White v. United States

• Decision Date: 01 December 1863
• Citation: 68 U.S. 660,17 L.Ed. 69,1 Wall. 660
• Parties: WHITE v. UNITED STATES
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

68 U.S. 660

17 L.Ed. 69

1 Wall. 660

WHITE v. UNITED STATES.

December Term, 1863

APPEAL from the District Court for the Northern District of California; the following case being presented.

The appellant, White, claimed a tract, or rancho of land, known as San Antonio, under a grant alleged to have been made to one Antonio Ortega. The United States, appellees in the suit, claimed it under a grant alleged to have been made by the same authority to a certain Juan Miranda. One question, therefore, was as to the validity of the respective documentary titles thus set up. But this question was complicated by other questions: one of actual occupation, another of agency or representation, and a third of abandonment. Ortega had married the daughter of Miranda, and both Ortega and Miranda had occupied the tract,—Miranda and his family being sometimes in occupation, as Ortega and his wife were at others; and the additional question therefore was, whether Ortega was occupying under Miranda, or Miranda occupying under Ortega,—a question made more difficult to solve by the fact that Ortega and his wife were in hostile relations, leaving it uncertain when she was in possession as she was at times, whether she was occupying under her husband or under her father. In consequence of his domestic difficulty, moreover, Ortega left California in 1843 for Oregon, remaining there till 1847; between which years Miranda got his grant: and a question was whether Ortega had abandoned the property. Ortega's title was partly of a documentary kind and partly of an equitable sort, and resting on parol evidence. The documentary title consisted of a sheet of paper containing:

1. Petition to the governor, Alvarado.

2. A marginal order of reference.

3. An informe; and

4. A decree of concession.

There was also produced a map of the land solicited; though when made was a question in the case. The petition was in the name of Ortega, and was dated June 12th, 1840. The marginal order was in the handwriting of and signed by Governor Alvarado, and dated June 20th, 1840; this date, however, being an altered one, as hereinafter stated. The informe was signed by M. G. Vallejo, and dated July 30th, 1840. The decree of concession was dated August 10th, 1840, and, translated, in its important parts as follows:

'I grant to Don Antonio Ortega the land petitioned for, with the understanding that in order to obtain the issue of the respective titulo, and to regularly make up the necessary expediente (by which the boundaries should be marked), and the necessary proceedings be taken, he shall make a map as required by law, which he shall present without delay, together with this instancia, which shall serve him as security during the further proceedings indicated.'

These documents were produced, together with the map, from the custody of the claimant. It did not appear that they were at any time on file in the public archives. The oral testimony came from a great number of witnesses.

Governor Alvarado, who was twice examined, testified that he executed and delivered this grant to Ortega at the time it bears date; and that some time afterwards, in the last of 1840, or first of 1841, Ortega brought to him the original expediente and map, and left them with him, and that he kept them for Ortega until about 1848, when he gave them up to him.

As respected the date of the dise no, now produced by the claimants under the title of Ortega, testimony of Alvarado, given on his second one, was as follows; Ortega himself testifying also to the same effect as to the dise no:

'Question 23. You have said that Ortega twice presented himself to you in Monterey, in 1840, in relation to this grant; state what papers, if any, he presented to you on the occasion of his first visit, and what papers on the occasion of his second visit.

'Answer 23. My recollection is that he brought with him each time the same papers, that is the petition, but the first time without any map; the second t me the petition and dise no together. He might have come other times, but I only recollect those two times.'

It was at the second interview that the 'concession' was given.

General Vallejo, agent of colonization under the Mexican government, testified that in 1838 or 1839, Ortega applied to him, as was customary, with his petition for permission to settle upon this rancho; that he gave him the permission asked for, and he immediately moved on the rancho, taking with him his father-in-law, Juan Miranda, and his family; that he built a house and corrals,¹ and stocked the place with horses and cattle; that he (Vallejo) furnished him with stock for that purpose; that Miranda occupied the land for Ortega; that Ortega obtained the grant from Governor Alvarado in 1840; that he saw the grant himself; and that he never gave Miranda any license or permission to occupy this rancho, or any portion of it.

