United States v. San Jacinto Tin Co

• Decision Date: 19 March 1888
• Citation: 125 U.S. 273,31 L.Ed. 747,8 S.Ct. 850
• Parties: UNITED STATES v. SAN JACINTO TIN CO. et al. 1
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

125 U.S. 273

8 S.Ct. 850

31 L.Ed. 747

UNITED STATES v. SAN JACINTO TIN CO. et al.¹

March 19, 1888.

G. Wiley Wells and Sol. Gen. Jenks, for appellant.

Wm. M. Stewart, for appellees.

MILLER, J.

The suit in this case, which was a bill in chancery filed April 10, 1883, in the circuit court for the district of California, purports to be brought by the attorney general on behalf of the United States against the San Jacinto Tin Company, the Riverside Canal Company, and the Riverside Land & Irrigating Company. These corporations are alleged to be in possession of a large body of land, nearly 11 square leagues in extent, for which a patent was issued by the United States on the 26th day of October, 1867, to Maria del Rosario Estudillo de Aguirre, and her heirs and assigns. The object of the bill is to set aside this patent, and have it declared void upon the ground that the land described in the survey, which description is a part of the patent, is not the land granted by the Mexican government to said Maria, nor that which was confirmed to her under the proceedings before the land commission, and by the judgment of the district court of the United States, and by this court also on appeal. The essential feature of the grievance relied on by the complainant is that this survey was thus located by fraud to include different and more valuable land than that granted by Mexico, and confirmed by the courts, and on account of this fraud it is prayed that the survey and patent be set aside and annulled Perhaps the nature of this proceeding cannot be better stated than in the language that heads the brief or printed argument of the appellant, who was plaintiff below. It is as follows: 'This brief is intended to establish the following general proposition, viz.: That the lands hereinafter described as patented to Maria del Rosario de Aguirre, and her heirs and assigns, on the 26th day of October, 1867, were obtained from the United States by a fraudulent survey of the lands described therein in violation of the decree of the court; and that the persons engaged in said fraudulent survey were the beneficiaries thereof; and that, by reason thereof, said patent to the same is void, and should be set aside, vacated, and annulled.' The case was heard in the circuit court on the bill, answer, replication, and voluminous testimony, by the circuit and district judges sitting together, who concurred in the decree dismissing the bill. The bill sets out a grant to one Maria del Rosario Estudillo de Aguirre of the surplus or 'sobrante' of the ranchos of San Jacinto Viejo y Nuevo, or the overplus which remains in the ranchos of Old and New San Jacinto; the survey thereof to commence from the boundaries of Don Jose Antonio Estudillo and Don Miguel Pedrorena. It alleges that this grant was afterwards confirmed by the district court of California on appeal from the land commission. Upon an appeal taken from that court to the supreme court of the United States, its judgment was affirmed. The decision of the land commission was to the effect that the claimant was entitled to five square leagues of land within this sobrante or surplus. The district court, however, held that the claimant was entitled to eleven square leagues, if so much should be found within the sobrante, and to all that was found therein if it were less than that amount. The language of this decree, as set forth in the body of the bill, and affirmed by the supreme court of the United States at its December term, 1863, (U. S. v. D'Aguirre, 1 Wall. 311,) describes the land confirmed as 'the sobrante or surplus lands remaining within the boundaries of the tract of land called 'San Jacinto,' as the same are represented and described in the map of said tract contained in the expediente of Miguel Pedrorena filed in this case, and referred to in the grant, over and above certain lands granted to Jose Antonio Estudillo, and certain other lands granted to Miguel Pedrorena, within the aforesaid boundaries, to the extent of eleven square leagues of land; and, if said sobrante or surplus within said boundaries should be less than eleven square leagues, then such less quantity.' The bill alleges that the location by survey of the lands confirmed by this decree was not at all within the sobrante of the San Jacinto grant, but that it was located upon other lands than those on which it should have been, because those which were embraced by the survey were valuable as containing ores of tin; and that nearly all the officers engaged in making or establishing it, from and including the commissioner of the general land-office down to the deputy-surveyors, were interested in the claim at the time.

