Romine v. State
| Citation | 34 P. 924,7 Wash. 215 |
| Parties | ROMINE v. STATE ET AL. |
| Decision Date | 31 October 1893 |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court of Washington |
Appeal from superior court, Walla Walla county; William H. Upton Judge.
Action by Elizabeth Romine against the state of Washington and W. T Forrest, as commissioner of public lands of said state, to compel a conveyance to plaintiff of certain lands claimed by her by virtue of a purchase thereof from the territory of Washington. From a judgment overruling a demurrer to the complaint, defendants appeal. Affirmed.
W. C. Jones, Atty. Gen., and P. B. Johnson, Asst Atty. Gen., for appellants.
Thos H. Brents and Wellington Clark, for respondent.
The respondent brought her action under the act of March 28, 1890, entitled "An act for the relief of bona fide purchasers of school or university lands," etc., to compel a conveyance of certain lands in section 16, township 10 N., range 35 E., Willamette meridian, in Walla Walla county, alleging that they had been sold and conveyed to her grantor by the county commissioners in 1865, in pursuance of the act passed by the territorial legislature January 23, 1863, authorizing the sale of school lands reserved by the act of congress organizing the territory of Washington. 10 Stat. 179. A general demurrer to the complaint was overruled, and a decree was entered upon defendants' refusal to plead further. The complaint alleges all the facts required to be shown by the act of 1890, excepting that it is not alleged that "for any reason such grantee has not been vested with a title thereto." But this omission is, in the view of the pleader, compensated by an allegation that the state and the commissioner are asserting that the title did not vest in respondent's grantor by the conveyance of the commissioners, but that it is now vested in and held by the state, and that the lands are subject to sale as state school lands. Argument was made, and cases cited, to sustain the proposition that the reservation of lands in the several territories by congress, to be applied to the support of common schools in the territories, and the states to be created therefrom, constituted, in each case, a present, irrevocable grant to the territories, under which the territorial legislatures could dispose of the title to those lands. But we do not deem it to be material to this case to pass upon that question. Were we to find in the affirmative upon it, the respondent, who advances it for consideration, might find herself without a cause of action, since the statute expressly limits the right to sue the state to those transactions of the county commissioners or university commissioners, where "for any reason such [their] grantee has not been vested with a title." It would seem to be obvious that, if the territory had received a grant of lands from congress, a conveyance under its authority would have vested the title, which is not a case provided for in this law. However the law may be as to the territory's rights and powers, it must be conceded that in so far as the state now claims any title to the school lands under the act of February 22, 1889, commonly called the "Enabling Act," she is estopped to deny that that act has controlling force in her disposition of those lands, except as that act may have been modified. Minnesota v. Bachelder, 1 Wall. 109.
This brings us to the main point in the case: The appellants urge that it would be a violation of that provision of the federal constitution which prohibits states from passing laws impairing the obligation of contracts, were we to uphold the proviso to article 16, § 2, of the state constitution, and the act of 1890, because we should thereby countenance a violation of the enabling act, which provided that school lands in this state should be sold only at public auction and for not less than $10 per acre. Act Feb. 22, 1889,§ 11. The act of congress which enables a territory to come into...
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Larson v. Seattle Popular Monorail Auth.
...the State "shall be deemed admitted by Congress into the Union ... on an equal footing with the original States"); Romine v. State, 7 Wash. 215, 218, 34 P. 924 (1893) (describing a state's enabling act as a proposition to the people, the conditions for which, upon adoption of a state consti......
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State v. McCollum, 28809.
...by Philips & Co. v. Langlow, 55 Wash. 385, 104 P. 610, and Philips & Co. v. Mercy, 126 Wash. 376, 218 P. 4, 222 P. 902. Romine v. State, 7 Wash. 215, 34 P. 924, in which held that when the state prosecutes an appeal from an adverse judgment in the trial court it is liable for costs if the a......
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State v. McCollum, 28809.
...by Philips & Co. v. Langlow, 55 Wash. 385, 104 P. 610, and Philips & Co. v. Mercy, 126 Wash. 376, 218 P. 4, 222 P. 902. Romine v. State, 7 Wash. 215, 34 P. 924, in which we held that when the state prosecutes an appeal from an adverse judgment in the trial court it is liable for costs if th......
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Coyle v. Smith
...exercise of federal power under section 8, art. 1, of the Constitution of the United States. ¶103 The case of Romine v. State et al., 7 Wash. 215, 34 P. 924, which related to certain lands granted by the federal government to the state, involved a property or proprietary interest, and there......