The United States, Appellants v. Edward Simon

• Decision Date: 01 December 1851
• Citation: 12 How. 433,13 L.Ed. 1054,53 U.S. 433
• Parties: THE UNITED STATES, APPELLANTS, v. EDWARD SIMON
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

53 U.S. 433

12 How. 433

13 L.Ed. 1054

THE UNITED STATES, APPELLANTS, v. EDWARD SIMON.

December Term, 1851

THIS was an appeal from the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

The case arose under the acts of 1824 and 1844, and was decided by the District Court in favor of the petitioner. The circumstances are stated in the opinion of the court.

It was argued by Mr. Crittenden, (Attorney-General,) for the United States. No counsel appeared for the appellee.

Mr. Justice GRIER delivered the opinion of the court.

Edward Simon, the plaintiff below, filed his petition in the District Court of Louisiana, praying the confirmation of his title to a tract of land on the bayou Sans Facon or Huffpower, containing six thousand four hundred arpens. He claimed by various mesne conveyances through Stephen Flores, who on the 11th of November, 1791, petitioned Governor Miro for a grant of eighty arpens front on each side of said bayou; the petitioner being 'desirous,' as he states, 'of establishing himself in the post of Opelousas.' On the 20th of November, 1791, Governor Miro issued an order to Don Carlos Trudeau to establish the petitioner on the land for which he prays, in the usual form.

The pleadings in this case do not allege, nor is there any evidence to prove, that Stephen Flores ever 'established himself at the post of Opelousas,' or took possession of the land which he desired to have, or obtained a survey thereof, or did any other act showing an intention of fulfilling the known conditions by which such gratuitous concessions could be converted from an inchoate into a complete title. In March, 1820, more than thirty years after its date, the order of survey is transferred by a person calling himself Stephen Flores to John Thompson. In 1825 John Thompson filed his claim with the register; but no action was taken on it, as its genuineness was doubted. In 1836 it was again submitted by the present petitioner to the register and receiver of Opelousas, under the act of 1835, and afterwards reported against by the Solicitor of the General Land-Office, because of 'no inhabitation, no cultivation, no possession.'

The land supposed to be described in this order of survey has been all, long since, surveyed and sold by the United States. During the twelve or thirteen years that the Province of Louisiana was in possession of Spain and France, Flores showed no desire of complying with the conditions of his grant, in any...