It is alleged that throughout the whole transaction, from the beginning of the effort to have this survey made until its final completion and the issue of the patent, all the proceedings were dictated by fraud, and all the officers of the government below the secretary of the interior who had anything to do with it were parties to that fraud, and to be benefited by it. The principal points upon which this fraud is said to rest are that the land survey was not within the larger exterior boundaries out of which the sobrantc of San Jacinto Viejo y Nuevo was to be taken, but that said survey described a tract of land of about the same extent, to-wit, of about eleven square leagues, situated more than six miles at the nearest point, and more than twenty miles at the furthest point, awa from the land in fact granted and conceded by Pio Pico, governor, to the grantee; that the survey of said land was never made in the field, nor from any actual measurements of distances or observation or determination of courses in the field, as the law of the land department required, nor according to the directions of the decree confirming said grant; that the plat and survey were made arbitrarily, and without any actual data in the office of the surveyor-general of the United States for California, under the direction and dictation of that officer and one Edward Conway, then chief clerk in charge of that office, and performing the duties of surveyor general, and by one George H. Thompson, a deputy-surveyor acting under the surveyor general and the chief clerk; that it was so made up without any reference to the expediente that accompanied the grant or juridical possession given at the time of the grant, or to the decree, but that it was made solely with reference to securing, surreptitiously and fraudulently, letters patent for the land included and described within the said survey and plat, although the same lies outside of the boundaries of the tract called 'San Jacinto;' that the land so surveyed and platted was at that time supposed by said surveyor general and Edward Conway to contain, and did in fact contain, valuable lodes of tin and other mineral ores, and that all this was well known to the defendant, or to persons composing its stockholders, at the time the patent was issued. It is further alleged that Upson, the surveyor general, Conway, the chief clerk in his office, and Thompson, the deputy who was directed to make the survey and did make the plat, and Joseph H. Wilson, the commissioner of the general land-office at Washington, were all interested in and part owners of the claim at the time this survey was made, and at the very time they acted in reference to its final confirmation. Other persons are also said to be inclupated in this fraudulent proceeding, whose names it is not necessary at present to mention.

It will thus be seen that the entire foundation for the relief sought in this case rests upon a fraud alleged to have been committed upon the government by its own officers, they being interested in the claim to be surveyed and patented. There is no pretense of any mere mistake in the matter, but, on the contrary, it is asserted that the parties knew exactly what they were doing, and that it was intended to cheat the United States out of valuable mineral ores for the benefit and advantage of those parties and their confederates. The issue is thus narrowed exclusively to the question of fraud.

Another question, however, is raised by counsel for the defendant, which is earnestly insisted upon by them, and which received the serious consideration of the judges in the circuit court; namely, the right of the attorney general of the United States to institute this suit. The question as presented is one surrounded by some embarrassment; but as it is, in some form or other, of frequent recurrence recently, and, if decided in favor of the appellees, will require the dismissal of the case without a judgment by this court upon its merits, we feel called upon to give the matter our attention. It is denied that the attorney general has any general authority under the constitution and laws of the United States to commence a suit in the name of the United States to set aside a patent, or other solemn instrument issued by proper authority. It is quite true that the Revised Statutes, in the title which establishes and regulates the department of justice, simply declares, in section 346, that 'there shall be at the seat of government an executive department, to be known as the 'Department of Justice,' and an attorney general, who shall be the head thereof.' There is no very specific statement of the general duties of the attorney general, but it is seen from the whole chapter referred to that he has the authority, and it is made his duty, to supervise the cod uct of all suits brought by or against the United States, and to give advice to the president and the heads of the other departments of the government. There is no express authority vested in him to authorize suits to be brought against the debtors of the government or upon bonds, or to begin criminal prosecutions, or to institute proceedings in any of the numerous cases in which the United States is plaintiff; and yet he is invested with the general...