that case delivered by Haywood, J., after stating certain causes for which a grant may be deemed void, it is added: “But the grant is not void for any mistake or miscalculation, or wrong step taken by the officers of the government in stages precedent to the emanation of the grant, which is not induced by the fraud or misconduct of the grantee. The public employs them, and is responsible for their acts, and must look for retribution in such cases to them, and not to the innocent grantee. . . . Imperfed and informal entries, wrong surveys without demarkation or chain carriers, surveys not made to the cardinal points, but in forms different from those prescribed by law, plats and certificates not made out and certified exactly as the law directs — -these, if prejudicial to the government, are not causes for rescinding the grant. The government ought to suffer for the acts -of its officers, whom it appoints and trusts.”
If It be true that the issuance of the grant on the claim of defendant for land in John Armstrong’s ground without legislative direction, in the case in 5 Hayw.,
In Smith’s Lessee v. Winton, 1 Overt., 280, 3 Am. Dec., 755, it was held that, “in ejectment between adverse claimants of land, evidence is not admissible to show that the grant upon which the interest of one of the parties depends was obtained by fraud.”
In Curle v. Barrel, 2 Sneed, 63, it was said: “A person claiming title in virtue of a subsequent entry and grant, with notice of the prior grant which remains in force, has no such interest as will entitle him to litigate the right of the former grantee.” In this latter case the difference between a void grant- and one merely voidable, in so far as it affects the defensive rights of a younger grantee, is pointed out. It is there said that a void grant vests no title in the grantee, and,
In Berry v. Wagner, 13 Lea, 591, the general rule announced in the Smith Case and the Curie Case is again repeated, and is there distinctly recognized. That this rule is a wise one, in view of the authority and force which is attached to a grant from the State, we think is beyond question. If the State sees proper to condone a fraud perpetrated upon it by a party Avho secures a grant of its unappropriated lands, why should a younger grantee be permitted to make the question, especially if this younger grantee, as in the present case, had full notice, not only of the prior grant, but of all the circumstances under which it Avas issued? If the younger grantee will not be permitted to impeach the prior grant because of fraud in obtaining it, upon what sound ground can it be maintained that he can challenge it because of irregularity in the initial step, taken in securing that grant? We are
While there has been fluctuation in the decisions in tbis State as to the necessity of an entry in order to the obtaining of a grant, and cases are produced holding to such necessity (Crutchfield v. Hammock, 4 Humph., 203; Woodfolk’s Lessee v. Nall, 2 Sneed, 674), yet, as early as the case of Craig’s Lessee v. Vance, 1 Overt., 182, Judge Overton, equaled only, possibly, by Judge Haywood in a knowledge of the land laws of this State, and who had as much to do in giving form to our technical land law system as any one, either on or off the bench, said: “An entry is not indispensably necessary to the validity of a grant.” In later cases it has been held that neither entry nor survey is necessary to tire validity of a grant. Smith v. Buchannon’s Lessee, 2 Overt., 305; Disney v. Coal Creek M. & M. Co., 11 Lea, 613; Sampson’s Heirs v. Chester’s Heirs (Tenn. Sup.), 91 S. W., 43.
Independent, however, of these authorities, we are entirely satisfied that, in the face of all the presumptions that attached to complainant’s grant, the defendant will not be permitted in this action to inquire whether it was or not founded upon an entry made in the proper office. It seems to us irreconcilable with sound reason that a grant, issued by the highest officers of the State and authenticated by its great seal, should be made to depend for its validity upon the action of a subordinate, such as (possibly) an inefficient entry taker. In the
The grant in this case thoroughly identifies the land in controversy, but recites that it is situated in Lewis county. If it be true, as we have conceded it is, that this land is situated in Wayne county, then the grant falls directly within the saving terms of section 3, c. 91, p. 89, of the Acts of 1859-60, this section being embraced in section 3766 of Shannon’s Code.
Upon the whole case, we think there is no error in the decree of the chancellor; and it is affirmed.