Ely Adm v. United States

• Decision Date: 31 May 1898
• Docket Number: No. 27,27
• Citation: 18 S.Ct. 840,171 U.S. 220,43 L.Ed. 142
• Parties: ELY'S ADM'R v. UNITED STATES
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

171 U.S. 220

18 S.Ct. 840

43 L.Ed. 142

ELY'S ADM'R

v UNITED STATES.

No. 27.

May 31, 1898.

On October 19, 1892, proceeding under section 8 of the act creating the court of private land claims (26 Stat. 854), the United States filed in that court a petition against Santiago Ainsa, administrator of the estate of Frank Ely, deceased, and others, alleging that said administrator claimed to be the owner, through mense conveyances, of a large tract of land in the territory of Arizona, known as the 'Rancho de San Jose de Sonoita'; that he had not voluntarily come into the court to seek a consideration of his title; that the title was open to question, and was in fact invalid and void; that the other defendants claimed some interests in the land,—and praying that they all might be brought into court, and be ruled to answer the petition, set up their titles, and have them settled and adjudicated.

In an amended answer, the administrator set forth the nature and extent of his title, and prayed that it be inquired into, and declared valid. Reply having been filed, the case came on for trial, which resulted in a decree on March 30, 1894, that the claim for confirmation of title be disallowed and rejected. The opinion by Associate Justice Sluss contains this general statement of the facts:

'On the 29th day of May, 1821, Leon Herreros presented his petition to the intendente of the provinces Sonora and Sinaloa; asking to obtain title to two sitios of land at the place known as 'Sonoita.' The intendente referred the petition to the commander at Tubac, directing him to cause the tract to be surveyed, appraised, and the proposed sale thereof to be advertised for thirty days.

'In obedience to this order the officer proceeded to make a survey of the tract, which was made on the 26th and 27th days of June, 1821; and, on the completion of the survey, he caused it to be appraised, the appraised value being one hundred and five dollars. Thereupon the proposed sale was advertised for thirty consecutive days by proclamation made by a crier appointed for that purpose, beginning on June 29th, and ending on the 28th day of July, 1821. Thereupon, on the 31st day of July, 1821, the officer took the testimony of three witnesses to the effect that Herreros had property and means to occupy the tract. On October 20, 1821, the proceedings above mentioned, being reduced to writing, were by the officer returned to the intendente.

'On October 25, 1821, the intendente referred the proceedings to the promoter fiscal for his examination.

'On November 7, 1821, the promoter fiscal reported to the intendente the regularity of the proceedings, and recommending that the land be offered for sale at three public auctions; and thereupon the auctions were ordered to be held.

'The first auction was held on November 8, 1821, the second on November 9, and the third on November 10, 1821.

'At the conclusion of the third auction the land was struck off to Herreros at the appraised value by the board of auction, of which board the intendente was a member and the president.

'All these proceedings being concluded, on the 12th day of November, 1821, Herreros paid to the officers of the treasury the amount of the appraisement, together with the fees and charges required to be paid; and with his concurrence the intendente and the auction board ordered the expediente of the proceedings to be reported to the junta superior de hacienda for its approbation, so that, when approved, the title might issue.

'There is no evidence that the sale was approved by the junta superior de hacienda.

'On the 15th day of May, 1825, Juan Miguel Riesgo, commissary general of the treasury, public credit, and war of the republic of Mexico for the state of the west, issued a title, in the usual form, purporting to convey the land to Herreros in pursuance of the proceedings above referred to, and professing to act under the authority of the ordinance of the intendentes of Spain of the year 1786.'

The conclusion reached was that 'the entire proceedings set forth in the expediente of this title, and the final title issued thereon, were without warrant of law, and invalid.' Two of the justices dissented. Thereupon the administrator secured an order of severance, and took a separate appeal to this court.

Rochester Ford and James C. Carter, for appellant.

Matt. G. Reynolds, for the United States.

Mr. Justice BREWER, after stating the facts in the foregoing language, delivered the opinion of the court.

