Glenn Knapp v. Lumber Company

Citation237 U.S. 162,59 L.Ed. 894,35 S.Ct. 515
Decision Date05 April 1915
Docket NumberNo. 139,ALEXANDER-EDGAR,139
PartiesGLENN KNAPP, Plff. in Err., v. LUMBER COMPANY
CourtUnited States Supreme Court

Messrs. H. H. Grace, George B. Hudnall, and C. R. Fridley for plaintiff in error.

Messrs. C. B. Bird, M. B. Rosenberry, A. L. Kreutzer, and J. J. Okoneski for defendant in error.

Mr. Justice Pitney delivered the opinion of the court:

This action was brought in the circuit court of Bayfield county, Wisconsin, by plaintiff in error, to recover damages for timber cut and removed from his land and converted into lumber by defendant. The circuit court rendered judgment for plaintiff, but the supreme court of the state reversed this (145 Wis. 528, 140 Am. St. Rep. 1091, 130 N. W. 504), and re- manded the cause with directions to enter judgment in favor of defendant, and this having been done, the case comes here upon questions concerning the nature of an entryman's title under the homestead laws of the United States. U. S. Rev. Stat. §§ 2289 et seq. Comp. Stat. 1913, § 4530.

The facts, as found by the trial court, whose findings were adopted by the supreme court, are as follows: Prior to February 20, 1902, the land in question, being a tract of 160 acres situate in Bayfield county, Wisconsin, was public land subject to homestead entry under the laws of the United States. On the date mentioned, pursuant to §§ 2289 et seq., plaintiff duly made application for a homestead entry of this land at the local land office, filed the proper affidavit, paid the register and receiver's fees, and obtained a certificate of the entry and a receiver's receipt. On February 26 he made and filed the nonsaline affidavit required by law. On April 5 he went upon the land temporarily, found employees of defendant cutting timber thereon, and forbade their cutting any more. On July 1, and within six months after the making of the entry, he established his actual residence in a house upon the land, and resided upon and cultivated the land continuously thereafter, in accordance with the laws of the United States, for a term of five years. On August 5, 1907, he made his final proof, and a receiver's final receipt was issued to him. On January 22, 1908, he received a patent, and ever since then has been the owner of the land in fee. On and between March 20 and April 7, 1902, defendant, by its agents, entered upon the land and cut and removed therefrom, wilfully, unlawfully, and without authority, 49,190 feet of pine timber. Thereafter a special agent of the United States investigated the trespass, and reported the amount thereof to the Secretary of the Interior, together with a proposition of settlement made by defendant after the trespass had been estimated, and accompanied by a certified check for $320.14. Upon the basis of this report, which stated that the trespass was unintentional, the Secretary of the Interior, in July, 1903, treating the amount offered as the measure of damages due to the government under the ruling in E. E. Bolles Wooden-ware Co. v. United States, 106 U. S. 432, 27 L. ed. 230, 1 Sup. Ct. Rep. 398, accepted the proposition of settlement, and the money was deposited in the Treasury of the United States as received 'on account of depredations upon the public timber.' There is nothing in the pleadings or findings to show that plaintiff was a party to this settlement, or had any notice of it, although his entry was then, and had been at the time the timber was cut, in full force. After he received his patent, he demanded said sum of $320.14 from the government, but the demand was refused. In fact, the cutting of the 49,190 feet of pine timber from the land in question by defendant was not done by mistake, and defendant did not, at or before the time of the service of its answer in the action, serve upon plaintiff an affidavit that the cutting was done by mistake, or offer to submit to judgment in any sum, as provided by § 4269, Wisconsin Stat. 1898. The stumpage value of the timber was $5 per thousand; its highest market value before the trial and while in possession of defendant was $12 per thousand; and upon the latter basis the trial judge gave judgment in favor of the plaintiff for $714.87, which included interest from the date of the patent; the court holding that defendant's settlement with the government was of no effect as against plaintiff.

Section 4269, Wisconsin Stat. 1898, provides: 'In all actions to recover the possession or value of logs, timber or lumber wrongfully cut upon the land of the plaintiff or to recover damages for such trespass the highest market value of such logs, timber or lumber, in whatsoever place, shape or condition, manufactured or unmanufactured, the same shall have been, at any time before the trial, while in the possession of the trespasser or any purchaser from him with notice, shall be found or awarded to the plaintiff, if he succeed, except as in this section provided.' The other provisions here referred to cover cases where the cutting was done by mistake or under bona fide claim of title. In view of the findings, they have no bearing upon the present case.

