Corkran Oil Development Company v. Laurent Arnaudet

• Decision Date: 13 November 1905
• Docket Number: No. 22,22
• Parties: CORKRAN OIL & DEVELOPMENT COMPANY, Plff. in Err. , v. LAURENT ARNAUDET, Arthur Latreille, Eugene Houssiere, et al
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

199 U.S. 182

26 S.Ct. 41

50 L.Ed. 143

CORKRAN OIL & DEVELOPMENT COMPANY, Plff. in Err.,

v LAURENT ARNAUDET, Arthur Latreille, Eugene Houssiere, et al.

No. 22.

Argued October 24, 25, 1905.

Decided November 13, 1905.

This was a petitorty action commenced by the Corkran Oil & Development Company in the eighteeth judicial district court for the parish of Acadia, Louisiana, on the 6th day of December, A. D. 1901, against Laurent Arnaudet and others, to recover possession of certain real property. Plaintiff alleged that the land was claimed by Anthony Corkran during his lifetime, and by his heirs and legal representatives after his death, and that said claim, known as the 'Corkran grant,' was finally confirmed to Corkran's heirs and legal representatives by an act of Congress of February 10, 1897, and a patent was issued to them in accordance with the act. That Corkran died in about the year 1819, and his succession was duly opened in St. Landry parish, where he resided, and where the property was situated, and that petitioner acquired title to said property from Corkran's heirs and descendants by acts of sale on various dates specified, said dates being subsequent to November 10, 1901. That neither Corkran and wife, nor any of his heirs, legal representatives, or descendants, ever sold or disposed of their rights, title, or interests in the land before the sales to petitioner, and petitioner was now the just, true, and legal owner of the property. Notwithstanding which, defendants, without legal right or title, and against petitioner's rights, had entered upon, and now possessed and held, said property, and refused to deliver the same to petitioner as of right.

The act of Congress referred to is as follows (29 Stat. at L. 517, chap. 213): 'Chap. 213. An Act to Quiet Title and Possession with Respect to Certain Unconfirmed and Located Private Land Claims in the State of Louisiana.

'Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That all the right, title, and interest of the United States in and to the lands situated in the state of Louisiana, known as the located but unconfirmed private land claims therein, aggregating about eighty thousand acres, and specifically described in the list or tabular statement accompanying the report, dated February nineteenth, eighteen hundred and eighty, made by the surveyor general of Louisiana to the Commissioner of the General Land Office, under a resolution of the United States Senate of December second, eighteen hundred and seventy-nine, and which report and list were communicated to the Senate by the Secretary of the Interior on March eighth, eighteen hundred and eighty, as Senate Executive Document numbered one hundred and eleven, Forty-sixth Congress, second session, shall be, and the same are hereby, directed to be granted, released, andrelinquished by the United States, in fee simple, to the respective owners of the equitable titles thereto, and to their respective heirs and assigns forever, as fully and completely, in every respect whatever, as could be done by patents issued therefor according to law.

'Sec. 2. That nothing contained in this act shall in any manner abridge, devest, impair, injure, or prejudice any valid right, title, or interest of any person or persons in or to any portion or part of the lands mentioned in said first section, the true intent of this act being to relinquish and abandon, grant, give, and concede, any and all right, interest, and estate, in law or equity, which the United States is or is supposed to be entitled to in said lands, in favor of all persons, estates, firms, or corporations who would be the true and lawful owners of the same under the laws of Louisiana, including the laws of prescription, in the absence of the said interest and estate of the United States.

'Sec. 3. That the Department of the Interior shall cause patents to issue for such lands, and such patents shall issue in the name of the original claimant as appears in the list or schedule aforesaid, and when issued shall be held to be for the use and benefit of the true and lawful owners as provided in sections one and two of this act.'

The patent is as follows:

'The United States of America to all to whom these presents shall come, Greeting:

'Whereas, by the act of Congress approved February 10th, A. D. one thousand eight hundred and ninety-seven, entitled 'An Act to Quiet Title and Possession with Respect to Certain Unconfirmed and Located Private Land Claims in the State of Louisiana,' it is provided——

[Here follows the act of February 10, 1897, in full.]

'And whereas, the private land claim of Anthony Corkran appears in the list of claims embraced in the aforesaid Senate Executive Document numbered one hundred and eleven and, therefore, stands confirmed and entitled to (a patent under the terms of the) act of Congress hereinbefore recited.

'And whereas, the aforesaid claim has been regularly surveyed as section forty-seven in township nine, south of range two west in the southwestern district of Louisiana, containing five hundred and eighty acres and ninety hundredths of an acre, as appears by the plat and descriptive notes thereof on file in the General Land Office of the United States, duly approved by Chas. F. Dickinson, U. S. surveyor general for the state of Louisiana, on the thirtieth day of October, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-seven, which said plat and descriptive note are herein inserted and made a part of these presents, and are in the words and figures following, to wit:

[Plat and descriptive note.]

'Now know ye, that the United States of America, in consideration of the premises herein set forth, and in conformity with the provisions contained in sections two and three of the aforesaid act of the tenth day of February, one thousand and eight hundred and ninety-seven, has given and granted, and by these presents does give and grant, unto the said Anthony Cockran and to his heirs and assigns, the tract of land embraced and described in the foregoing survey.

'To have and to hold the said tract of land with the appurtenances unto the said Anthony Cockran his heirs, assigns, and successors in interest forever.'

Dated November 22, 1897.

The defendants filed exceptions, and also answered, admitting that Anthony Corkran, or Cochran, claimed the land in question, and that it was patented to Corkran and his heirs under and according to the act of February 10, 1897, which was fully set forth in the preamble to the patent; and they asserted that the true intent of said act of Congress fully appeared from the 2d section of the act, and that 'under and by virtue of the laws of Louisiana, all the right, title, and interest of Anthony Corkran and his heirs in and to the land claimed by plaintiff, and patented as aforesaid to Anthony Corkran and his heirs, had been devested long prior to the issuance of the aforesaid patent, and was held in full and complete ownership long prior to the date of said patent by the authors of defendants and by defendants, under valid and perfect titles, by and under the laws of Louisiana, including the laws of prescription.'

That the authors of defendants and defendants themselves had acquired by true and valid title all the right, title, interest, and estate at law or in equity in the lands patented to Anthony Corkran and his heirs prior to the issue of the patent, by virtue of the laws of Louisiana providing for the sale of all lands situated within its borders for nonpayment of taxes, by mesne conveyances of said lands from the purchaser at a tax sale December 2, 1882, for unpaid taxes assessed on said realty for the year 1881; and that since said tax sale the real estate in question has always been in the possession of the purchaser at that sale and the authors of defendants and the defendants themselves, and been occupied by them as owners in undisturbed and quiet possession. Defendants further pleaded in bar of the action and in support of their title 'the prescription of three, five, and ten years, and that the prescription of three years established by article 233 of the Louisiana Constitution of 1898 is a complete bar to this action.' Defendants also asserted that they had paid taxes on said property during the time of their possession, and had placed thereon valuable improvements, amounting in the aggregate to upwards of $20,000. The trial court decided the case on the merits, and found that defendants claimed title to the land in controversy through Henry Gellert, who purchased the land at a tax sale in 1882, for taxes assessed against said land in the name of Anthony Corkran or his heirs, and set forth the facts on which the court held that the land in controversy was subject to such assessment and sale. The trial court held that the defendants were protected by the prescription of three years, provided in article 233 of the Constitution of 1898, as well as the prescription of three and five years...