Linn & Lane Timber Co. v. United States

• Decision Date: 24 February 1913
• Docket Number: 1,973.,1,972
• Citation: 203 F. 394
• Parties: LINN & LANE TIMBER CO. et al. v. UNITED STATES. UNITED STATES v. SMITH et al.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

203 F. 394

LINN & LANE TIMBER CO. et al. v. UNITED STATES.

UNITED STATES v. SMITH et al.

Nos. 1,972, 1,973.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

February 24, 1913

John Lind, A. Ueland, and W. M. Jerome, all of Minneapolis, Minn and John M. Gearin, of Portland, Or., for appellants Linn &amp Lane Timber Co.

John McCourt, U.S. Atty., of Portland, Or.

Vaile McAllister & Vaile, of Denver, Colo., amici curiae.

Before GILBERT, ROSS, and MORROW, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM.

This case came on for rehearing upon motion of the district attorney of the United States for an amendment of the decree of this court rendered on May 20, 1912, the decision wherein is reported in Linn & Lane Timber Co. v. United States, 196 F. 593, 116 C.C.A. 267.

The motion is based upon the expression of the views of this court in that part of the opinion in which additional ground was found for sustaining the conclusion of the court below as to the lands which were patented on August 12, 1902; that court having found that as to those lands the suit was not barred by the statute of limitations. This court sustained the court below in that conclusion, principally upon the ground that the Linn & Lane Timber Company and C. A. Smith were one and the same; the corporation belonging to him, and organized by him for no other purpose than to conceal therein the title to the lands which were conveyed to it. The additional ground which this court found for sustaining the court below was that the fraud complained of in the bills had been concealed by the defendants, and had not been discovered by the plaintiff until long after the date of the patents and that the suits had been commenced within the period of six years after such discovery of fraud.

It is now urged that upon the opinion of this court so expressed the United States, which also appealed from the decree of the court below, was entitled to a decree setting aside all the patents involved in the suits, including those for which patents issued on July 9, 1902, and in support of that view we are referred to the recent decision of the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in United States v. Exploration Co., Ltd., 203 F. 387, which is in line with the views of this court so expressed.

Upon a careful reconsideration of the authorities we are of the opinion that the fraud of the defendants, as alleged in the bills and shown by the facts, was sufficient to...