Downs, Ex v. Hubbard

• Decision Date: 31 October 1887
• Citation: 8 S.Ct. 85,123 U.S. 189,31 L.Ed. 114
• Parties: DOWNS, EX'r, etc., v. HUBBARD, Adm'r, etc
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

8 S.Ct. 85

123 U.S. 189

31 L.Ed. 114

DOWNS, EX'r, etc., v. HUBBARD, Adm'r, etc.

October 31, 1887.

Under the treaty with Mexico of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Cornelio Vigil and Ceran St. Vrain claimed title, under a Mexican grant made in 1843, to a large tract of land embraced within the Huerfano, Pisipa, and Cucharos rivers to their junction with the Arkansas and Animas, known as the 'Las Animas Grant,' and supposed to cover and include about 922 square leagues, lying in the territory of New Mexico, but within the limits of the present state of Colorado, and equivalent to 4,000,000 of acres.

By the act to confirm certain private land claims in the territory of New Mexico, approved June 21, 1860, (12 St. 71,) congress confirmed the claim of Vigil and St. Vrain, but only to the extent of 11 square leagues to each of said claimants. By the second section of that act it was provided 'that, in surveying the claims of said Cornelio Vigil and Cerap St. Vrain, the location shall be made as follows, namely: The survey shall first be made of all tracts occupied by actual settlers holding possession under titles or promises to settle, which have heretofore been given by said Vigil and St. Vrain, in the tracts claimed by them; and, after deducting the area of all such tracts from the area embraced in twenty-two square leagues, the remainder shall be located in two equal tracts, each of square form, in any part of the tract claimed by the said Vigil and St. Vrain selected by them; and it shall be the duty of the surveyor general of New Mexico immediately to proceed to make the surveys and locations authorized and required by the terms of this section.' The fourth section of the act provides 'that the foregoing confirmation shall only be construed as quitclaims or relinquishments on the part of the United States, and shall not affect the adverse rights of any other person or persons whomsoever.' This statute was amended by the act of February 25, 1869, (15 St. 275, 440,) as follows:

'Chapter 47 An act to amend an act entitled 'An act to confirm certain private land claims in the territory of New Mexico.'

'Be it enacted by the senate and house of representatives of the United States of America in congress assembled that the exterior lines of the Cornelio Vigil and Ceran St. Vrain claims of eleven leagues each, subject to claims derived from said parties as confirmed by the act of congress approved twenty-first June, 1860, United States Statutes, volume twelve, page seventy-one, shall be adjusted according to the lines of the public surveys, as nearly as practicable, with the limits of said claims, yet in as compact f form as possible; and the claims of all actual settlers upon the tracts heretofore claimed by the said Vigil and St. Vrain, holding possession under titles or promises to settle, which have been made by said Vigil and St. Vrain, or their legal representatives, prior to the passage of this act, who may establish their claims within one year from the passage of this act, to the satisfaction of the register and receiver of the proper and district, shall in like manner be adjusted according to the subdivisional lines of survey, so as to include the lands so settled upon or purchased, and the areas of the same shall be deducted and excluded from the adjusted limits of the claims of said Vigil and St. Vrain, respectively; and the claims of all other actual settlers falling within the limits of the located claims of Vigil and St. Vrain shall be adjusted to the extent which shall embrace their several settlements upon their several claims being established either as pre-emption or homesteads, according to law; and for the aggregate of the areas of the latter class of claims the said Vigil and St. Vrain, or their legal representatives, shall be entitled to locate a like quantity of public lands, not mineral, according to the lines of the public surveys, and not to exceed one hundred and sixty acres in one section.

'Sec. 2. And be it further enacted that it shall be the duty of the general land-office to cause the lines of the public surveys to be run in the regions where a proper location would place the said Vigil and St. Vrain claims, and that the expense of the same shall be paid out of any moneys in the treasury not otherwise appropriated; yet, before the confirmation of the said act of June 21, 1860, shall become legally effective, the said Vigil and St. Vrain, or their legal representatives, shall pay the cost of so much of said surveys as inures to their benefit, respectively, and that all settlers of the said third class, whose claims may be adjusted as valid, shall have the right to enter their improvements by a strict compliance with the pre-emption or homestead laws.

