Lyle v. Patterson
| Decision Date | 01 April 1908 |
| Docket Number | 210. |
| Citation | 160 F. 545 |
| Parties | LYLE v. PATTERSON et al. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of Iowa |
M. B Davis and Henderson & Fribourg, for complainant.
W. D Boies, for defendants.
This suit was commenced May 24, 1901, to require the defendant Thomas Beacom to convey to complainant the legal title to the S.W. 1/4 of Sec. No. 3, Tp. 97, R. 42, in O'Brien county this state (except one acre in a corner thereof used as a schoolhouse site), which it is alleged said defendant holds in trust for complainant. The land is a part of that granted by the act of Congress approved May 12, 1864, to the state of Iowa, to aid in the construction of two railroads in that state, was subsequently patented to the state for the benefit of the Sioux City & St. Paul Railroad Company, but never patented by the state to that company, because of its failure to construct the road. From the evidence it appears that on June 21, 1887, J. H. Pasco made a contract with the railroad company for its purchase at the agreed price of $2,146.50 its then full value. He paid a part in cash, and agreed to pay the remainder in 10 annual installments. Pasco at once took possession, broke the land, and cultivated it until July 17, 1889, when he assigned his contract of purchase, and delivered possession of the land to the defendant G. W. Patterson, and his father, A. Patterson, in consideration of the payment by them to him of $800, they in addition to pay the amount due the railroad company upon the contract of purchase. A. Patterson subsequently died, and G. W. Patterson succeeded to his interest in the contract and land. July 17, 1889, the defendant G. W. Patterson leased the land to a tenant who occupied and cultivated the same under that lease until January 30, 1901, when Patterson sold and conveyed the land by warranty deed to the defendants T. H. and Wm. M. Smith for $6,360, its full value, which deed was duly recorded in the proper records in O'Brien county January 31, 1901, and they on March 31, 1901, in good faith sold and conveyed the land by warranty deed to defendant Thomas Beacom for $6,600.
The Smiths and defendant Beacom took immediate possession of the land on their respective purchases of the same.
After the land was restored to public entry under the order of the Land Department of November 18, 1895 (see Harvey v. Holles (just decided) 160 F. 531), and notice thereof by the local land office, the defendant Patterson on January 17, 1896 filed in the local land office notice of his intention to make proof of his claim under the act of March 3, 1887. January 21, 1896, James A. Beacom, and February 23, 1896, the complainant, respectively filed notices of their intention to claim it under the same act. February 27, 1896, Louis Hoffman, the intervener, and others made application to enter it as a homestead. March 23, 1896, complainant, and April 12, 1896, James A. Beacom, also made applications to so enter it. Upon a hearing of these several claims the local land office in 1897, rejected the application of defendant Patterson, upon the authority of Olson v. Traver et al., 26 Land Dec.Dep.Int. 350, because he had made a modified agreement with the railroad company like the one in that case, and awarded the land to intervener Hoffman as the first homestead applicant. Upon appeal by Patterson, James A. Beacom, and complainant, the Commissioner of the General Land Office, on August 28, 1899, sustained the decision rejecting the claim of Patterson, but reversed it so far as it awarded the land to Hoffman, and awarded it to James A. Beacom as the first homestead applicant. From this decision Patterson, Lyle, and Hoffman appealed to the Secretary of the Interior, who on April 11, 1900, sustained...
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