United States v. California Oregon Land Company No California Oregon Land Company v. United States No 14, 17 1902, s. 4

• Court: United States Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: Holmes
• Citation: 48 L.Ed. 476,192 U.S. 355,24 S.Ct. 266
• Parties: UNITED STATES, Appt. , v. CALIFORNIA & OREGON LAND COMPANY NO 4 CALIFORNIA & OREGON LAND COMPANY, Appt. , v. UNITED STATES. NO 5 Argued March 14, 17, 1902. Ordered for reargument
• Docket Number: Nos. 4,5,s. 4
• Decision Date: 21 April 1902

192 U.S. 355 24 S.Ct. 266 48 L.Ed. 476 UNITED STATES, Appt.,

v.

CALIFORNIA & OREGON LAND COMPANY NO 4 CALIFORNIA & OREGON LAND COMPANY, Appt., v. UNITED STATES. NO 5

Nos. 4, 5. Argued March 14, 17, 1902. Ordered for reargument April 21, 1902. Reargued December 9, 10, 1902.

Ordered resubmitted to full bench March 16, 1903.

Resubmitted March 23, 1903. Ordered for reargument October 26, 1903. Reargued January 5, 6, 7, 1904. Decided February 1, 1904.

Mr. Charles W. Russell for the United States.

Messrs. John F. Dillon, Aldis B. Browne, and Alexander Britton for the California & Oregon Land Company.

Mr. Justice Holmes delivered the opinion of the court:

These are cross appeals from a decree of the United States circuit court. The bill was brought for the purpose of having certain patents of land issued by the United States declared void. These patents were issued on April 2, 1873, to the Oregon Central Military Road Company, under an act of Congress of July 2, 1864 (13 Stat. at L. 355, chap. 213), granting lands to the state of Oregon to aid in the construction of a wagon road, and in pursuance of

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a grant of the same lands by the state to the road company on October 24, 1864. The California & Oregon Land Company claims through mesne conveyances from the patentee. The ground of the bill, so far as the argument before us is concerned, is that the lands in controversy were within the Klamath Indian Reservation, and therefore were 'lands heretofore reserved to the United States' within the proviso reserving such lands in the grant of July 2, 1864. As our decision is upon grounds independent of this question, it is unnecessary to state the legislation and facts upon which that controversy turns.

One of the pleas of the land company is that on August 30, 1889, the United States filed an earlier bill in the United States circuit court in respect of these same lands, praying, like the present one, that the patents be declared void; that the land company pleaded matters showing that the patents were valid, and also that it was a purchaser for valuable consideration, without notice; and that on March 29, 1893, a final decree was entered, finding the facts to be as alleged by the land company, including the allegation that the land company was a bona fide purchaser for value, and dismissing the bill on that ground. The land company also filed a cross bill in the present suit to enjoin the allotments of said lands and the issue of patents for the same to the Indians. The cross bill was demurred to.

The circuit court sustained the demurrer, adjudged the plea to be bad, and entered a decree declaring the patents void. We have to deal only with the before-mentioned plea.

The former bill was brought in pursuance of the act of Congress of March 2, 1889 (25 Stat. at L. 850, chap. 377). This act recited that the Oregon legislature had memorialized Congress, and had alleged that certain of the wagon roads in the state were not completed within the time required by the grants of the United States, and therefore enacted that suits should be brought in the United States circuit court against all claimants of any interest under the grant of 1864, and certain others, 'to determine the questions of the seasonable and proper completion of said roads in accordance with the terms of the granting

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acts. . . . The legal effect of the several certificates of the governors of the state of Oregon of the completion of said roads, and the right of resumption of such granted lands by the United States.' The court was authorized to render judgment of forfeiture 'saving and preserving the rights of all bona fide purchasers of either of said grants or of any portion of said grants for a valuable consideration, if any such there be. Said suit or suits shall be tried and adjudicated in like manner and by the same principles and rules of jurisprudence as other suits in equity are therein tried.' The act of March 2, 1896 (29 Stat. at L. 42, chap. 39),¹ also confirmed the title of bona fide purchasers.

By § 2, 'the state of Oregon, and any person or corporation claiming any interest under or through the grants aforesaid in the lands to be affected by said suit or suits, and whether made a party thereto or not, may intervene therein by sworn petition to defend his interest therein, as against the United States, or against each other, and affecting the said question of forfeiture, and may, upon such petition for intervention, also put in issue and have adjudicated and determined any other question, whether of law or of fact, which may be in dispute between said intervener and the United States, and affecting the right or title to any part of the lands claimed to have been embraced within the grants. . . . Should the lands embraced within said grants or either of them, or any portion thereof, be declared forfeited by the final determination of said suit or suits, the same shall be immediately restored to the public domain, and become subject to disposal under the general land laws; and should the final determination of said suit or suits maintain the right of the aforesaid wagon-road grantees or their assigns to the lands embraced in said grants, the Secretary of the Interior shall forthwith adjust said grants in accordance with such determination, and shall cause patents to be issued for the lands inuring to said grantees under said wagon-road grants and which have been heretofore unpatented.'

On the general principles of our law it is tolerably plain that the decree in the suit under the foregoing statute would

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be a bar. The parties, the subject-matter, and the relief sought all were the same. It is said, to be sure, that the United States now is suing in a different character from that in which it brought the former suit. There it sued for itself,—here it sues on behalf of the Indians. But that is not true in any sense having legal significance. It would be true of a suit by an executor as compared with a suit by the same person on his own behalf. But that is because in theory of...