California Powder Works v. Davis
Decision Date | 22 January 1894 |
Docket Number | No. 301,301 |
Citation | 38 L.Ed. 206,14 S.Ct. 350,151 U.S. 389 |
Parties | CALIFORNIA POWDER WORKS v. DAVIS et al |
Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
Statement by Mr. Chief Justice FULLER:
This was a suit in equity brought by Isaac E. Davis, for whom his administrator, Willis E. Davis, was duly substituted, and Henry Cowell, against the California Powder Works, in the district court of the fifteenth judicial district of California in and for the city and county of San Francisco, and subsequently transferred to the superior court of said city and county, to quiet plaintiffs' title to certain lands in Santa Cruz county, Cal. Both parties claimed title under patent from the United States, plaintiffs, through Pedro Sainsevain, patentee of the rancho Canada del Rincon en el Rio San Lorenzo; defendant, through William Bocle, patentee of the tract called 'La Carbonera.'
The case having been heard, the superior court made special findings of fact, and found, as a conclusion of law, that the plaintiffs were entitled to a decree according to the prayer of the bill.
From the findings it appeared that Sainsevain's patent was based on a concession of july 10, 1843, the grant being duly approved June 10, 1846; that the archives of the Mexican government contained a full record of the proceedings; that the claim was confirmed January 17, 1854, by the land commissioners of the United States, duly organized under acts of congress in that behalf, and their decree made final by the dismissal of an appeal therefrom by the district court of the United States for the district of California; that a survey was duly had; and that the patent issued June 4, 1858. As to Bocle's patent, it appeared that the grant to him bore date February 3, 1838. That it was confirmed January 23, 1855, and that a patent subsequently issued, (July 7, 1873;) but it was found that the grant had been falsely antedated, and that it was made in the year 1848. That 'there is not, and never has been, any paper, document, writing, or entry in any book or record in the Mexican archives pertaining to California relating to said alleged grant or concession to said Bocle, nor is the same noted in a book called the 'Jimeno's Index,' nor has said purported grant any map or diseno attached to it, nor is any such map or diseno referred to; and at the said date—the 3d of February, 1838-said Bocle was not a naturalized citizen of Mexico, but was a subject of the kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.' That the decree of confirmation by the land commissioners of the alleged grant to Bocle was obtained by fraud, 'the said fraud consisting of the fact that no such grant was made to said Bocle for said land, and said paper purporting to be such grant was false, simulated, and fabricated, and made after the conquest of California by the United States from the republic of Mexico, and in or about the year 1848, and was fraudulently imposed upon said board of land commissioners as valid and genuine; and the dismissal of the appeal therefrom to the United States district court was likewise procured by the same fraud, and by the concealment of said facts of the fabrication of said pretended grant from the United States authorities, acting in that behalf; and said land commissioners and said authorities were each and all ignorant of any such fraud, and of the fact that said alleged grant was false and simulated, and were misled and deceived by the false allegations of the said Bocle in that behalf.'
A decree in plaintiffs' favor having been entered, defendant moved for a new trial, which was denied, and an appeal was thereupon taken to the supreme court of California from the order denying said motion, by which that order and the judgment were affirmed.
The supreme court of California, (84 Cal. 617, 24 Pac. 387,) among other things, held:
Application for a rehearing was made and overruled, and thereupon a petition for the allowance of a writ of error from this court was presented, in which it was set forth that petitioner claimed the land in controversy under the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and under a certain statute of the United States entitled 'An act to ascertain and settle private land claims,' approved March 3, 1851; that such lands were ceded to the grantor of petitioner by the republic of Mexico in 1838; that such concession...
To continue reading
Request your trial-
Whitney v. People of State of California
...v. Randell, 10 Pet. 368, 392, 9 L. Ed. 458; Railroad Co. v. Rock, 4 Wall. 177, 180, 18 L. Ed. 381; California Powder Works v. Davis, 151 U. S. 389, 393, 14 S. Ct. 350, 38 L. Ed. 206; Cincinnati, etc., Railway v. Slade, 216 U. S. 78, 83, 30 S. Ct. 230, 54 L. Ed. 390; Hiawassee Power Co. v. C......
-
United States v. Fay
...54 Col.L.Rev. 489, 503-504." (359 U.S. at 408, 79 S.Ct. at 833). 8 The formulation of the Court in California Powder Works v. Davis, 151 U.S. 389, 393, 14 S.Ct. 350, 38 L.Ed. 206 (1894) has become "It is axiomatic that, in order to give this court jurisdiction on writ of error to the highes......
-
Irvin v. Dowd
...* The formulation by Mr. Chief Justice Fuller, for the Court, of this jurisdictional sine qua non in California Powder Works Co. v. Davis, 151 U.S. 389, 393, 14 S.Ct. 350, 351, 38 L.Ed. 206, represents the undeviating practice of the Court until today: 'It is axiomatic that, in order to giv......
-
Colorado Nat Bank Denver v. Bedford 8212 1940
...provided in subdivision (c) of this clause.' 5 Bedford v. Colorado Nat. Bank, supra. 6 Ibid. 7 California Powder Works v. Davis, 151 U.S. 389, 393, 14 S.Ct. 350, 351, 38 L.Ed. 206; Indiana ex rel. Anderson v. Brand, 303 U.S. 95, 98, 58 S.Ct. 443, 445, 82 L.Ed. 685, 113 A.L.R. 1482; cf. Owen......