Rector v. Gibbon

• Decision Date: 07 April 1884
• Citation: 4 S.Ct. 605,28 L.Ed. 427,111 U.S. 276
• Parties: RECTOR v. GIBBON and others. 1
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

111 U.S. 276

4 S.Ct. 605

28 L.Ed. 427

RECTOR v. GIBBON and others.¹

April 7, 1884.

Sol. F. Clark and Sam. W. Williams, for appellees.

FIELD, J.

This is a suit in equity, brought by the plaintiff to charge the heirs at law of David Ballantine, as trustees of certain real property within the Hot Springs reservation, in the state of Arkansas, and compel them to convey it to him. The question for determination is whether, under the act of congress of March 3, 1877, providing for the sale of part of the reservation, they were entitled to purchase the property in preference to him.

From the protracted litigation to which it has given rise, the Hot Springs reservation is famous in the history of land titles of the country. Early in the present century the medicinal qualities of those springs were discovered, and from that fact the adjacent lands had an exceptional value. They were claimed by different individuals,—some portions under a New Madrid certificate, and some portions under pre-emption settlements. The plaintiff entered upon the parcels in controversy as early as 1839, under an attempted location of a New Madrid certificate made in 1820, and he remained in their exclusive possession until April 24, 1876. They were then taken in charge by a receiver appointed by the court of claims under an act passed in 1870, to enable persons claiming title, either legal or equitable, to the whole or to any part of the four sections of land constituting the reservation, to bring suit in that court for the determination of their title as against the United States. Four suits were brought, one of them by the plaintiff, and they resulted in an adjudication that the title was in the United States, and that the several claims were invalid. Hot Springs Cases, 92 U. S. 698. The decision against him was regarded as a special hardship, both from his long possession, and from the fact that his failure to obtain a title was occasioned by the neglect of the public officer, under whose direction the land was surveyed, to return the survoy and a plat of the location to the recorder of land titles for the territory of Missouri. Until such return the location under the New Madrid certificate was incomplete, and the lands were not appropriated so as to exclude the operation of the act of April 20, 1832, by which the four sections were reserved for the future disposal of the United States. This court, in rejecting all the claims, observed that whatever hardship might thereby ensue would, no doubt, be taken into consideration by the legislative department in the future disposition of the lands. Accordingly, and, it is believed, upon this suggestion, congress passed the act of March 3, 1877. It provided for the appointment by the president of 'three discreet, competent, and disinterested persons,' to constitute a board of commissioners, and imposed upon them various duties. Among other things, it required them, under the direction and subject to the approval of the secretary of the interior, to designate a tract sufficiently large to include all the hot or warm springs on the land, embracing what is known as the Hot Springs Mountain, which tract was declared to be reserved from sale; and to lay out the residue of the land into convenient squares, blocks, lots, avenues, streets, and alleys, the lines of which were to correspond with existing lines of occupants of the reservation, as near as might be consistent with the interests of the United States. It also provided that they should, by a map prepared for that purpose, show the metes and bounds of the parcels or tracts claimed by reason of improvements thereon, or occupied on the reservation; should hear proofs offered by claimants and occupants in respect to the lands and improvements, and 'finally determine the right of each claimant or occupant to purchase the same, or any portion thereof, at the appraised value fixed by the commissioners.' It declared that claimants and occupants should file their claims before the commissioners within six months after the first session of the board, or that thei claims should be barred; and that no claim should be considered which had accrued after the twenty-fourth of April, 1876. It also made it the duty of the commissioners to file in the office of the secretary of the interior the map and survey, with the boundary lines of each claim clearly marked thereon, and with each division and subdivision traced and numbered, accompanied by a schedule showing the name of the claimant of each lot or parcel of land, with its appraised value; and also all the evidence taken by them 'respecting the claimant's possessory right of occupation' to any portion of the reservation, and their findings in each case, with their appraisal of the value of each tract and of the improvements thereon; and to issue a certificate to each claimant setting forth the amount of land the holder was entitled to purchase, and its valuation, and also the character and valuation of the improvements. 19 St. 377.

