Interstate Land Co v. Maxwell Land Grant Co

• Decision Date: 06 April 1891
• Citation: 35 L.Ed. 278,139 U.S. 569,11 S.Ct. 656
• Parties: INTERSTATE LAND CO. v. MAXWELL LAND GRANT CO
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

139 U.S. 569

11 S.Ct. 656

35 L.Ed. 278

INTERSTATE LAND CO. v. MAXWELL LAND GRANT CO.

April 6, 1891.

Am. Warner and Alex. Graves, for appellant.

Frank Springer, for appellee.

LAMAR, J.

This is a suit in equity, brought by the Interstate Land Company, a Colorado corporation, against the Maxwell Land Grant Company, a corporation organized under the laws of the kingdom of the Netherlands, and doing business in Colorado, pursuant to the laws of that state, to establish its title to a large tract of land in Las Animas county, Colo., for which the defendant has a United States patent, and to restrain the defendant from prosecuting certain suits in ejectment against various parties who are tenants of the plaintiff. A demurrer to the original bill was sustained by the court below presided over by Mr. Justice BREWER, then circuit judge, his opinion being reported in 41 Fed. Rep. 275. The plaintiff then amended its bill in some particulars, and the defendant again demurred. The demurrer was sustained, and the plaintiff declining to further amend, the bill was dismissed. From that decree an appeal was prosecuted to this court. The case, as made by the pleadings on the demurrer, is as follows: The lands in dispute are part of the tract embraced in the patent to Charles Beaubien and Guadalupe Miranda, dated May 19, 1879, for what is known as the 'Maxwell Land Grant,' in New Mexico and Colorado, the validity of which was assailed by the United States in the Maxwell Land Grant Case, 121 U.S. 325, 7 Sup. Ct. Rep. 1015, and same case on petition for rehearing, 122 U.S. 365, 7 Sup. Ct. Rep. 1271. In that case it was held, among other things, after elaborate argument of counsel, and upon a most thorough and careful examination by the court of all the points involved, that the grant by the republic of Mexico, in 1841, to Beaubien and Miranda, as confirmed by the act of congress of June 21, 1860, the title of which had passed to the Maxwell Land Grant Company (the defendant in this case) by various mesne conveyances, was a valid grant; and that the survey and the patent issued upon it, as well as the original grant, were entirely ree from any fraud on the part of the grantees or those claiming under them. The decision of the court in that case is not now assailed; but the contention is, substantially, that the confirmation and patenting of the grant to Beaubien and Miranda operated merely as a quitclaim of the United States to whatever rights of property the government acquired from Mexico by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and did not, in any manner, affect claims to the same land derived from the republic of Mexico, which antedated the original grant to Beaubien and Miranda. The claim of the plaintiff here rests upon an alleged empresario grant to John Charles Beales and Jos e Manuel Royuela, in 1832, by the government of Coahuila and Texas, then two Mexican states under one provincial administration. Whatever rights to the lands in dispute were acquired by the original empresarios, or colonizing contractors, have passsed to the plaintiff under various mesne conveyances. The petition of the empresarios and the acceptance of their proposition by the Mexican authorities, which together constitute the basis of plaintiff's claim, are as follows:

