13 Cal. 373 | Cal. | 1859
Terry, C. J. and Baldwin, J. concurring.
This is an action of ejectment, for the recovery of a tract of land situated in the valley of Suisun, in the county of Solano. Both parties claim title under grants of the Mexican Governor of California, Juan B. Alvarado — the plaintiff under a grant issued to the Indian Chief, Francisco Solano, on the twenty-first of January, 1842, and the defendant under a grant issued to José Francisco Armijo, on the fourth of March, 1840. The grant to Solano is of land known by the name of Suisun, and covers four square leagues, within exterior limits embracing about eight leagues. The grant to Armijo is of land known as Tolenas, and covers three leagues, within limits embracing from twelve to twenty leagues. The maps referred to in both grants cover the land in controversy. The grant to Solano was presented to the Board of Land Commissioners for confirmation by Archibald A. Ritchie, who had become, by purchase, interested in the land granted; and the same was confirmed to him by the Boai’d in January, 1853, and subsequently by the United States District Court, in Eovember, 1853, and the decree of confirmation was affirmed on appeal by the Supremo Court of the United States, at its December Term, 1854. In July of the following
Both grantees resided within the limits of their respective grants, and it is insisted bv the counsel of the defendant that the evidence establishes the fact that Armijo occupied and claimed three leagues of his tract, marked by metes and bounds, and that such occupation and claim ojierated as a segregation of that specific quantity, and the grantee’s right thereto could not be impaired by the subsequent grant to Solano, and the patent thereon to Ritchie.
We shall pass over any consideration of the question as to the application of the doctrine of relation, in virtue of which the plaintiffs contend that the grant to Solano, though subsequent in date to that to Armijo, relates back to the provisional decree of Vallejo, made in January, 1837, as immaterial to the determination of the case. ' We shall assume, also, for the purposes of the appeal, that Armijo occupied and claimed from the entire quantity comprehended within the map referred to in his grant, three specific leagues, and that these covered the land for the recoveiy of which the present suit is brought. We propose to place our decision upon grounds which will settle the controversy in the present case, and serve as a rule in controversies of a similar character; and for that purpose we shall disregard the minor points presented by the record, and confine ourselves principally to the questions which properly and necessarily arise from the claim asserted by the defendant, that the occupation and possession by Armijo, under his grant'of three leagues, by designa
The grants to Solano and Armijo both purport to convey the land designated therein—limiting its extent in the first case to four, in the other to three, leagues. Both are subject to similar conditions, with the exception of one peculiar to the grant to Armijo, against the molestation of the Indians there located and his immediate neighbors. Both provide for the free and exclusive enjoyment of the land by the grantees, and for such use and cultivation of it as they may think proper. Both require juridical possession to be given by a public officer of the vicinity, by whom the boundaries are to be designated. Both reserve any surplus over the quantity specified to the uses of the nation. Both are made liable to denouncement for failure to comply with their conditions, and both are subject to the approval of the .Departmental Assembly. The grant to Solano received such approval—the one to Armijo did not; but this fact does not impair the title which passed to the latter. The effect of the approval was only to discharge the grant to Solano from liability to defeasance by the Mexican Government, except for breach of its conditions subsequent. Both of the grantees acquired rights of property, which were not impaired at the date of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and were protected by the guaranties of that instrument, and there is no law which authorized a forfeiture for any act or omission since. (Opinion of U. S. Supreme Court in the Sutter Case.)
The grants in question are similar in the title they convey to the one issued to Sutter, which was the subject of consideration in
“ That he may inclose it without prejudice to the crossings, roads, and servitudes, and enjoy it freely and exclusively; making such use and cultivation of it as he may see fit, but within one year he shall build a house, and it shall be inhabited/'’ The second condition in the grant to Armijo is substantially the same; so were the second condition in the grant to Alvarado, (Fremont v. United States, 17 How. 545); the third condition in the grant to Reading, (Reading v. United States, 18 How. 2); and the first condition in the grant to Jimeno, (United States v. Larkin, 18 How. 559). Indeed, the same condition, substantially, was contained in all the colonization grants issued to individuals by the Mexican Government of California. Whilst it required the construction of a house, it conferred a right of entry upon the land, without which the requirement would have been incapable of fulfillment. Whilst it enforced the inhabitation of the house when constructed, it gave a right to the possession, use, and enjoyment, of the land, without which the inhabitation would have boon of little benefit to the grantee, and the policy of the government in the settlement of the country would have been entirely frustrated.