The act made it the duty of the secretary of the interior, within 30 days after the commissioners had filed their report and map, to instruct the land-officers of Little Rock land-district to allow the lands to be entered, and to cause a patent to be issued therefor. Within the required time, the plaintiff filed his claim before the commissioners, and presented proof showing his long-continued occupation of the land in controversy, and the improvements he had made thereon. While it was in his occupation, on the twenty-first of February, 1873, he, through his son, who held the property as trustee to pay certain debts, leased it to the defendants Gibbon and Kirkpatrick for the purpose of a hotel, bath-house, and out-houses, at an annual rent of $500, and $1,500 ADDITIONAL FOR WATER PRIVILEGES, For the term of three years and three months, beginning on that day and ending on the twenty-first of May, 1876. The lease provided that the hotel and other improvements should not cost more than $12,000; that at the end of the term the lessor should have the right to take the improvements by paying two-thirds of their first cost, and should take the furniture in the hotel and bath-house by paying its actual value, so that the same should not exceed $8,000; that if he should not pay these amounts at the end of the term, the lease should be extended on the same conditions until he should make the payments, giving 90 days' notice of his intention to terminate the lease; that upon its termination as specified the lessees should deliver to him, or to his successors in office, or grantees, or 'to whomsoever at that time in law may have the right to control the trust property,' all the lands leased to them, 'promptly, without failure, and free from let or hinderance of any kind whatever, together with all buildings, outhouses, and improvements' that might be erected on the premises. The terms 'to whomsoever at that time in law may have the right to control the trust property,' refer to persons lawfully controlling the property under authority derived from the plaintiff. The lessor then held the property as trustee, and by the covenant, when the trust should be discharged, the right of control would revert to him. They were not intended to authorize a delivery under any circumstances to parties claiming adversely. Soon after the lease was executed the trust was discharged by the payment of the debts, and the property and possession reverted to the plaintiff. Before the lease he had made improvements of the value of at least $1,000 in excavations, grading, and building a wall to protect the land from the action of the water of the Hot Springs creek, and had erected valuable buildings. After the lease a hotel was built on the premises, and before the end of the term the parties agreed that the lease should be continued until some time in the future, when it might be terminated by written notice as provided in the instrument.

In the year 1877 the lessees sold and transferred all their in- terest in the premises to one David Ballantine, he knowing at the time the terms and conditions of the lease. While the lessees were in possession, and before their transfer, the plaintiff gave them notice of his desire to teminate the lease, and requested them to furnish him with a list of the furniture coming within its provisions, which they promised to do, but never did. He never could get from them the information required for settlement, and therefore none was ever made, though he was ready and willing and frequently offered to pay all the sums that might be due to them under the terms of the lease, which offer they, under various pretenses, always declined. After entering upon the premises under the transfer, Ballantine died, being at the time a resident of Illinois, leaving surviving him certain of the defendants, who are named in the bill of complaint as his heirs at law. By the survey of the commissioners a part of the premises was laid off and designated as lots 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11, in block 89, in the town of Hot Springs, and the residue thereof, on which the hotel and some of the outbuildings were erected, was laid off into a street. They were appraised at the value of $10,000, and condemned, and were then torn down and destroyed. A certificate of their condemnation and value was given to the heirs of Ballantine. As already mentioned, the plaintiff filed his claim to purchase the lots before the commissioners. The heirs of Ballantine also filed a like claim, and to them was awarded the right to purchase, although it was shown that their ancestor had acquired his possession under the lease made to Gibbon and Kirkpatrick. For these reasons—that the heirs never had any other right or title to the lands, or to their possession, except under the lease, containint covenants to restore the property and possession to the lessor, or to his successor in title, on its termination—the plaintiff prays...