Moore v. Robbins

• Citation: 96 U.S. 530,24 L.Ed. 848
• Parties: MOORE v. ROBBINS
• Decision Date: 01 October 1877
• Court: United States Supreme Court

96 U.S. 530

24 L.Ed. 848

MOORE v. ROBBINS.

October Term, 1877

ERROR to the Supreme Court of the State of Illinois.

The facts are stated in the opinion of the court.

Mr. Philip Phillips for the plaintiff in error.

Mr. R. E. Williams, contra.

MR. JUSTICE MILLER delivered the opinion of the court.

This case is brought before us by a writ of error to the Supreme Court of the State of Illinois.

In its inception, it was a bill in the Circuit Court for De Witt County, to foreclose a mortgage given by Thomas I. Bunn to his brother Lewis Bunn, on the south half of the south-east quarter and the south half of the south-west quarter of section 27, township 19, range 3 east, in said county. In the progress of the case, the bill was amended so as to allege that C. H. Moore and David Davis set up some claim to the land; and they were made defendants, and answered.

Moore said that he was the rightful owner of forty acres of the land mentioned in the bill and mortgage, to wit, the south-west quarter of the south-west quarter of said section, and had the patent of the United States giving him the title to it.

Davis answered that he was the rightful owner of the south-east quarter of said south-west quarter of section 27. He alleges that John P. Mitchell bought the land at the public sale of lands ordered by the President for that district, and paid for it, and had the receipt of the register and receiver, and that it was afterwards sold under a valid judgment and execution against Mitchell, and the title of said Mitchell came by due course of conveyance to him, said Davis.

It will thus be seen, that, while Moore and Davis each assert title to a different forty acres of the land covered by Bunn's mortgage to his brother, neither of them claim under or in privity with Bunn's title, but adversely to it.

But as both parties assert a right to the land under purchases from the United States, and since their rights depend upon the laws of the United States concerning the sale of its public lands, there is a question of which this court must take cognizance.

As regards Moore's branch of the case, it seems to us free from difficulty.

The evidence shows that the forty acres which he claims was struck off to him at a cent or two over $2.50 per acre, at a public land sale, by the officers of the land district at Danville, Ill., Nov. 15, 1855; that his right to it was contested before the register and receiver by Bunn, who set up a prior pre-emption right. Those officers decided in favor of Bunn; whereupon Moore appealed to the Commissioner of the General Land-Office, who reversed the decision of the register and receiver, and on this decision a patent for the land was issued to Moore, who has it now in his possession.

Some time after this patent was delivered to Moore, Bunn appealed from the decision of the commissioner to the Secretary of the Interior, who reversed the commissioner's decision and confirmed that of the register and receiver, and directed the patent to Moore to be recalled, and one to issue to Bunn. But Moore refused to return his patent, and the Land Department did not venture to issue another for the same land; and so there is no question but that Moore is vested now with the legal title to the land, and was long before this suit was commenced. Nor is there, in looking at the testimony taken before the register and receiver and that taken in the present suit, any just foundation for Bunn's pre-emption claim. We will consider this point more fully when we come to the Davis branch of the case.

Taking this for granted, it follows that Moore, who has the legal title, is in a suit in chancery decreed to give it up in favor of one who has neither a legal nor an equitable title to the land.

The Supreme Court of Illinois, before whom it was not pretended that Bunn had proved his right to a pre-emption, in their opinion in this case place the decree by which they held Bunn's title paramount to that of Moore on the ground that to the officers of the Land Department, including the Secretary of the Interior, the acts of Congress had confided the determination of this class of cases; and the decision of the secretary in favor of Bunn, being the latest and the final authoritative decision of the tribunal having jurisdiction of the contest, the courts are bound by it, and must give effect to it. Robbins v. Bunn, 54 Ill. 48.

Without now inquiring into the nature and extent of the doctrine referred to by the Illinois court, it is very clear to us that it has no application to Moore's case. While conceding for the present, to the fullest extent, that when there is a question of contested right between private parties to receive from the United States a patent for any part of the public land, it belongs to the head of the Land Department to decide that question, it is equally clear that when the patent has been awarded to one of the contestants, and has been issued, delivered, and accepted, all right to control the title or to decide on the right to the title has passed from the land-office. Not only has it passed from the land-office, but it has passed from the Executive Department of the government. A moment's consideration will show that this must, in the nature of things, be so. We are speaking now of a case in which the officers of the department have acted within the scope of their authority The offices of register and receiver and commissioner are created mainly for the purpose of supervising the sales of the public lands; and it is a part of their daily business to decide when a party has by purchase, by pre-emption, or by any other recognized mode, established a right to receive from the government a title to any part of the public domain. This decision is subject to an appeal to the secretary, if taken in time. But if no such appeal be taken, and the patent issued under the seal of the United States, and signed by the President, is delivered to and accepted by the party, the title of the government passes with this delivery. With the title passes away all authority or control of the Executive Department over the land, and over the title which it has conveyed. It would be as reasonable to hold that any private owner of land who has conveyed it to another can, of his own volition, recall, cancel, or annul the instrument which he has made and delivered. If fraud, mistake, error, or wrong has been done, the courts of justice present the only remedy. These courts are as open to the United States to sue for the cancellation of the deed or reconveyance of the land as to individuals; and if the government is the party injured, this is the proper course.

'A patent,' says the court in United States v. Stone (2 Wall. 525), 'is the highest evidence of title, and is conclusive against the government and all claiming under junior patents or titles, until it is set aside or annulled by some judicial tribunal. In England, this was originally done by scire facias; but a bill in chancery is found a more convenient remedy.' See also Hughes v. United States, 4 Wall. 232; S. C. 11 How. 552.

If an individual setting up claim to the land has been injured, he may, under circumstances presently to be considered, have his remedy against the party who has wrongfully obtained the title which should have gone to him.

But in all this there is no place for the further control of the Executive Department over the title. The functions of that department necessarily cease when the title has passed from the government. And the title does so pass in every instance where, under the decisions of the officers having authority in the matter, a conveyance, generally called a patent, has been signed by the President, and sealed, and delivered to and accepted by the grantee. It is a matter of course that, after this is done, neither the secretary nor any other executive officer can entertain an appeal. He is absolutely without authority. If this were not so, the titles derived from the United States, instead of being the safe and assured evidence of ownership which they are generally supposed to be, would be always subject to the fluctuating, and in many cases unreliable, action of the land-office. No man could buy of the grantee with safety, because he could only convey subject to the right of the officers of the government to annul his title.

If such a power exists, when does it cease? There is no statute of limitations against the government; and if this right to reconsider and annul a patent after it has once become perfect exists in the Executive Department, it can be exercised at any time, however remote. It is needless to...