United States v. Scott

• Decision Date: 01 January 1889
• Citation: 38 F. 393
• Parties: UNITED STATES v. SCOTT et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Texas

38 F. 393

UNITED STATES v. SCOTT et al.

United States District Court, E.D. Texas.

January, 1889

Syllabus by the Court

A receiver in a land-office in Louisiana sold land to H. & L for $1. 25 per acre. The receiver was in error as to the price; it should have been sold for $2.50. H. & L. received a certificate acknowledging payment at $1.25 per acre, and describing the land. No one is charged with fraud. Soon after H. & L. went into possession under the certificate, they sold for cash the timber or trees on the land for fire-wood, to defendants. Before purchasing, defendants examined the official books in the land-office, which disclosed the sale to H. & L. Several years after the sale to defendants, and after the death of H. & L., who left insolvent succession demand was made by the government for the additional $1.25 per acre, which demand was not complied with, and a compromise agreement was entered into between the government and the succession by which all the rights of H. & L. were given up to the government, and the latter returned the $1.25 per acre originally paid by H. & L. to their succession. Held, that the act of sale made by receiver to H. & L. was not wholly ultra vires; that at the time of the sale of timber to defendants, H. & L. were in bona fide possession of the land, with knowledge of the government, and under a certificate which in Louisiana was tantamount in its legal effect, so far as defendants were concerned, to a title translative of property; that as to defendants the sale made to H. & L. was not void ab initio; that, on the contrary, the transactions of the receiver with H. & L. imposed on the government, in law and equity, obligations of which it can be acquitted only by proper judicial proceedings, or by some such compromise as is shown to have been made by the succession of H. & L. with the government; that the government agent, acting within the scope of his authority, so far as selling the particular land is concerned, caused a condition of things to exist of which the government had full knowledge for several years, which were misleading, and did mislead defendants into purchasing the timber from H. & L.; that in law and equitable dealing the government is estopped from demanding at this late day from defendants any further payment for the timber cut by them while H. & L. were in possession of the land under the certificate, circumstances, and facts shown by the evidence in the case.

J. E McComb, for the United States.

Jas. Turner, for defendants.

BOARMAN J.

The government sues to recover from defendants $225, the value of timber cut and taken away from the public lands in Louisiana. The facts shown in the agreement of counsel are substantially as follows: That Hazelhurst and Lane, in 1881, entered 80 acres of land, and paid $1.25 per acre for it, in the land-office in Natchitoches; that the register, acting in good faith, gave them a certificate showing the entry, the payment of $1.25 per acre, and the description of the said land; that the defendants examined the records in the land-office, and found a recital of the facts just stated that they purchased the timber on the land for cord-wood, and paid a fair price therefor to H. & L.; that they took 900 cords, worth 25 cents per cord in the tree, from the land, and disposed of the same for their own use; that under the law the land in question was on the market, and was held at $2.50 per acre; that nothing was done or said by the government in the premises, until several years after defendants had bought and disposed of the timber, and H. & L. were dead and their successions were known to be insolvent; that in 1886...