Shelton v. Maupin

• Decision Date: 31 March 1852
• Citation: 16 Mo. 124
• Parties: SHELTON and HEATHERLY, Respondents, v. MAUPIN, Appellant.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

16 Mo. 124

SHELTON and HEATHERLY, Respondents,

v.MAUPIN, Appellant.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

March Term, 1852.

1. Although a survey of the United States within a confirmed claim is of no force against the claimant, yet, when he adopts the survey, as designating any portion of his land, it may furnish a valid description, by which he may convey such portion.

2. A deed which refers for a description of the land conveyed to a plat which shows a river to be one of the boundaries, is to be construed as if such a call was expressed in words in the body of the instrument.

3. When a deed, made either by the government or an individual, calls for a river as a boundary, the tract must have that boundary, although it does not correspond with the established corners and monuments.

Appeal from Franklin Circuit Court.

Frissell & Jones, for appellant, insist,

1. That Shelton and Heatherly are to be confined, strictly, to fractional section thirty-four, as laid down upon the plat in the register's office, from the field-notes made by the United States surveyor, at the time that part of the country was sectionized in 1817.

2. That the appellees can receive no benefit from alluvion adjacent to fractional section thirty-four, formed prior to their purchase from Labaddie in 1844. The section lines within Labaddie's private survey were of no authority, further than he saw proper to recognize them. He did, in his bond for title to the appellees, recognize the lines of said fractional section, as they appeared upon the plat in the register's office. He also conveyed to Maupin the land which lay between that section and the river. There is no conflict between the tracts conveyed to Maupin, and Shelton and Heatherly. Davis v. Rainsford, 17 Mass. Rep. 208; Magoun v. Lapham, 21 Pick. 135.

Stevenson, for respondents.

1. Shelton and Heatherly are entitled to the entire fractional section thirty-four, with the Missouri river as a boundary, the survey under which they purchased calling for the river as the terminus of both the west and south lines of said section, and the river being the northeast boundary. Accordingly, the land conveyed to Maupin, being embraced within said section, is the land of the respondents.

2. The land, as claimed by Maupin, being embraced within fractional section thirty-four, he having notice both of purchase and possession by Shelton and Heatherly, his deed must be declared void, and the title must vest in the respondents.

3. Taking the terminus of the south lines of fractional section thirty-four by chains and links, the rule of the government survey being that lines should run to the cardinal points, the respondents are still entitled to all accretions north of fractional section thirty-four as thus described.

GAMBLE, Judge, delivered the opinion of the court.

Sylvester Labaddie had a Spanish grant for a tract of land situated in Franklin county, which was confirmed by the act of Congress of 4th July, 1836. In 1817, the land embraced by this grant had been surveyed as public land, and the plats of the survey had been regularly made and sent to the office of the register of the land office. By the plats thus filed, fractional section thirty-four, township forty-five, of range two, west of the fifth principal meridian, appeared to be bounded by the Missouri river, and to contain one hundred and fifty-eight acres. On the 31st of January, 1844, Labaddie made his bond to Shelton and Heatherly, acknowledged the receipt of a part of the consideration money for the purchase of fractional section thirty-four, and the northeast quarter of fractional section thirty-three, and also of notes for the balance of the money, and binding himself to convey the said land to them, “as the same is described in the books of the register of the land office, for the district of lands subject to sale at St. Louis, Missouri.” The defendant, Maupin, on the 28th of January, 1848, purchased from Labaddie a piece of land, which, by its description, was supposed to be between the land of Shelton and Heatherly and the Missouri river. The idea upon which this purchase was made was, that the United States survey of fractional section thirty-four was, in fact, so made, that its lines did not run to the Missouri river; or, that if they were so run in 1817, when that survey was made, there had been alluvial accretions made in front of section thirty-four, since the survey, which would not be comprehended in the sale made by Labaddie to Shelton and Heatherly. This purchase by Maupin was made with a knowledge of the sale to Shelton and Heatherly; for Labaddie, when Maupin applied to purchase, did not believe he had any land between that sold to S. and H. and the river, until Maupin procured a survey to be made, exhibiting upon the plat a strip of land between section thirty-four and the river. Labaddie, afterwards, on the payment of the purchase money by S. and H., made a deed to them on the 21st of April, 1848, for the land he had sold to them, as evidenced by his title bond,...