Kirwan v. Murphy

• Decision Date: 20 May 1901
• Docket Number: 1,526.
• Parties: KIRWAN, United States Surveyor General, et al. v. MURPHY et al.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

109 F. 354

KIRWAN, United States Surveyor General, et al. v. MURPHY et al.

No. 1,526.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

May 20, 1901

W. F. Bailey (Robert G. Evans and John R. Vanderlip, on the brief), for appellants.

M. H. Stanford, for appellees.

Before SANBORN and THAYER, Circuit Judges, and ADAMS, District Judge.

SANBORN, Circuit Judge.

The facts presented by the record upon the final hearing of this case do not differ essentially from those presented on the appeal from the order granting the injunction. Kirwan v. Murphy, 28 C.C.A. 348, 83 F. 272, 286, 289; Murphy v. Kirwan (C.C.) 103 F. 104. The United States surveyed and platted the land about Cedar Lake, and then patented the tracts which the complainants now own according to its plats, which showed that these tracts extended to, and were bounded by, the lake. It made no attempt to correct its survey, and gave no warning that it claimed it to be erroneous, until after the complainants had purchased of its patentees, and had paid full value for the land, on the theory that it extended to, and bordered upon, the lake, and in reliance upon the plats and patents of the government, which disclosed this fact. It is too late now for the United States to correct this survey, and thereby to revoke its grants, after innocent purchasers have bought of its patentees in reliance upon them. Our views upon the questions presented here have been so completely expressed in the opinions in Kirwan v. Murphy, 28 C.C.A. 348, 83 F. 275, and Murphy v. Kirwan (C.C.) 103 F. 104, that another opinion would be but a repetition of the rules and reasoning there set forth. The decree below is accordingly affirmed on the authority of those opinions and of Railroad Co. v. Schurmeier, 74 U.S. 272, 286, 289, 19 L.Ed. 74; Hardin v. Jordan, 140 U.S. 371, 380, 11 Sup.Ct. 808, 35 L.Ed. 428; Mitchell v. Smale, 140 U.S. 406, 414, 11 Sup.Ct. 819, 35 L.Ed. 442; Cragin v. Powell, 128 U.S. 691, 696, 697, 699, 9 Sup.Ct. 203, 32 L.Ed. 566; McIver's Lessee v. Walker, 9 Cranch, 173-177, 3 L.Ed. 694; St. Paul, S. & T.F.R. Co. v. First Division St. P. & P.R. Co., 26 Minn. 31, 34, 49 N.W. 303; and U.S. v. Winona & St. P.R. Co., 15 C.C.A. 96, 67 F. 948, 960-964.