But though the grants passed a right of possession to the land, they conferred only a vested interest in the specific quantity designated, to be afterwards measured and laid off by the officers of the government. The conditions required a juridical posses sion to be given by the magistrate of the vicinage, who was to
The right to make the measurement and to give the juridical possession remained with the government, and could only be exercised by its officers. That right, like all other public rights, passed, with the transfer of the territory, to the government of the United States, and is now to be exercised in accordance with its laws. The estate, which vested in the grantees upon the execution of the grants, remains unaffected by the change of government j but the survey and measurement are to bo made—not in accordance with the laws of the old government, which were abrogated with its authority, but in accordance with the policy and laws of the new government. The right to survey and segregate the specific number of leagues granted to Solano and Armijo, respectively, under the legislation of Congress, belongs to the Executive Department, and cannot be exercised by the Courts of Justice. The Courts can ascertain and fix the position of boundaries which arc designated, but they cannot give boundaries to a specific quantity which has none and lies in a larger tract. To give precision and location to such specific quantity a survey by the department is essential. The authorities to this effect are numerous and decisive. In Stanford v. Taylor, (18
“ But where the claim has no certain limits, and the judgment of confirmation carries along with it the condition that the land shall be surveyed and severed from the public domain and the lands of others, then it is not open to controversy that the title attaches to no land; nor has a Court of Justice any authority in law to ascertain and establish its boundaries, this being reserved to the Executive Department. The case of West v. Cochran, (17 How. 403,) need only be referred to as settling this point. And the question here is, whether the concession to Perry (the confirmee) is indefinite and vague, and subject to be located at different places.” And, after considering the description, the Court concluded that the uncertainty of the outboundary was
In Ledoux v. Black, (18 How. 475,) the Court, in speaking of the Act of Congress of 1820, confirming the plaintiff’s claim, held that the Act did not tend to locate the claim and sever the land from the public domain, and that that could only be done by a public survey.
In Willot v. Sanford, (19 How. 81,) the defendants derived title under one Disonet, whose claim was confirmed by Act of Congress, in 1816. The land was surveyed in 1817, by authority of the United States, and a patent was issued in 1850. There was a conflict between this survey and the survey of the claim upon which the plaintiff relied. The Circuit Court instructed the jury that the sui’vey and patent under which the defendant claimed were not conclusive evidence that the land they embraced was correctly located and surveyed according to the confirmation ; and if they believed that the land sued for was not within the confirmation of the legal representatives of Disonet, although it might be within the survey and patent, then the survey and patent would not protect the defendants; but the Supreme Court held that Courts of Justice had no authority to disregard surveys and patents when dealing with them in actions of ejectment, and reversed the judgment of the Court below. (See, also, Bissell v. Penrose, 8 How. 317; West v. Cochran, 17 Id. 413 ; Cooper v. Roberts, 18 Id. 173; Bryan v. Forsyth, 19 Id. 334; Balance v. Papin, 19 Id. 343.)
The matter of surveys of floating grants belongs, then, to the Executive Department of government, under the legislation of Congress on the subject of the public lands. With such surveys the Courts of Justice have nothing to do. Whether in justice to the claimants the location should have been different from the official survey is none of their concern. That belongs to a department of government whose action is not subject to review by the Judiciary. The Courts, it is true, must determine whether prior rights of third parties have been interfered with by such survey and the patent following thereon, but they cannot correct the survey or patent and locate the land where, in their opinion, it ought originally to have been made.
The case of Fremont v. The United States, (17 How. 542,) is in
The Court, in the Fremont case, observes, in reference to this case of Rutherford v. Greene’s Heirs, that “it recognizes as a general principle of justice and municipal law, that such a grant, for a certain quantity of land by the government, to be afterwards surveyed and laid off within a certain territory, vests in the grantee a present and immediate interest. In the language of the Court, the general gift becomes a particular gift, when the
The authorities cited are conclusive of the questions we have been considering. Following them, we must hold that the grants to Solano and Armijo, passed a present and immediate interest in the quanta of land specificalty designated in their respective grants, to be afterwards surve3Ted and laid off within the exterior limits of the. general tracts by the government; that such survey could only be made under the former government, by its officers, and could not be made by the grantees themselves; that the right of survey passed, with other public rights, to the government of the United States, and is to be exercised in pursuance of its policy, and in conformity with its laws; that by its legislation, the subject of surveys is intrusted to the Executive Department; that the location of confirmed grants, when the quantity granted is without specific boundaries, lying within a larger tract, rests exclusively with such department, and cannot be reviewed or corrected by the Judiciary, but is binding and conclusive upon it in actions of ejectment, except only, when the patent issued thereon conflicts with prior rights of third parties, and then its inconelusiveness is maintained only so far as may be necessary for the protection of such prior rights.
In United States v. Hanson, (16 Peters, 199,) a private survey was considered and rejected, as being of no force or validity. In United States v. King, (3 How. 785,) the Court rejected a survey made by the officer of the government after his authority had ceased. In Les Bois v. Bramell, (4 How. 457,) in speaking of a survey of one Mackay, the Court said it “ was a private one, made at the instance of the inhabitants of St. Louis, and was not binding on the rights of any one;” and in Mackay v. Dillon, (4 How. 447,) of the same survey: “It was in its nature a private survey, not binding on the United States.” In Glenn v. The United States, (13 How. 256,) in referring to surveys offered in evidence, the Court said: “The surveys produced to us are private ones, and of no value in support of the claim.”