'Sec. 3. And be it further enacted that, upon the adjustment of the Vigil and St. Vrain claims according to the provisions of this act, it shall be the duty of the surveyor general of the district to furnish proper approved plats to said claimants, or their legal representatives, and so in like manner to said derivative claimants, which shall be evidence of title, the same to be done according to such instructions as may be given by the commissioner of the general land-office.

'Sec. 4. And be it further enacted that, immediately upon running the lines as provided in section second of this act, the surveyor general of said district shall notify the said Vigil and St. Vrain, or their agents or legal representatives, of the fact of such survey being made, and said claimants shall, within three months after notice of such survey, select and locate their said claims in accordance with such survey, and the provisions of this act, and of the act to which this is amendatory, so far as the same is not changed by this act, and shall within said time furnish the surveyor general with the description of such location, specifying the lines of the same. And the parties failing to make such selection and location in such manner and within such time shall be deemed and held to have abandoned their claim, and their rights and equities under this act, and the act to which this is amendatory shall cease and terminate.

'Sec. 5. And be it further enacted that in case of the neglect or refusal of the said Vigil and St. Vrain, or either of them, to accept of the provisions of this act, and the act to which this is amendatory, and to locate their said claims, as provided therein, no suit shall be brought or proceedings insti- tuted in any of the courts of the United States by such party, or by any one claiming through or under them, to establish or enforce said claims, or for any cause of action founded upon the same, after six months from the passage of this act.'

The time fixed by section 1 of the last-recited act for establishing the derivative claims was extended by a joint resolution of April 28, 1870, (16 St. 373, 663,) by which it was directed that the act should be so construed 'as to authorize the presentation of such derivative claims within one year from the completion and approval of the subdivisional surveys contemplated by said act of twenty-fifth February, 1869.'

In pursuance of the act of February 25, 1869, and within the time limited by the joint resolution of April 28, 1870, there were presented to Irving W. Stanton and Charles A. Cook, the register and receiver at Pueblo, Colorado, claims on behalf of about 39 derivative claimants to lands within the limits of the Las Animas grant, covering in all more than 183,553.85 acres. Among them was the claim of William Craig for 127,000 acres, and that of Thomas Leitensdorfer for about 16,000 acres, which were filed on the twenty-third of October, 1872. The register and receiver acted upon all the claims, rejecting that of Leitensdorfer and 22 others amounting to more than 85,939.32 acres. They decided favorably, in whole or in part, on 13 claims. To 12 of these claimants they allowed 24,362.98 acres; the remaining 73,251.55 acres were awarded to Craig. The decisions of these officers upon these claims bear date February 23, 1874, and were immediately reported to the general land-office. Nineteen of the claimants whose claims had been rejected, and among them Leitensdorfer, appealed from the decisions in favor of Craig, and against themselves, respectively. The commissioner of the general land-office entertained the appeals so far as to decide that an appeal would lie in such cases, and from that decision Craig appealed from the commissioner of the general land-office to the secretary of the interior. This appeal was entertained, and the secretary of the interior rendered a decision sustaining the authority of the commissioner of the gen- eral land-office to entertain and determine the appeals from the register and receiver. About the twenty-fifth or May, 1875, Craig applied to the president for an order directing that the surveyor general of Colorado be required to issue a plat of the survey of the land awarded to Craig by the decision of the register and receiver. Being advised by the attorney general, to whom the matter was referred, that, under the terms of the acts of congress relating to the subject, the decisions of the register and receiver were final, from which no appeal would lie to the commissioner, (15 Op. Atty. Gen. 94,) the president, on March 2, 1877, made an order directing the commissioner of the general land-office to instruct the surveyor general of Colorado to deliver to Craig an approved plat of the land adjudged to him by the register and receiver of the Pueblo land-district, in the state of Colorado, dated February 23, 1874. The commissioner of the general land-office on March 7, 1877, instructed the surveyor general of Colorado to prepare a plat of the lands specified and awarded by the register and receiver to Craig.

Before that plat was delivered, Leitensdorfer, on May 4, 1877, filed his bill in equity in the circuit court of the United States for the district of Colorado,...