Carr v. United States

• Decision Date: 01 October 1878
• Citation: 98 U.S. 433,25 L.Ed. 209
• Parties: CARR v. UNITED STATES
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

98 U.S. 433

25 L.Ed. 209

CARR v. UNITED STATES.

October Term, 1878

APPEAL from the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of California.

The facts are stated in the opinion of the court.

Mr. William Matthews for the appellant.

Mr. Assistant Attorney-General Smith, contra.

MR. JUSTICE BRADLEY delivered the opinion of the court.

This case arises upon a bill to quiet title, filed by the United States against the appellant, Carr, and various other persons, upon which a decree was rendered by the court below in favor of the plaintiff. Carr appealed from this decree. The controversy relates to certain lands at San Francisco, being two lots, each fifty varas square, on Rincon Point, which are claimed by the government as having, with other adjoining lands, been set apart and reserved for public use in 1847, and as having been conveyed to the United States by the city of San Francisco in 1852. The appellant claims the lots in question under one Thomas White, alleging that said White occupied the same in 1849, and that he and his grantees continued to occupy the same until June, 1855, when the Van Ness ordinance was passed.

It is conceded that the premises in question were once pueblo lands, belonging to the municipality of San Francisco; but as such lands, until conveyed to private parties, were subject to the public uses of the government, both before and after the conquest of the country by the United States, it is evident that the latter had the undoubted right to make such appropriation thereof for public use as it might see fit. It is denied, however, that any such appropriation was ever made by the proper authority. It appears from the pleadings and evidence in the case, that from the first occupation of San Francisco by the United States, in 1847, the military authorities of the government set apart Rincon Point (including the premises in question) for the use of the government; but that after the discovery of gold, in 1849, the officers had much ado to keep them clear of trespassers, who entered upon, and endeavored to appropriate the same. In November, 1849, a lease of this tract, with others, was given by the officer in command at San Francisco to one Thomas Shillaber, apparently for the purpose of keeping possession on behalf of the government. This lease was approved by the Secretary of the Interior. About 1852, a marine hospital was built by the government on the southeast half of the block on Rincon Point, bounded by Folsom, Harrison, Spear, and Main Streets. The whole block was 550 feet in length from Harrison to Folsom Street, and 275 feet in width from Main to Spear Street. The southeast half was 275 feet square, forming four lots, each fifty varas, or 137 1/2 feet, square, numbered 1, 2, 3, and 4. Numbers 1 and 2 adjoined Harrison Street, 3 and 4 adjoined 1 and 2. Lots 3 and 4 are the premises in controversy. The hospital building was actually constructed on lots 1 and 2, standing within four or five feet of lots 3 and 4; and the latter were occupied by buildings or for yard room, as accessory to the hospital.

As before stated, however, different parties attempted to possess themselves of portions of the property; and amongst others, White, under whom the appellant claims, made such an attempt in 1849, in reference to the whole block which includes the lots in question, but was ejected, as appears by the orders and correspondence set out in the complaint.

The consequence of White's attempt was that adverse claims to the property under him were afterwards preferred from time to time. For the purpose of quieting these claims, when the hospital was being erected, a conveyance to the government was procured from the city authorities. On the 10th of December, 1852, the common council of the city passed a resolution that the mayor be directed to convey to the United States all its right, title, and interest to six fifty-vara lots, bounded on the east by Spear Street, on the south by Harrison Street, on the west by Front Street, and on the north by the beach; which description includes the four lots above referred to. Such a conveyance was accordingly made by the mayor, by deed dated the 11th of December, 1852; and from thenceforward the United States claimed the property in question, as well by virtue of the said deed as by right of original appropriation for public uses.

The appellant, as before stated, claims the property by virtue of the Van Ness ordinance, passed June 20, 1855, by which, amongst other things, the city of San Francisco did relinquish and grant all the right and claim of the city to the lands within the corporate limits to the parties in the actual possession thereof, by themselves or tenants, on or before the first day of January, 1855, provided such possession was continued up to the time of the introduction of the ordinance in the common council.

Now, it is too evident to require discussion that the city of San Francisco could not, in 1855, make a valid grant of property which it had already granted in 1852; and which the grantee (in this case the United States) constantly claimed as part and parcel of premises which were in its undoubted possession. The weight of the evidence in the case is, that the government was in actual possession of lots 3 and 4 as appendant to the hospital, from 1852 to the passage of the ordinance. This would bring it within the terms of the ordinance itself. But we do not deem this material. It had a clear title from the city before, even if the action of the military authorities in 1847 and 1849 was not sufficient to effect an appropriation for public uses.

But the appellant relies on certain judgments rendered in the State courts in actions brought against the agents of the government having possession of the lands in question, which judgments he contends estop the government from claiming any title therein.

The first of these actions was an action for forcible entry and...