United States v. Maxwellco

Citation7 S.Ct. 1015,121 U.S. 325,30 L.Ed. 949
Decision Date18 April 1887
Docket NumberLAND-GRANT
PartiesUNITED STATES v. MAXWELLCO. and others. 1
CourtUnited States Supreme Court

Asst. Atty. Gen. Maury and J. A. Bentley, for the united states.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 327-357 intentionally omitted]

Page 357

Frank Springer and Chas. E. Gast, for Maxwell Land-Grant Co.

MILLER, J.

The case before us is an appeal from the circuit court of the United States for the district of Colorado. The decree from which this appeal is taken dismissed a bill brought in that court by the United States against the Maxwell Land-Grant Company, the Denver & Rio Grande Railway Company, the Pueblo & Arkansas Valley Railroad Company, and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Company. It was brought by the attorney general of the United States, and its purpose was to have a decree setting aside and declaring void a patent from the United States granting to Charles Beaubien and Guadalupe Miranda, their heirs and assigns, a tract of land described in a very extensive survey, which is made a part of the patent. It is stated in the brief of the assistant attorney general in this court that the patent conveys 1,714,764.94 acres of land, lying partly in the territory of New Mexico and partly in the state of Colorado. This patent is dated May 19, 1879, and seems to be regular on its face in every particular. The bill to set this patent aside was filed in the Colorado circuit court on August 25, 1882, which was a little over three years after the patent was issued. By virtue of certain mesne conveyances, and other transactions not necessary to be recited here, it may be stated that the title conveyed by the patent to Beaubien and Miranda inured, immediately upon its being issued, to the benefit of the Maxwell Land-Grant Company, a corporation which has the beneficial interest in the grant, so far as appears in this record, and the contest is mainly, if not exclusively, between the United States and that company.

Page 358

The original bill filed in the case assailed the grant mainly upon the ground that the patent was issued by the executive department of the government upon the false representations of the defendant the Maxwell Land-Grant Company, and those whose estate the company has in the land, and of whose fraudulent actings and doings in the premises the company had notice at the time it acquired the title. This bill recites the original grant of January 10, 1841, by the republic of Mexico, which it declares was in due form of law, made to Beaubien and Miranda, citizens of said republic, and it gives the description of the land and its boundaries which is here the subject of controversy. The bill also declares that said grant, and the proceedings had in regard thereto, werei n due form of law, and in accordance with the usages and customs of that country, as more fully appeared by reference to the grant and act of possession, copies of which were annexed thereto, and that it was duly accepted by the grantees, who immediately thereupon entered into possession of the premises, and that they, and those holding under them, have ever since been in the quiet, peaceable, and exclusive possession thereof. The bill then declares that the surveyor general of the territory of New Mexico, under the act of 1854, made a report in favor of this grant; that on June 21, 1860, the congress of the United States confirmed and ratified it as recommended; and that the patent was afterwards issued upon a survey made by order of the government under the instructions of the surveyor general of New Mexico, approved by the commissioner of the general land-office, which patent is made an exhibit to the bill. This original bill then goes on to charge that the survey on which this patent was issued, was falsely and fraudulently made, and that the Maxwell Land-Grant Company, and certain parties who made this survey under a contract with the government, conspired to cheat and defraud the government of the United States by including a larger amount of land than was intended to be embraced by the original grant of the republic of Mexico; and it especially charged that about 265,000 acres, to-wit,

Page 359

all the lands lying and being in the county of Las Animas, in the state of Colorado, were fraudulently included in this survey, and were of the value of two millions of dollars. The main purpose of the bill, and the only specific prayer for relief, is that the survey may be declared void so far as it includes lands within the state of Colorado, though it concludes by praying for general relief.

