San Pedro Canon Del Agua Co v. United States

• Decision Date: 14 November 1892
• Docket Number: No. 7,7
• Parties: SAN PEDRO & CANON DEL AGUA CO. v. UNITED STATES
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

146 U.S. 120

13 S.Ct. 94

36 L.Ed. 911

SAN PEDRO & CANON DEL AGUA CO.

v UNITED STATES.

No. 7.

November 14, 1892.

Suit brought by the United States against the San Pedro & Canon del Agua Company in the district court of the first judicial district of the territory of New Mexico to set aside a patent for certain lands. A decree was entered dismissing the bill, which was reversed on appeal to the territorial supreme court, and a rehearing was there applied for and denied. See 17 Pac. Rep. 337. Defendant appeals. Affirmed.

Statement by Mr. Justice BREWER:

On February 12, 1844, Jose Serafin Ramirez, a citizen of the republic of Mexico, and a resident of Santa Fe, in the department of New Mexico, petitioned the governor of that department for a grant of a tract of land known as the 'Canon del Agua,' together with the confirmation of the title to a mine claimed as an inheritance from his grandfather. The material part of the petition is as follows:

'I apply to your excellency in the name of the donation laws of the 4th of January, 1813, and 18th of August, 1824, and in the name of the Mexican nation, asking for a tract of vacant land known as the 'Canon del Agua,' near the placer of San Francisco, called 'Placer del Tuerto,' and distant from that town about one league, more or less.

'The land I ask for is vacant, and without owner, and I solicit it because I have no possession or property by which I can support my family. The boundaries solicited are: On the north, the road leading from the placer to the Palo Amarillo; on the south, the northern boundary of the grant of San Pedro; on the east, the spring of the Canon del Agua; on the west, the summit of the mountain of the mine known as 'My Own,' as will appear by the accompanying document No. 1, for which I ask your ratification and that of the departmental assembly, in the manner that I received it, as an inheritance from my grandfather, Don Francisco Dias de Moradillos; and I ask that this title be ratified according to the mining ordinances dated in the year 1813, title 5, article 1; in view of all of which I pray and request your excellency to grant me possession of the mine, to work it, and the land which it embraces, which is about one league, for cultivation and pasturing my animals, and for grinding ore and smelting metal.

'Jose Serafin Ramirez.

'Sante Fe, February 12, 1844.'

To which petition the departmental assembly and the governor thus responded:

'Departmental Assembly of New Mexico. In session of to-day the departmental assembly decrees that Don Serafin Ramirez, auditor of the departmental treasury, and the other heirs of Don Francisco Dias de Moradillos, deceased, have a right, as grandchildren, to the mine referred to in the petition, and title of possession and property, as expressed in the mining laws; and further decrees that his excellency, the governor of the department, in conformity with the colonization laws, shall grant the tract of land prayed for.

'Martinez, President.

'Thomas Oztiz, Secretary.

'Sante Fe, February 13, 1844. And in answer to your petition I grant you the tract asked for, and revalidation of the title to the mine, which are inclosed herewith. God and liberty.

Mariano Martinez.

'To Don Serafin Ramirez, auditor of the departmental treasury, Santa Fe.'

The same year juridical possession of the tract was given, the description in the certificate thereof being: 'On the north, the road of the Palo Amarillo; on the south, the boundary of the Rancho San Pedro; on the east, the spring of the Canon del Agua; on the west, the highest summit of the little mountain of El Tuerto, adjoining the boundary of the mine known as 'Inberited Property,' from this date, according to the colonization laws of the republic.'

By the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, in 1848, (9 St. p. 922,) the territory of New Mexico was transferred to the United States. In 1859, Ramirez filed with the surveyor general of New Mexico his petition, asking official recognition by this government of his grant. The description in this petition was:

'The quantity of land claimed is five thousand varas square, making one Castilian league, and bounded on the north by the placer road that goes down to the yellow timber; on the south, the northern boundary of the San Pedro grant; on the east, the spring of the Canon del Agua; on the west, the summit of the mountain of the mine known as the property of your petitioner, as appears by the original title deeds accompanying the notice, numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.' A hearing was had on this application on the 10th day of January, 1860. The surveyor general reported in favor of the grant, and on June 12, 1866, congress passed the following act of confirmation:

'An act to confirm the title of Jose Serafin Ramirez to certain lands in New Mexico. Be it enacted by the senate and house of representatives of the United States of America in congress assmbled, that the grant to Jose Serafin Ramirez of the Canon del Agua, as approved by the surveyor general of New Mexico January twenty, eighteen hundred and sixty, and designated as number seventy in the transcript of private land claims in New Mexico, transmitted to congress by the secretary of the interior January eleven, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, is hereby confirmed: provided, however, that this confirmation shall only be construed as a relinquishment on the part of the United States. and shall not affect the adverse rights of any person whatever. Approved June 12, 1866. 14 St. p. 588.'