'Petition and grants to Jose Manuel Royuela and John Charles Beales for the years one thousand eight hundred and thirty-two and thirty-three. To his excellency the governor of the state of Coahuila and Texas—Sir: The citizen Jos e Manuel Royuela, a native of Saltillo and there married, and John Charles Beales, a native of England, settled in Mexico, and there married to a Mexican subject, having children, with all due respect represent to your excellency that, being very desirous of augmenting the population, wealth, and power of the Mexican nation, and at the same time of affording to a certain number of virtuous and industrious families the means of acquiring an honorable subsistence by cultivating a tract of land in the ancient province of Texas, and being, moreover, acquainted in full with the law of colonization passed by the honorable legislature of this state on the twenty-fourth of March, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-five, by which 'empresarios' or colonizing contractors are allowed to undertake to colonize under the conditions and stipulations by said law prescribed, and being anxious to from an establishment that may be useful to a new colony and at the same time beneficial to the state on account of the advantages to accrue thereout, we pray your excellency to accept us as such 'empresarios' or colonizing contractors, and to permit us to introduce into this state, within the time that may be stipulated, two hundred Catholic families, of moral and industrious habits, and for the object your excellency will be pleased to grant us the tract of land included within the following limits, viz.: Begin- ning at a land-mark set up on a spot whereat the thirty-second degree of north latitude is crossed by the meridian of the hundred and second degree of longitude west from London, said spot being at the south-west corner of the grant petitioned for by Col. Reuben Ross; from thence proceeding west along the parallel of the thirty-second degree of latitude as far as the eastern boundary of New Mexico; from thence running north on the boundary line between the provinces of Coahuila and Texas and New Mexico as far as twenty leagues of the river Arkansas; from thence east to the meridian of the hundred and second degree of longitude, which is the western boundary of the grant petitioned for by said Col. Reuben Ross, and from thence proceeding south as far as the place of beginning. Your petitioners, as 'empresarios,' pray for this grant on the same conditions that it was formerly given to the late Stephen Julian Wilson, whose term of six years is about to expire, on the twenty-sixth of May in this year, without the conditions of the grant having been fulfilled in consequence of the grantee. Besides the conditions which are required by the colonization law of the state, the empresarios and their settlersagr ee to observe the constitution of the Mexican nation, and the private constitution of this state, as well as the general and local laws that have been or shall be hereafter promulgated. They further bind themselves to comply with the conditions on which this petition is granted, and to take up arms in defense of the rights of the nation against the savage Indians or any other enemies that may attack the country, or in any manner to alter its form of government or to disturb the public tranquillity; and, finally, to prevent the inhabitants of the United States of North America from trading with the said Indians, and providing them with arms and ammunition in exchange for horses and mules. Wherefore we pray your excellency to be pleased to grant this respectful petition, which we shall consider as a favor conferred on us. Dated at Saltillo, the thirteenth of March, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-tow. [Signed] JOS E MANUEL ROYUELA. JOHN CHARLES BEALES.

'Conditions of the grant: Terms on which the supreme government of the state accepts the proposal of the citizens Jos e Manuel Royuela and John Charles Beales for colonizing certain land with two hundred foreign families, such as are not excepted by the law of the sixtl of April, one thousand eight hundred and thirty: Article 1. The government accepts the proposal made in the foregoing petition, as far as it is conformable with the law of colonization passed by the honorable congress of the state on the twenty-fourth of March, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-five, and consequently assigns to the petitioners the tract of land included within the following limits, that they may establish thereon the proposed colony: It shall begin at a land-mark which shall be set up on the spot where the parallel of the thirty-second degree of north latitude crosses the meridian of the hundred and second degree of longitude west from London, said spot being at the south-west corner of the grant petitioned for by Col. Reuben Ross. From thence it shall proceed along the parallel of the thirty-second degree of latitude as far as the eastern limit of New Mexico. From thence it shall ascend north on the boundary line between the provinces of Coahuila and Texas and New Mexico as far as twenty leagues of the river Arkansas. From thence it shall run east to the meridian of the hundred and second degree of longitude, which is the western boundary of the grant petitioned for by the said Col. Reuben Ross; and from thence it shall proceed south as far as the place of beginning. Art. 2. Though the houndaries of the tract set forth in the preceding clause are those assigned to Stephen Julian Wilson in a grant passed by this government on the twenty-seventh of May, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-six, yet this circumstance has not been considered an impediment to the entering into the present contract, inasmuch as the time allotted to the said Wilson for the completion of said enterprise will (expire) in the month of May of this present year without his having to this day performed the same or any part whatsoever; but if, however, in the short time that has to elapse any number of the families of that empresario should present themselves, then in that case the present grant shall, with due respect to the part or parts performed by the first grantee thereof, be null and void to all intents and purposes. Art 3. In consideration of the grant hereinbefore specified the empresarios or contracting parties agree to introduce and settle, on their own account, two hundred foreign families, conforming themselves as well to the general law of the republic as to the laws of the state in this behalf provided. Art. 4. All lands whatsoever held under legal titles that may be included within the limits designated in article first shall be respected by the...