Imagini ale paginilor
PDF
ePub
[blocks in formation]

not entrusted with power to adjudicate and approve Mexican grants, but was required to examine into their status and report thereon as a convenient means of aiding Congress in determining what should be done. His action was merely advisory, the power to decide and to approve or reject being reserved to Congress. United States v. Ortiz, 176 U. S. 422, 427. But notwithstanding the mistake, the intention of the parties is manifest and full effect should be given to it. To them the important thing was the adjudication and approval of the Bartolome Baca grant, and the particular governmental agency from which such action should come was of secondary consideration. They could make their future acts and rights dependent upon the former, as was done, but were without power to designate the latter. Evidently they named the Surveyor General in the belief that the power to adjudicate and approve had been lodged in him, their meaning being the same as if they had said "shall be adjudicated and approved by the proper authority." This, in our opinion, is the true construction of the agreement. Of course, an authorized adjudication and approval was contemplated, not one that would be without authority and of no effect.

Being in the nature of a recommendation only, the adverse report of the Surveyor General was not final and bound no one. It did not even preclude him from making a further examination and basing a favorable report thereon. United States v. Ortiz, supra. Had Congress disapproved his adverse report and confirmed the grant, we entertain no doubt that the confirmation would have satisfied the condition of the agreement and have entitled Sena y Baca and his wife to the stipulated conveyance; and a like result would have ensued had the decision of this court been one of confirmation instead of rejection. It follows that the relation created by the agreement was not terminated by the Surveyor General's report in 1881, but continued until the adverse decision of this

[blocks in formation]

court in 1897, and that the possession in the interim, like that before, was in virtue of the agreement and not ad

verse.

4. After the agreement was terminated by the adverse decision upon the Bartolome Baca grant the continued possession of the defendants was without right, and when the action was begun, almost four years thereafter, they were asserting full title in themselves. Therefore, a demand that they surrender the possession was not a prerequisite to the maintenance of the action.

5. We are asked to say that the findings do not show title in the plaintiffs' ancestor, Manuel A. Otero, or, at least, are so conflicting upon that point as to afford no basis for the judgment. The findings to which attention is invited may be summarized as follows: (a) At the date of the agreement the title to the land in controversy was in Otero; (b) as confirmed, the Galisteo grant consists of the land in controversy, but prior to confirmation it was claimed to embrace a much larger area; (c) Otero's title to the grant was founded upon a conveyance in 1856 which excepted three designated parcels theretofore transferred to others; and (d) the plaintiffs' proofs did not disclose whether the land in controversy passed under that conveyance or was within the excepted parcels.

While recognizing that these findings are confusing, if not conflicting, we think the judgment is adequately sustained by other findings which show that the agreement of 1878 did not contain the exceptions shown in the conveyance of 1856; that Sena y Baca and his wife went into possession of the land in controversy under that agreement; and that the possession which passed from them to their successors, including the defendants, was likewise a possession in virtue of the agreement. In short, the defendants acquired possession as conditional vendees of Otero, and so are estopped from calling his title in question. As is said in Tyler on Ejectment (p. 543):

[blocks in formation]

"There is a class of cases in which the defendant is not permitted to controvert the title of the claimants in an action of ejectment on the ground of estoppel. These are cases where a privity exists between the defendant and the plaintiff, or those from whom he derives title. If a privity in estate has subsisted between the parties, proof of title is ordinarily unnecessary on the part of the plaintiff, for the reason that a party is not permitted to dispute the title of him by whom he has been let into possession. In all these cases, therefore, the proof is directed to the question as to whether such a relation exists between the parties as to operate as an estoppel, and thereby supersede the necessity of introducing any evidence to establish the title of the claimant."

And again (p. 559): "Although strictly speaking, the relation of landlord and tenant is not created between vendor and vendee; yet the vendee, in ejectment by the owner against him, is absolutely estopped, from either showing title in himself, or setting up an outstanding title in another; and the same rule applies to one coming into possession under the vendee, either with his consent, or as an intruder."

Of like import are Lucas v. Brooks, 18 Wall. 436, 451; Jackson v. Walker, 7 Cow. 637, 642; Towne v. Butterfield, 97 Massachusetts, 105; Lacy v. Johnson, 58 Wisconsin, 414, 423.

As we find no error in the record, the judgment is

Affirmed.

Opinion of the Court.

231 U. S.

UNITED STATES v. CARTER.

ERROR TO THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF NORTH CAROLINA.

No. 722. Motion to dismiss submitted December 1, 1913.-Decided December 15, 1913.

Under the Criminal Appeals Act of March 2, 1907, this court has no power to revise the mere interpretation of an indictment by the court below, but is confined to ascertaining whether that court erroneously construed the statute on which the indictment rested.

In this case the writ of error is dismissed as the ruling of the court below that the counts which were quashed were bad in law did not reasonably involve a construction of the statute but may well have rested on the opinion of the court as to insufficiency of the indict

ment.

THE facts, which involve the jurisdiction of this court of appeals under the Criminal Appeals Act of March 2, 1907, are stated in the opinion.

Mr. Francis B. Carter and Mr. W. A. Blount for defendant in error in support of the motion.

The Solicitor General for the United States in opposition to the motion.

Memorandum opinion by MR. CHIEF JUSTICE WHITE, by direction of the court.

At the threshold we must consider a motion to dismiss. The case is a criminal one over which we have only the jurisdiction conferred by the Criminal Appeals Act, March 2, 1907, 34 Stat. 1246, c. 2564. There were two indictments containing, the one 54 and the

[blocks in formation]

other 26 counts, purporting to charge alleged offenses against the National Banking Laws as embodied in Rev. Stat., § 5209. On demurrer the court quashed 43 of the counts because they were "bad in law." It is settled that under the Criminal Appeals Act we have no authority to revise the mere interpretation of an indictment and are confined to ascertaining whether the court in a case under review erroneously construed the statute: United States v. Keitel, 211 U. S. 370; United States v. Stevenson, 215 U. S. 190, 196. Our power to review the action of the court then in this case can alone rest upon the theory that what was done amounts to a construction of the statute. But it is obvious that the ruling that the counts which were quashed were bad in law did not necessarily involve a construction of the statute, and may well have rested upon the opinion of the court as to the mere insufficiency of the indictment.

It is, however, insisted on behalf of the United States that by referring to the counts which were held good and comparing them with those which were quashed, by a process of exclusion and inclusion, it will be possible to ascertain that the action of the court was based upon a construction of the statute, and we are asked to review the case upon this theory. At best, this proposition amounts to the contention that in every case where there is doubt as to whether the court construed the statute or interpreted the indictment such doubt should be solved by an examination of the entire record. But the right to a review in a criminal case, being controlled by the general law, it follows that a case cannot be brought within the control of the special rule provided by the Criminal Appeals Act unless it clearly appears that the exceptional and not the general rule applies. Aside from this consideration, we cannot give our approval to the suggestion made by the Government since in effect it virtually calls upon us to analyze and construe the in

« ÎnapoiContinuă »