The controversy in this case does not turn upon any defect in the form of the papers. The contentions of the government are that the officers who assumed to make the grant and to execute title papers had no authority to do so, and upon this ground it was held by the court of private land claims that the grant was, in its inception, invalid. Secondly, that, if a valid grant was made, it was one of quantity, and should be sustained for only that amount of land which was named in the granting papers, and paid for by the grantee.

It appears that the proceedings to acquire title were initi- ated by a petition to the intendant, or 'intendente,' as he is called in the opinion of the court below, of the provinces of Sonora and Sinaloa, on May 29, 1821; that, so far as that officer was concerned, they were concluded and the sale completed on November 12, 1821. Nothing seems to have been done after this date until May 15, 1825, when the commissary general of the republic of Mexico for the state of the west, on application, issued a title in the usual form. So the question is as to the power of these officers to bind the government of Mexico.

Few cases presented to this court are more perplexing than those involving Mexican grants. The changes in the governing power, as well as in the form of government, were so frequent, there is so much indefiniteness and lack of precision in the language of the statutes and ordinances, and the modes of procedure were in so many respects essentially different from those to which we are accustomed, that it is often quite difficult to e termine whether an alleged grant was made by officers who at the time were authorized to act for the government, and was consummated according to the forms of procedure then recognized as essential. It was undoubtedly the duty of congress, as it was its purpose in the various statutory enactments it has made in respect to Mexican titles, to recognize and establish every title and right which, before the cession, Mexico recognized as good and valid. In other words, in harmony with the rules of international law, as well as with the terms of the treaties of cession, the change of sovereignty should work no change in respect to rights and titles. That which was good before should be good after. That which the law would enforce before, should be enforceable after, the cession. As a rule, congress has not specifically determined the validity of any right or title, but has committed to some judicial tribunal the duty of ascertaining what were good and valid before cession, and provided that, when so determined, they should be recognized and enforced.

Of course, in proceeding under any particular statute the limitations prescribed by that statute must control; and, what- ever may be the obligations resting upon the nation by virtue of the rules of international law or the terms of a treaty, the courts cannot pass beyond such limitations. In the case of Hayes v. U. S. (just decided) 18 Sup. Ct. 735, we called attention to the fact that in the act creating the court of private land claims there was a prohibition upon the allowance of any claim 'that shall not appear to be upon a title lawfully and regularly derived from the government of Spain or Mexico, or from any of the states of the republic of Mexico having lawful authority to make grants of land,' and pointed out the difference between this statute and those construed in the Arredondo Case, 6 Pet. 691, and the act of March 3, 1851, considered in the Peralta Case, 19 How. 343. We held that under the act of 1891 the court must be satisfied, not merely of the regularity in the form of the proceedings, but also that the official body or person assuming to make the grant was vested with authority, or that the exercise of power, if unwarranted, was subsequently lawfully ratified. We are not to presume that, because certain officials made a grant, therefore it was the act of the Mexican government, and to be sustained. It must appear that the officials did have the power, and we are not justified in resting upon any legal presumption of the existence of power from the fact of its exercise.

While this is true, yet when the statutes and ordinances defining the powers and duties of an officer are somewhat indefinite and general in their terms, and that officer was in the habit of exercising the same power as was exercised in the case presented, and such exercise of power was not questioned by the authorities of Mexico, and grants purporting to have been made by him were never challenged, there is reason to believe that the true construction of the statutes or ordinances supports the existence of the power. Cases now before us disclose that, about the time the intendant acted in this case, similar action was taken by him in respect to other applications for the purchase of land; that through a series of years, from 1824 downward, the commissary general, the officer created by the act of September 21, 1824, recognized his acts as creating equitable obligations on the part of the government, and attempted to consummate the sales by papers passing the legal title; that the title papers thus executed were duly placed of record in the proper office, and fail to show that subsequently thereto the Mexican government took any steps to question the title or disturb the possession. While this may not be conclusive as to the validity of the grants, and the existence of the power exercised by the...