It is quite obvious that the ground of relief set out in this bill is that the excess of 265,000, acres lying within the present state of Colorado was included within the survey by fraud, and that this fraud should be remedied. No attempt is made in the bill to assail the remainder of the grant, or to point out any reason why the patent should not be good for all the lands in New Mexico. After answers had been filed to this bill, and a large amount of testimony taken, there was filed, on the fifth day of December, 1883, an amended bill, which it is now insisted is substituted for the original bill. In this amended bill, for the first time, it is set up, as a ground for setting aside the patent and survey on which it was made, and having them declared void, that, under the laws of Mexico at the time it was made, no such grant could exceed 11 square leagues to each individual, and that by virtue of those laws, therefore, the grant to Beaubien and Miranda could not exceed 22 leagues, the equivalent of which is 97,424 acres. The bill then sets out with something more of particularity the errors supposed to exist in the survey on which the patent from the United States was based, and the frauds connected with that survey by which the officers of the government were imposed upon and induced to issue the patent. Much of the testimony, and perhaps most of it, was taken before this amendment was filed, and it is strongly insisted in the brief of the appellees that the reason for filing it was that the testimony taken in regard to the frauds, and in regard to the mistake of the officer of the govemment in running the boundaries of the grant, had failed to establish such fraud and mistake. Answers and replications were filed in due time, and a large amount of testimony taken, which, with the pleadings

Page 360

documents, and proceedings of the court, and other public bodies, constitute a printed record of nearly 900 pages.

The questions which are presented by this record, and which demand our consideration, may be divided into three: First. Do the colonization laws of Mexico, in force at the time the grant was made to Beaubien and Miranda, namely, the decree of the Mexican congresso f August 18, 1824, and the general rules and regulations for the colonization of the territories of the republic of Mexico of November 21, 1828, render this grant void, notwithstanding its confirmation by the congress of the United States? Second. If the grant be valid, is there such a mistake in the survey, on which the patent of the United States was issued, as justifies the court in setting aside both patent and survey? Third. Was there such actual fraud in procuring this survey to be made, and the patent to be issued upon it, as requires that the patent be set aside and annulled?

As regards the first of these propositions, it is undoubtedly true that the decree of the Mexican congress of 1824, in regard to grants of the public lands, declared, by article 12, that 'it shall not be permitted to unite, in the same hands, with the right of property, more than one league square of land suitable for irrigation, four square leagues in superficies of arable land without the facilities of irrigation, and six square leagues in superficies of grazing land.' It has been repeatedly decided by this court that it was the practice of the government of Mexico, under that article, to limit its grants of public lands in the territories to 11 square leagues for each individual.

But article 14 of the same decree speaks of 'the contracts which the empresarios make with the families which they bring, at their own expense, provided they are not contrary to the laws;' and article 7 of the rules and regulations of 1828 speaks of 'grants made to empresarios, for them to colonize with many families.' It is a well-known matter of Mexican history that, by reason of there being vast quantities of unoccupied and unprofitable public land owned by that government

Page 361

in its territories, contracts were made with individuals, called 'empresarios.' by which they were given very large bodies of land without any regard at all to the 11-league limitation, in consideration that they should bring emigrants into the country, and settle them upon these lands, with a view of increasing the population, and securing the protection thus afforded against the wild Indian tribes on the Mexican borders.

There are many things in the history of this grant to Beaubien and Miranda which would seem to indicate that it was understood by the Mexican authorities to be a grant of the class just described. In the petition of Beaubien and Miranda to Gov. Armijo, on which the grant was founded, dated January 8, 1841, there is a very animated description of the condition of the territory of New Mexico, and its natural advantages, which were undeveloped for want of an industrious population. It also contains a description of the land, by its boundaries, which was granted by the governor in compliance with this petition; and as this description and its ture construction is the foundation of the controversy in this suit with regard to the accuracy of the surveys, it is given here: 'The tract of land we petition for to be divided equally between us commences below the junction of the Rayado river with the Colorado, and in a direct line towards the east to the first hills, and from there running parallel with...

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