Garza v. State
| Decision Date | 08 December 1885 |
| Docket Number | Case No. 1787. |
| Citation | 64 Tex. 670 |
| Parties | NOBERTO GARZA ET AL. v. THE STATE OF TEXAS. |
| Court | Texas Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
APPEAL from Travis. Tried below before the Hon. J. P. Richardson.
The opinion states the case.
Fred. Carleton, for appellants.
S. R. Fisher and A. J. Peeler, for appellee.
This suit was commenced in 1871, in the district court of Travis county, under an act of the legislature of August 15, 1870, entitled “An act to ascertain and adjudicate certain claims for lands against the state, between the Nueces and Rio Grande rivers,” for the purpose of having the title confirmed, and a patent issued to a tract of land containing two leagues, part of the ejidos of old Reynosa. The paper title under which the plaintiffs claimed was attached to the petition, bears date the 24th day of September, 1841, and appears to be an instrument in the nature of a confirmation of title to the said land to ninety-six persons, who had become the purchasers thereof.
It was essential to the right to bring suit under the above act that the grant of land sought to be confirmed should have had its origin previous to the 19th day of December, 1836. The burden of proving this fact, and of bringing himself within the purview of the statute, is, of course, upon the plaintiff seeking the confirmation of the title. The only evidence upon this subject found in the record is a recital in the paper title that the act of sale was made by the alcalde, under superior orders dated October 5, 1836. We do not think that this recital is sufficient evidence that the title originated prior to the 19th of December, 1836.
This court in the case of The State v. Sais, 47 Tex., 307, 313, held in effect that no imperfect title could be perfected under the statute, unless its acquisition from the former government had commenced, and it had a substantial inception in good faith, attached to a particular tract of land prior to December 19, 1836, such as would then and there entitle the party to be perfected under the laws of the former government; that there must have been some part of the title perfected sufficient to establish the right of the claimant to the land.
The mere fact that the proper authorities had ordered a sale of the land did not connect the plaintiffs with the title in any manner whatever. They had in no mode, legal or illegal, commenced to acquire title from the government previous to the 19th of December, 1836. What had been done prior to that...
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State v. Gallardo
...of such title under the act of August 15, 1870, in which judgment was rendered for the state and later affirmed by this court. 64 Tex. 670. This judgment was made the basis of a plea of res judicata urged by the state against the defendants' While no occupancy of the land at the time of the......