The location of the specific quantity may be made by a survey of such quantity, or by grants with specific boundaries of such
To the same effect is the language of the Supreme Court of Louisiana, in Lott v. Prudhomme, (3 Rob. 293,) cited in the opinion rendered in Ledoux v. Black, by the Supreme Court of the United States.' “We then held,” referring to the previous adjudication, “ that when the boundaries of a confirmed claim are vague and uncertain, and are to bo fixed by the operations of the survejdng department, or such confirmation is only the recognition of a pre-existing right or claim, and before the survey and location the government sells a part of the land not necessarily embraced within the tract confirmed, the» title of the purchaser will prevail.”
This view disposes of the questions raised upon the award between Vallejo, the vendor of Ritchie, and Armijo, made in August, 1847. We are of opinion that the correct construction of the award makes the ridge and not the stream the dividing line between the two claims; but if we admit, for the purposes of the argument, that Suisun Crook was intended by the parties, it is difficult to perceive how this fact can avail the defense. Until the action of the government, whilst the claimants rested only on their grants, the award would have been conclusive in any controversies between them. But the government having wisely, or otherwise, issued a patent to Ritchie of a portion of the land
The limitation of quantity was a controlling condition of the grants in question, and the delivery of juridical possession was an essential ceremony, under the government of Mexico, to perfect the title of the grantees to tho specific quantity designated. This was expressly held in tho case of The United States v. Fossat, (20 How. 426.) Until such possession, which was accompanied by a survey, the title of the parties attached to no definite portion of the tract. There is no evidence in the record that such juridical possession was given under the former government to either Solano or Armijo, although in the opinion of. the Supreme Court of the United States, in tho Ritchie Gase, (17 How. 537,) it is said that the grantee, Solano, was put in juridical possession in conformity with the conditions of his grant. If this were tho fact, it docs not appear in the transcript before ns, and the rights of the parties are treated as though no such fact existed. The right, then, which the Mexican Government reserved to itself to control the location, having passed to the government of the United States, the duty to exercise such right devolved upon the latter. This duty was discharged by the survey following tho final confirmation, and from that time the title of the parties claiming under Solano became perfect. On the other hand, the title under the grant to Armijo, did not attach to any three specific leagues; it constituted only an interest in such quantity, to be afterwards laid off by competent authority. Such general interest—not attached to the land in controversy, but, by the action of the officers of government, excluded from it—cannot be set up as a defense to the claim of
The third persons against whose interests by the 15th Section of the Act of 1851, the final confirmation and patent are not conclusive, are those whose title is at the time such as to enable them to resist successfully, any action of the government in respect to it. Parties holding claims which may be located without the boundaries of the patent, and still within the limits of the general tract designated in the grants to them, do not constitute such third persons, nor do parties who hold claims only upon the bounty of the government, nor do intruders, nor even settlers, having certificates of sale, unless the same ante-date the presentation of the claim of the patentee to the Board of Land Commissioners for California, to which period the patent takes effect by relation. The interests of the third persons, intended by the Act, would have been as effectually protected without its provisions, as they are now by them. The section in question is only a legislative recognition of a principle of law and justice, applicable to all grants.
From the conclusions to which we have arrived, after the most mature consideration, it is clear that the plaintiffs were entitled to recover upon the facts conceded by the record, and
3. “The location of land granted by the Mexican nation, in pursuance of the colonization law of Mexico of 1824, and the regulations of 1828, belonged to, and was to be made by, such government; and whenever such location was not made under the Mexican Government, the right to make it passed to the United States, under the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.”
6. “That in an action of ejectment by the person or persons entitled under a patent of the United States, against one in possession of any portion of such land, adverse to such patent, and the title whereon the same is predicated, and claiming to hold under a Mexican grant which was not surveyed or located by metes and bounds, or juridical possession under the Mexican Government, the defendant so claiming to hold adversely, as above mentioned, cannot interpose such unlocated grant, as a title jjaramount for the land described in said patent.”
7. “That the patent in evidence by plaintiffs is conclusive as against the defendant, unless there is evidence that the defendant has a title superior to the title by said patent to the land in controversy, under a confirmed Spanish or Mexican grant, located under the Mexican Government, or under the United States Government.”
8. “ That if the jury believe, from the evidence, that the Sui-sun grant and Tolenas grant lie contiguous to and adjoining
9. “The grant to Armijo does not invest him, or those claiming under him, with a title to any specific three leagues of land. If it is a grant of three leagues within a much larger area, then it is, in legal effect, a grant of land uncertain in its location, to be afterwards surveyed off to him by the government; and until such a survey on the part of the government, designating the three leagues of land granted to Armijo, he, or those claiming under him, have no right or interest which can be alleged in resistance to the right vested in Ritchie, or those claiming under him, by the patent to Ritchie, and this is true, although the land in controversy in this action is embraced within the exterior limits of the larger area, within which the three leagues granted to Armijo are to be located.”
It is unnecessary to consider .any other of the instructions given or refused, or points made by the Appellants. The judgment must be reversed, and the cause remanded for a new trial.
Ordered accordingly.