United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Illinois Central R. Co. v. Bosworth, 133 U.S. 92 (1890)

Illinois Central R. Co. v. Bosworth

No. 79

Argued November 11-12, 1889

Decided January 20, 1890

133 U.S. 92

ERROR TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED

STATES FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF LOUISIANA

Syllabus

A condemnation under the confiscation Act of July 17, 1862, 12 Stat. 589, of real estate owned in fee by a person who had participated in the rebellion, and a sale under the decree, left the remainder, after the expiration of the confiscated life estate, so vested in him that he could dispose of it after receiving a full pardon from the President.

This was an action brought by Millard Bosworth and Charles H. Bosworth, only surviving children of A. W. Bosworth, deceased, to recover possession of one undivided sixth part of a certain tract of land in New Orleans which formerly belonged to their said father. The petition states that, the latter having taken part in the war of the Rebellion, and done acts which made him liable to the penalties of the confiscation Act of July 17, 1862, the said one-sixth part of said land was seized, condemned, and sold under said act, and purchased by one Burbank in May, 1865; that the said A. W. Bosworth died on the 11th day of October, 1885, and that the plaintiffs, upon his death, became the owners in fee simple of the said one-sixth part of said property, of which the defendant the Illinois Central Railroad Company was in possession.

Page 133 U. S. 93