United States v. Martinez (184 U.S. 441)

by Henry Billings Brown

United States Supreme Court

184 U.S. 441

United States  v.  Martinez

 Argued: and Submitted January 31, 1902. --- Decided: March 3, 1902

This was a petition, under the 14th section of the court of private land claims act, for a money judgment against the United States for lands within a Spanish land claim, which lands had been patented by the United States to third parties before the Spanish land grant had been acted upon or confirmed.

The original proceeding out of which the present claim for indemnity grew was a suit begun February 28, 1893, by the present appellees, who, with one exception, claimed to be the heirs at law and legal representatives of Juan Jos e Lobato, against the United States, in the court of private land claims, for the confirmation of a grant alleged to have been made to Lobato August 24, 1740, of which juridical possession was given, and the grant ratified and confirmed by the proper authorities June 15, 1744. In their petition it was alleged that the same tract had been previously granted to Cristobal de Torres, but that his grant had been revoked in 1733 and the tract declared to be Crown lands; that from the date of the grant to Lobato in 1740 and for a period of 153 years (down to the time of filing the petition) he and his legal representatives had been in peaceable adverse possession of the same, and that 'there are no adverse holders, possessors, or claimants of or to any portion of said tract.' The suit resulted in a decree in favor of the claimants (appellees) confirming the grant, and finding the title complete and perfect in the claimants, at the date of the cession by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The decree fixed the boundaries of the tract as shown in a map annexed to the petition. From this decree no appeal was prosecuted, and becoming final, it was executed by a survey approved by the court, and the land patented to the grantees.

More than six years after the confirmation of the Lobato grant the petitioners filed the present petition, alleging that several parcels of land, amounting to 2,056 acres in the aggregate, had been disposed of, granted, and patented by the United States to certain persons named in an exhibit to the petition; that the lands so granted lay wholly within the boundaries of the Lobato grant as confirmed, and were among the most valuable parts of such grant. The petition concluded with a prayer for judgment against the United States for the value of the lands so patented.

The United States answered, admitting the confirmation of the Lobato grant, and averring that the plaintiffs neglected to make the holders of the patented land parties defendant to the suit as required by law, but that they proceeded to try their cause, obtain a decree of confirmation, which had long since become final; and that by failure to make the patentees parties defendant, and by averring that there were no adverse claimants to any portion of the tract, 'they thereby waived and disclaimed all right, if any they had, to challenge any disposition theretofore made under the laws of the United States to any portion of said grant.'

The petitioners filed a general demurrer to this answer, accompanied by an affidavit to the effect that the plaintiffs, until the survey of said grant, did not and could not know or certainly allege and affirm that the lands granted and disposed of by the United States, as set forth in their petition, were within the exterior limits of their grant, and consequently no allegation with relation thereto was made in their original petition, and that such knowledge only came to the petitioners within the last two years.

The demurrer to the answer was sustained, the case submitted upon an agreed statement of facts, and a judgment rendered against the United States for $2,320.91, for 1,856.73 acres at $1.25 per acre, in accordance with the prayer of the petition,-Justices Sluss and Murray dissenting.

Messrs. Matthew G. Reynolds and John K. Richards, Solicitor General, for appellant.

Messrs. George Hill Howard and Henry M. Earle for appellees.

Mr. Justice Brown delivered the opinion of the court:

Notes