The Act of 26 May, 1830, providing for the final settlement of
land claims in Florida, must be construed to contain the same
limitation of time within which claims were to be presented as that
provided by the Act of 23 May, 1828.
That limitation was one year. The courts of Florida therefore
had no right to receive a petition for the confirmation of an
incomplete concession after 26 May, 1831.
The case in
40 U. S. 15
Pet. 329, examined and distinguished from the present.
This was a land claim, and as the opinion of the court turned
entirely upon the question whether or not the claim was filed in
time in the court below, it is only necessary to state the
circumstances which bear upon that point.
On 23 May, 1828, 1 Land Laws 439, Congress passed an act the
12th section of which was as follows:
"That any claims to lands, tenements, and hereditaments, within
the purview of this act, which shall not be brought by petition
before said court within one year from the passage of this act or
which, being brought before said court, shall, on account of the
neglect or delay of the claimant, not be prosecuted to a final
decision within two years, shall be forever barred both at law and
in equity, and no other action at common law, or proceeding in
equity, shall ever thereafter be sustained in any court
whatever."
On 26 May, 1830, another act was passed, 1 Land
Page 44 U. S. 621
Laws 466, providing for the final settlement of land claims in
Florida. It confirmed certain claims under a league square, which
had been recommended for confirmation by the register and receiver
of the land office, acting as commissioners in the District of East
Florida, and then proceeded to enact by the 4th section, as
follows:
"That all the remaining claims which have been presented
according to law and not finally acted upon shall be adjudicated
and finally settled upon the same conditions, restrictions, and
limitations in every respect as are prescribed by the Act of
Congress approved 23 May, 1828, entitled 'An act supplementary to
the several acts providing for the settlement and confirmation of
private land claims in Florida.'"
On 17 June, 1843, Marvin filed in the Clerk's Office of the
Superior Court for the District of East Florida a petition claiming
title to seven thousand acres of land which had been granted to
Bernardo Segui in the year 1815 by Estrada, then the Governor of
East Florida. He further stated that the claim had been presented
to the commissioners, recommended by them to Congress for
confirmation, and confirmed by Congress to the extent of one league
square by the Act of May 23, 1828.
An answer being filed on behalf of the United States and sundry
matters being given in evidence by the petitioner, the cause came
on for trial, when the court decided that, by the Act of Congress
of May 26, 1830, the claimant was not bound to file his petition
within one year from the passage of said act, and then proceeded to
decree in favor of the claim.
From this decree the United States appealed to this Court.
Page 44 U. S. 622
MR. JUSTICE CATRON delivered the opinion of the Court.
This is an appeal from a decree rendered by the Superior Court
of the District of East Florida, by which it was adjudged that no
limitation existed to the filing for adjudication a claim for land
under the Acts of 23 May, 1828, and of 26 May, 1830.
Page 44 U. S. 623
The petition to the Superior Court of Florida was filed in 1843
by Marvin, to have confirmed to him seven thousand acres of land on
the River St. Johns, by a concession in the first form made in
favor of Don Bernardo Segui, on 20 December, 1815, by Governor
Estrado, and the first question presented below was, and is here,
had the superior court jurisdiction to entertain the cause? That
court having adjudged that the act of 1830 had no limitation in it,
and our conclusion being to the contrary, we will briefly state our
reasons for reversing the decree and for ordering the petition to
be dismissed.
The first act conferring jurisdiction on certain courts of the
United States, to adjudge titles to land of the foregoing
description, was that of May 26, 1824, and applicable to lands
lying within the State of Missouri and Territory of Arkansas. By
the 5th section of that act, it was declared that all claims within
its purview should be brought by petition before the district court
within two years from the passing of the act, and when so brought
before the court, if the claimant, by his own neglect or delay,
failed to prosecute the cause to final decision within three years,
he should be forever barred both at law and in equity, and that no
other action at common law, or proceeding in equity should ever
thereafter be sustained in any court whatever in relation to said
claims.
By the Act of 1828, sec. 6, the provisions of the act of 1824
were extended to the Superior Court of Florida, with some
modifications, and among others by sec. 12, that any claims to
lands within the purview of that act which should not be brought by
petition before the proper court within one year from the passing
of the act or which, being brought before the court, should not on
account of the neglect or delay of the claimant, be prosecuted to a
final decision within two years, should be forever barred, and that
no action at common law or in equity should ever thereafter be
sustained in any court whatever. And by sec. 13, the decree was to
be conclusive between the United States and the claimant.
The act of 1830, in its 1st, 2d, and 3d sections, confirms
various claims, and in the 4th section declares that all the
remaining claims which had been presented according to law to
certain boards of commissioners referred to in the previous
sections and not finally acted on by Congress should be adjudicated
and finally settled upon the same conditions, restrictions, and
limitations, in every respect
"as are prescribed by the act of Congress approved May 23, 1828,
entitled an act supplementary to the several acts providing for the
settlement and confirmation of private land claims in Florida."
The last law of 1830 is also entitled an act to provide for the
same purpose. It is supplementary to, and in effect reenacts the
law of 1828, carrying with it the entire provisions of the previous
statutes, save insofar as previous parts of them were modified by
subsequent conflicting provisions. The policy of Congress
Page 44 U. S. 624
was to settle the claims in as short a time as practicable, so
as to enable the government to sell the public lands, which could
not be done with propriety until the private claims were
ascertained. As these were many in number and for large quantities,
no choice was left to the government but their speedy settlement
and severance from the public domain; such has been its anxious
policy throughout, as appears from almost every law passed on the
subject. In 1828, the time for filing petitions before the courts
was even reduced from two years to one, and a positive bar
interposed in case of failure. This policy we think Congress
intended to maintain, and that the courts of Florida had no
jurisdiction to receive a petition for the confirmation of an
incomplete concession like the one before us, after 26 May,
1831.
Some stress has been placed on the language employed by this
Court in
Delespine's
Case, 15 Pet. 329, and on which it is supposed the
court below founded its decree on the head of jurisdiction. There,
an amended petition had been filed after the expiration of a year
from 26 May, 1831, and the question was whether the defective
petition, filed in time, had saved the bar, and it was held that it
had. But so far from holding that no bar existed, the contrary is
rather to be inferred; the direct question was neither decided or
intended to be.
For the reasons stated, we order the decree of the Superior
court of East Florida to be
Reversed, and direct that the appellees' petition be
dismissed.
