Stewart v. Lapsley
| Decision Date | 01 January 1853 |
| Citation | 11 Tex. 41 |
| Parties | STEWART v. LAPSLEY AND ANOTHER. |
| Court | Texas Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Where a party brought his action of trespass to try title, upon a location of a genuine land claim, and afterwards obtained a survey, which it became important for him to prove at the trial, to avoid a forfeiture of his location for failure to survey within twelve months from the passage of the Act of February 10th, 1852, concerning surveys of land; Held, That the Court erred in charging the jury, in effect, to disregard the evidence of a survey, because of the failure of the plaintiff to allege it. (Note 11.)
Appeal from Bexar.
J. Denison, for appellant.
I. A. & G. W. Paschal, for appellees.
This suit was commenced, on the first day of May, A. D., 1848, to recover land, upon a location of a good and valid land certificate. The suit was tried on the 14th day of June, 1853, being the Spring Term of the Court. On February the 10th, 1852, an Act of the Legislature passed, to take effect from its passage, entitled an Act concerning surveys of land. The first Section of the Act requires “that the field notes of all surveys made previous to the passage of this Act, shall be made out and returned in the manner now required by law, to the General Land Office, on or before the 31st day of August, 1853, or they shall become null and void,” etc. The fifth Section enacts, “That the field notes of all surveys hereafter made, shall be returned to and filed in the General Land Office within twelve months from the date of the survey.” The eighth Section enacts, “That all lands heretofore located by virtue of any genuine claim to land, shall be surveyed within twelve months from the passage of this Act, and lands hereafter located shall be surveyed within twelve months from the date of the location, or the said location, in either case, shall be null and void,” etc. These Sections, taken and construed together, establish the following propositions: that the field notes of the survey of all lands located and surveyed before the passage of the Act, must be returned to and filed in the General Land Office, on or before the 31st day of August, A. D., 1853. That all lands located, but not surveyed, before the passage of the Act, must be surveyed within twelve months from the passage of the Act; and lastly, that the field notes of all surveys made after the passage of the Act, must be returned to and filed in the General Land Office, within twelve months from the date of the survey.
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