State of New Mexico v. Franklin Lane

• Decision Date: 06 March 1917
• Docket Number: O,No. 20,20
• Citation: 37 S.Ct. 348,243 U.S. 52,61 L.Ed. 588
• Parties: STATE OF NEW MEXICO, Complainant, v. FRANKLIN K. LANE, Secretary of the Interior of the United States, and Clay Tallman, Commissioner of the General Land Office of the United States. riginal
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

243 U.S. 52

37 S.Ct. 348

61 L.Ed. 588

STATE OF NEW MEXICO, Complainant,

v FRANKLIN K. LANE, Secretary of the Interior of the United States, and Clay Tallman, Commissioner of the General Land Office of the United States.

No. 20, Original.

Submitted January 8, 1917.

Decided March 6, 1917.

Mr. Harvey M. Friend and Mr. Frank W. Clancy, Attorney General of New Mexico, for complainant.

Solicitor General Davis and Mr. S. W. Williams for defendant.

Mr. Justice McKenna delivered the opinion of the court:

Bill for injunction, in which the state of New Mexico asserts title in fee simple to the S. W. 1/4 of the N. E. 1/4 of section 16, township 15 N., R. 18 W., New Mexico principal meridian, under the school land grant of June 21, 1898, and prays to restrain the Interior Department from issuing a patent therefor to one Keepers.

The bill exhibits the grounds of suit as follows:

By § 1 of an act approved June 21, 1898, 30 Stat. at L. 484, chap. 489, there were granted to the territory of New Mexico sections 16 and 36 in every township in the state for the support of common schools. If such sections should be mineral, other lands were to be granted in lieu thereof, to be selected as provided in other sections of the act.

Section 6 of an act approved June 20, 1910, 36 Stat. at L. 557, 561, chap. 310, which was an act to enable the people of New Mexico to form a constitution and state government and be admitted into the Union, granted, in addition to sections 16 and 36, sections 2 and 32 in every township in the propesed state, not otherwise appropriated at the date of the passage of the act. This grant also was for the support of the common schools.

It was provided in § 10 that such lands and those theretofore granted were 'expressly transferred and confirmed to the said state,' and should 'be by the state held in trust,' etc.

By § 12, except as modified or repealed by the act, all grants of lands were ratified and confirmed to the state, subject to the provisions of the act.

On January 6, 1912, New Mexico was admitted to the Union on an equal footing with the other states, and became and is the beneficiary of the school land grant of June 21, 1898. Such grant had been held a grant in praesenti, under which absolute title in fee to all sections 16 and 36 in the territory which were at that date identified passed to the territory at the date of the approval of the act, unless known to be mineral, and no certificate or patent was necessary to pass such title.

Township 15 N. of R. 18 was surveyed by the United States government in 1881. The survey was approved by the surveyor general of New Mexico November 30, 1881, and a township plat duly filed in the local land office, and the land became subject to disposal July 21, 1882, which was many years prior to the grant of June 21, 1898.

Section 16 was not disposed of or otherwise reserved, and therefore passed to the territory by the grant of June 21, 1898, and the land described above was not at that time known to be mineral in character, and was not then known coal land under the interpretation of the coal-land law which had uniformly prevailed, in that at such date there had been no attempt on the part of anyone to discover or develop coal upon it, and no coal had been produced or extracted therefrom until 1911, thirteen years therefrom until 1911, thirteen years after the title in fee had vested in the territory.

The decision of the Department and of the Supreme Court (this court) was that land could not be held to be 'known coal land' unless there had been a mine opened thereon and an actual production of coal in such quantity as to make the land more valuable on that account than for other purposes, and that such construction had become a rule of property, and title vested under it could not be devested by a change of construction.

The construction was known to Congress when it passed the Act of June 21, 1898, was adopted by it when it enacted that act, and became the rule of construction for the future administration of the land, and the acceptance of the grant became an executed contract between the territory and the United States, to be construed and interpreted as then understood. Notwithstanding, the Commissioner of the General Land Office and the Secretary of the Interior have decided that a locator on the land, whose claim was filed in 1911, is entitled to have a patent for the tract above described, and they are about to issue a patent to him.

On May 12, 1911, one George A. Keepers filed in the local land office at Santa Fe, New Mexico, a coal declaratory statement under § 2348, Rev. Stat. Comp. Stat. 1913, § 4660, for the land in controversy, and three days thereafter he applied to purchase the same as coal land under § 2347, Rev. Stat. Comp. Stat. 1913, § 4659, and publication of notice thereof, as provided by the mining laws and regulations of the Interior Department, was duly had, beginning May 19, 1911, and ending June 16, 1911.

Within the period of publication protests were filed against the application, and the territory of New Mexico intervened, claiming the land under the Act of June 21, 1898, on the ground that it was not coal land at the date of the grant. A hearing was allowed to determine the land's character.

It is conceded that the Commissioner of the General Land Office had the right and authority to determine the question whether the land was known coal land at the date of the grant of June 21, 1898. Nevertheless in such determination that official was restricted to ascertaining the single fact whether, at the date of the grant, a mine had been opened on the land or coal produced therefrom, and this was the sole question that he could investigate. But, notwithstanding, he undertook and directed a h...