Andrus v. St Louis Smelting Refining Co

• Decision Date: 13 May 1889
• Citation: 9 S.Ct. 645,32 L.Ed. 1054,130 U.S. 643
• Parties: ANDRUS v. ST. LOUIS SMELTING & REFINING CO
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

130 U.S. 643

9 S.Ct. 645

32 L.Ed. 1054

ANDRUS v. ST. LOUIS SMELTING & REFINING CO.

May 13, 1889.

[Statement of Case from pages 643-645 intentionally omitted] T. A. Green, for plaintiff in error.

Dcharles E. Gast, for defendant in error.

Mr. Justice FIELD, after stating the facts as above, delivered the opinion of the court.

As appears by the above statement, the gist of the action is the alleged deceit practiced upon the plaintiff by the agents, attorneys, and officers of the company to induce him to purchase from it a lot in Leadville, by representing that it had obtained a release of the right of all claimants to the land, and could put him into immediate possession; whereas, upon attempting to enter upon the land purchased he found another in possession, who refused to surrender it, and thus he was kept out of possession from the time of his purchase, March 27, 1879, to February 22, 1883, during which period he lost its rental value.

To this ground of complaint there are two obvious answers. In the first place, the plaintiff could have required the delivery of the possession of the land to accompany the payment of the money. The lot, being in the town, might have been readily reached, when the ability of the company to give possession could have been at once determined. The plaintiff alleges that he used all diligence in his power to find out whether the representations of the officers, agents, and attorneys of the company were true or false, but the inspection of the premises, the most natural and obvious mode of ascertaining whether they were occupied by another, does not seem to have been resorted to. The law does not afford relief to one who suffers by not using the ordinary means of information, whether his neglect be attributable to indifference or credulity, nor will industrious activity in other directions, to the neglect of such means, be of any avail. Besides, it does not appear at what time the party in possession entered upon the land. The complaint only alleges that when—the time not being stated—the plaintiff attempted to take possession, he found another person there, who, for aught that appears, may have gone on the land after the execution and delivery of the deed. There was at the time, according to the allegations of the complaint, a great struggle to obtain possession of lots among the crowd of persons pressing to the town owing to the report of rich gold discoveries within its immediate neighborhood. The claim of right to the land advanced by the occupant was founded only upon her alleged prior possession of it as a part of the public domain of the United States, a claim which would seem, from the result of the ejectment suit against her brought by the company, to have been entirely worthless. The complaint alleges that the defendant represented that it had received a patent from the government of the United States for the premises, as well as for a large number of other lots...