On August 9, 1866, a survey was made by a deputy surveyor, under the direction of the surveyor general of New Mexico. This survey, after approval by such surveyor general, was forwarded to the land department at Washington, and on July 1, 1875, a patent was issued granting the land with boundaries as established by this survey. The following is a plat of the property as surveyed and patented:

In 1866, Ramirez conveyed the property to Cooley and others, from whom, in 1880, it passed to the present defendant. Thereafter, and on September 15, 1881, this suit was commenced by the United States in the district court of the first judicial district of the territory of New Mexico, to set aside the patent and annul the title conveyed thereby, on the ground of fraud in the survey. An answer was filed, proofs were taken, and the case went to final hearing before the district court. By that court, on February 16, 1885, a decree was entered in favor of the defendant dismissing the bill. From such decree an appeal was taken to the supreme court of the territory, which, on January 28, 1888, reversed the decision of the district court, and entered a decree in favor of the government, setting aside and annulling the patent and the survey upon which it was based, from which decree the defendant has appealed to this court.

George Hoadly, for appellant.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 125-130 intentionally omitted]

Page 130

A. X. Parker, Asst. Atty. Gen., Warren, Ferguson & Bruner, and Thomas Smith, for the United States.

Mr. Justice BREWER, after stating the facts in the foregoing language, delivered the opinion of the court.

The supreme court of the territory, at the request of the defendant, made and certified a statement of the facts in the case. This is in accordance with the act of April 7, 1874, (18 St. p. 27,) which, in section 2,—a section providing for the exercise of the appellate jurisdiction of this court over the judgments and decrees of territorial courts,—reads: 'That on appeal, instead of the evidence at large, a statement of the facts of the case in the nature of a special verdict, and also the rulings of the court on the admission or rejection of evidence, when excepted to, shall be made and certified by the court below, and transmitted to the supreme court, together with the transcript of the proceedings and judgment or decree.' Construing this statute, it was held, in the case of Improvement Co. v. Bradbury, 132 U. S. 509, 514, 10 Sup. Ct. Rep. 177, that 'the authority of this court, on appeal from a territorial court, is limited to determining whether the court's findings of fact support its judgment or decree, and whether there is any error in rulings, duly excepted to, on the ad-

Page 131

mission or rejection of evidence, and does not extend to a consideration of the weight of evidence or its sufficiency to support the conclusions of the court. Stringfellow v. Cain, 99 U. S. 610; Cannon v. Pratt, Id. 619; Neslin v. Wells, 104 U. S. 428; Hecht v. Boughton, 105 U. S. 235, 236; Gray v. Howe, 108 U. S. 12, 1 Sup. Ct. Rep. 136; Eilers v. Boatman, 111 U. S. 356, 4 Sup. Ct. Rep. 432; Zeckendorf v. Johnson, 123 U. S. 617, 8 Sup. Ct. Rep. 261.' Hence, notwithstanding the large volume of testimony taken and used in the court below has been incorporated into the record sent to us, we are not at liberty to review that testimony for the purpose of ascertaining whether the findings in the statement of facts are or are not in accordance with the weight of the evidence. This narrows materially the range of our inquiry.

The first proposition of the appellant is that the United States has no interest in the controversy, and did not in good faith institute and prosecute this suit. This claim rests upon the fact that in the record is found the following letter:

'Department of Justice, Washington, October 17, 1883. F. W. Clancy, Esq., 1426 Corcoran St., Washington, D. C.—Sir: To your inquiry whether the United States will pay the costs incurred in the case against the San Pedro and Canon del Agua Company, I answer that the United States has no beneficial interest in the proceeding. It was instituted at the instance of parties who claimed a right to the possession of the lands. Upon their request special counsel were appointed by this department to commence and carry on the suit, but they were not to be compensated by the United States, and it was the understanding of this department, as in other...