The supreme court held that since, at the time of the cutting, the plaintiff was not in actual possession of the land, his right of action, as in trespass quare clausum fregit, must depend upon constructive possession, to be established by showing a good title; that notwithstanding plaintiff's homestead entry, there was, for timber cutting prior to the time of his actual entry into possession of the land, only a single right of action, and this was for the benefit of the United States as legal owner, to the exclusion of the entryman; and that, consequently, the settlement between defendant and the government was a complete defense to plaintiff's action. The court seems to have regarded the entryman, prior to the taking of actual possession, as having no more than color of title; and, while recognizing that the equitable doctrine of relation is applicable also to proceedings at law, held that this had no effect as against the claim of the United States, and when this was satisfied all claim for damages by reason of the timber cutting became extinguished, and the issuance of a patent could not revive it.

Laying aside for the moment the effect of the settlement, it is, we think, erroneous to regard the entryman's interest prior to actual possession as being nothing more than a color of title. From the making of his entry the homesteader has the right of possession as against trespassers and all others except the United States; he has also an inchoate title, subject to be defeated only by failure on his part to comply with the requirements of the homestead law as to settlement and cultivation. So long as he complies with these laws in the course of earning a complete right to the lands as against the government he has a substantial inceptive title, sufficient as against third parties to support suits in equity or at law. United States v. Buchanan, 232 U. S. 72, 76, 77, 58 L. ed. 511, 514, 515, 34 Sup. Ct. Rep. 237; Gauthier v. Morrison, 232 U. S. 452, 460-462, 58 L. ed. 680, 684-686, 34 Sup. Ct. Rep. 384; and cases cited.

The homesteader has a preferential right to the land, and in order to give effect to this according to the spirit of the laws it must be and is held that when he has fulfilled the conditions imposed upon him, and receives a patent vesting in him the complete legal title, this title relates back to the date of the initiatory act, so as to cut off intervening claimants. Shepley v. Cowan, 91 U. S. 330, 337, 338, 23 L. ed. 424, 426, 427; Landes v. Brant, 10 How. 348, 372, 13 L. ed. 449, 459; French v. Spencer, 21 How. 228, 240, 16 L. ed. 97, 100; Beard v. Federy, 3 Wall. 478, 491, 18 L. ed. 88, 92; Grisar v. McDowell, 6 Wall. 363, 380, 18 L. ed. 863, 868; Stark v. Starr, 6 Wall. 402, 418, 18 L. ed. 925, 929; Lynch v. Bernal, 9 Wall. 315, 325, 19 L. ed. 714, 716; Gibson v. Chouteau, 13 Wall. 92, 101, 20 L. ed. 534, 537; United States v. Anderson, 194 U. S. 394, 398, 48 L. ed. 1035, 1038, 24 Sup. Ct. Rep. 716; United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co. 200 U. S. 321, 334, 335, 50 L. ed. 499, 504, 505, 26 Sup. Ct. Rep. 282. In Gibson v. Chouteau, 13 Wall. 100, 20 L. ed. 536, the court, by Mr. Justice Field, said: 'By the doctrine of relation is meant that principle by which an act done at one time is considered...

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    ...383, 15 S.Ct. 635, 39 L.Ed. 737; United States v. Anderson, 194 U.S. 394, 24 S.Ct. 716, 48 L.Ed. 1035; Knapp v. Alexander-Edgar Lumber Co., 237 U.S. 162, 35 S.Ct. 515, 59 L.Ed. 894; Payne v. New Mexico, 255 U.S. 367, 41 S.Ct. 333, 65 L.Ed. 680, and the right of the state, before patent, to ......
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    ...will prevent him from obtaining a vested equitable title accompanied by the right to a patent. See Knapp v. Alexander-Edgar Lumber Co., 237 U.S. 162, 35 S. Ct. 515, 59 L.Ed. 894. But Norton v. Evans, 8 Cir., 82 F. 804, 27 C.C.A. 168. In some of the land-grant cases the right to remain on th......
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