Richardson testifies that this rancho was granted to Ortega by Governor Alvarado in the year 1840; that he knew the boundaries of the rancho by seeing the original grant, and having it in his possession; that Miranda occupied the rancho under Ortega by virtue of a special contract between Miranda and Ortega; that they both told him so.

De la Rosa testified that he wrote Ortega's petition for him, and made the very map now exhibited in the case; that he made it in 1839 or 1840; that he saw the grant, saw it in the house of Ortega on the rancho in question; that Miranda occupied the rancho for Ortega; that Ortega's family ived on it during his absence in Oregon; that Miranda applied for a grant of this land to himself while Ortega was absent in Oregon; he (Rosa) drawing and presenting the petition; that a grant to him was written out in the office of the secretary of state, but was never signed by the governor.

Jacob Leese, alcalde of Sonoma at the time Miranda applied for a grant, testified that he gave him the certificate found in his expediente wholly upon the allegation set forth in his (Miranda's) petition, and from the fact that he (Miranda) lived upon the land. He also says: 'But the fact of the former grant (to Ortega) being concealed or contradicted by the petition, I was deceived; and if the grant was obtained from the governor through the deception practised upon the alcalde, that grant would be fraudulently obtained, and would be void.'

Father Accolti, a priest, testified that he became acquainted with Ortega in 1845 in Oregon [to which place, as mentioned, Ortega went in 1843, remaining there till 1847 or '8], and at that time Ortega urged him and some other priests and some sisters of Notre Dame to come to California and establish a school, stating that he would give them, together with 'that piece of land, half of his stock of cattle on the land.' He stated that he had the grant to the rancho from the Mexican government. The offer was made on condition that he would educate his (Ortega's) children. He also testified that the original title-papers in this case, viz., the expediente and map, together with a deed subsequently given by Ortega to Brouillet, were all placed in his possession in December, 1849.

Father Brouillet, another priest, the person just mentioned by Father Accolti, testified that he made an agreement with Ortega in 1849 to educate his children; and that, in consideration thereof, Ortega made a deed to him of all this rancho, excepting one league. He identified the original deed as the one delivered him by Ortega. He also testified that he was put in possession of this rancho by Ortega, May 1, 1849, in the presence of one Miller and Theodore Miranda, a son of Juan, who was also present as a witness, and acquiesced to the possession given in his presence by Ortega. This possession was given on the rancho, and at the same time the deed from Ortega was delivered to him, as well as the original title-papers of the rancho. He also testified that the title-papers, viz., the expediente and map, are the same which were delivered to him by Ortega, May 1, 1849, on this rancho, in presence of Miller and Theodore Miranda; that before he delivered to Ortega his contract to educate his children, he consulted General M. G. Vallejo as to the validity of Ortega's title, and that Vallejo assured him the title was genuine; that in the same year he took the said Ortega's expediente and map to Monterey, and there showed them to Governor Alvarado; and that Alvarado, at that time, assured him that the said title to Ortega's rancho was genuine; that there was but one question that could be raised in it, which was, that the Departmental Assembly had not acted upon it, but that he did not think that would be any objection in the courts of the United States.

Miller, the person mentioned by Brouillet, confirmed this account of delivery of possession

Bojorques testified that Ortega owned this rancho as early as 1841, was in possession of it in 1839, and had a small house on the creek of San Antonio; that Juan Miranda and his son, Teodoro Miranda, occupied the rancho for Ortega; that he obtained his information from Ortega and both the Mirandas.

Walker testifies that he knew Ortega in Sonoma in 1843; that he told him at that time that he owned this rancho; and that he often heard him talking about his rancho in the presence of others; and he 'never heard it denied or contradicted that it was his rancho,' and that it was generally reported to belong to Ortega. He also stated that he went to Oregon in the same company with Ortega; that before leaving Sonoma for Oregon, Ortega went to his rancho and brought stock away from there; and that he saw him driving the stock, and he said he had taken them from the rancho for the purpose of driving them to Oregon; and, when in Oregon, he often heard Ortega say that he intended returning to his rancho of San Antonio and to his family.

In addition to this and other similar testimony, it appeared that the French traveller, Duflot de Mofras, who was in...