United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

United States v. Throckmorton, 98 U.S. 61 (1878)

United States v. Throckmorton

98 U.S. 61

Syllabus

1. It is essential to a bill in chancery on behalf of the United States to set aside a patent for lands or the final confirmation of a Mexican grant that it shall appear in some way, without regard to the special form, that the Attorney General has brought it himself or given such authority for bringing it as will make him officially responsible therefor through all stages of its presentation.

2. The frauds for which a bill to set aside a judgment or a decree between the same parties, rendered by a court of competent jurisdiction, will be sustained are those which are extrinsic or collateral to the matter tried, and not a fraud which was in issue in the former suit.

3. The cases where such relief has been granted are those in which, by fraud or deception practiced on the unsuccessful party, he has been prevented from exhibiting fully his case, by reason of which there has never been a real contest before the court of the subject matter of the suit.

4. The circuit court of the United States has now no original jurisdiction to reform surveys made by the land department of confirmed Mexican grants in California.

The facts are stated in the opinion of the Court.

Page 98 U. S. 62